The PDC [Professional Darts Corporation] have announced the remaining picks for this year’s Premier League Darts, which gets underway in Belfast on February 6.
New world champion and reigning Premier League champion Luke Littler, world No 1 Luke Humphries, world championship runner-up and seven-time Premier League champion Michael van Gerwen and Rob Cross earned automatic picks as the top four players on the PDC order of merit, and now the remaining four participants have been announced.
Stephen Bunting will return to the competition after a brilliant year in 2024, where he won his first PDC major at the Masters and cemented himself as a massive crowd favourite whilst rising to a career high fifth in the world rankings.
Crowds all over the UK and Europe will be going ‘Bunting mental’ every time ‘The Bullet’ makes the walk.
Gerwyn Price is the second wildcard pick after a good run to the quarter-final of the World Championships.
Price struggled last year but he brings the entertainment and the PDC have decided that ‘the Iceman’ deserves a chance at redemption after a tough Premier League campaign last year.
Price will hope that he can rediscover the form of a couple of years ago, when he hit two nine-darters in one night in Belfast.
Chris Dobey’s run to the semi-final of the World Championships is enough for ‘Hollywood’ to return to the Premier League this year. A powerful 180 hitter, Dobey will be full of confidence and will be buzzing to return home to Newcastle on night eight in March.
Finally, Nathan Aspinall will be bringing his electric walk-on on tour, as he returns to the Premier League looking to build on his quarter-final run at ‘Ally Pally’.
Aspinall has struggled with his game in recent times but he will be motivated to prove the doubters wrong when the competition gets underway.
Notable omissions include Peter Wright and Michael Smith, meaning it will be the first year in a long time without both of the former world champions.
2025 Premier League of Darts line-up:
Luke Humphries
Luke Littler
Michael van Gerwen
Rob Cross
Stephen Bunting
Gerwyn Price
Chris Dobey
Nathan Aspinall
The competition takes place every Thursday for 16 weeks across 16 cities in the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe, where the eight players will compete in a nightly tournament.
Matches will be first to six legs and players will receive points based on how they perform on the night.
The winner on the night gets five points with the runner-up receiving three points and the losing semi-finalists picking up two points.
The players who lose in the quarter-finals get no points. At the end of the 16 weeks, the top four players on the league table will battle it out on finals night at the O2 in London on May 29.
Premier League Darts 2025 schedule
Night 1 – The SSE Arena, Belfast – Thursday February 6
Night 2 – OVO Hydro, Glasgow – Thursday February 13
Night 3 – 3Arena, Dublin – Thursday February 20
Night 4 – Westpoint Exeter – Thursday February 27
Night 5 – The Brighton Centre – Thursday March 6
Night 6 – Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham – Thursday March 13
Night 7 – Utilita Arena, Cardiff – Thursday March 20
Night 8 – Utilita Arena, Newcastle – Thursday March 27
Night 9 – Uber Arena, Berlin – Thursday April 3
Night 10 – AO Arena, Manchester – Thursday April 10
Night 11 – Rotterdam Ahoy, Rotterdam – Thursday April 17
Night 12 – M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool – Thursday April 24
Night 13 – Utilita Arena, Birmingham, Thursday May 1
Night 14 – First Direct Arena, Leeds – Thursday May 8
Night 15 – P&J Live, Aberdeen – Thursday May 15
Night 16 – Utilita Arena, Sheffield – Thursday May 22
Play-Offs – The O2, London – Thursday May 29