Night one of the Premier League Darts marked the start of another 16-week roadshow — but behind the scenes, major change is already being planned.
PDC chief executive Matt Porter has revealed that the Premier League Darts format will be altered in the future, admitting that while the current structure is delivering strong results, it will not remain in place forever.
The 2026 Premier League got underway on Thursday, February 5, with eight of the sport’s biggest names in action: Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Gian van Veen, Michael van Gerwen, Jonny Clayton, Stephen Bunting, Josh Rock and Gerwyn Price.
The competition continues to follow the familiar short-format structure, with matches played over the best of 11 legs. Each night features four quarter-finals, two semi-finals and a final, with the nightly winner banking £10,000.
Across the first seven weeks, players face each other once in the quarter-finals before the same fixtures are repeated between weeks nine and 15. Weeks eight and 16 are seeded based on league position, with points accumulated across all 16 nights determining the final standings.
At the end of the league phase, the top four players qualify for Finals Night, which will take place at London’s O2 Arena on May 28. The total prize fund stands at £1.25 million, with the eventual Premier League champion set to collect £350,000.
Despite the competition’s continued popularity, Porter acknowledged growing criticism that the format has become repetitive — and confirmed changes will come at some stage.
Speaking to Metro, he said: “We will change it at some point, but at the moment you can only look at the numbers that are in front of you.
“The live crowd and the TV audience numbers are telling us that the format is working. If people stopped buying tickets or started changing the channel, then it wouldn’t be working — but every metric is improving.”
Porter stressed that evolution has always been part of the Premier League’s identity.
“It’s not a format that will stay forever because we never keep any format forever in the Premier League,” he explained. “The format has probably changed half a dozen times over the 20 years of the event.
“At the moment, though, we still believe it’s the right format for what we’ve got.”
While acknowledging repetition as the biggest complaint, Porter defended the logic behind keeping marquee matchups on every night of the tour.
“I would accept that repetition is the biggest criticism,” he said. “But that’s often from the perspective of someone watching on TV every week.
“If you’re in Nottingham, you want to see Littler vs Humphries. If you’re in Aberdeen, you might want the same. If you’re in Brighton, you might want the same again.
“It’s very difficult to say to people, ‘Sorry, you can’t see the biggest matchup in your city.’”
He added that the short-format bracket still provides enough variety, even with the same eight players involved throughout the season.
Porter also revealed that Danny Noppert was the unluckiest player to miss out on selection for the 2026 line-up.
“Danny Noppert probably had the strongest case,” he said. “He had a very valid argument and was very, very unlucky not to be selected.
“Everyone is in consideration — but obviously only to a point.”
This year’s eight-player field consists of the four highest-ranked players — Littler, Van Veen, Humphries and Van Gerwen — alongside four PDC-selected wildcards: Rock, Price, Bunting and Clayton.
While the format remains unchanged for now, Porter’s comments make it clear that the Premier League’s next evolution is only a matter of time.
Comments are closed.