The format stays, with a twist coming
Matt Porter is not about to rip up the Premier League. The PDC chief executive called the current format “solid” in an interview with Sky Sports, while admitting the organisation has “a couple of little concepts” it plans to introduce “at the right time”.
The present structure dates from 2022. Eight players, 16 league nights, and a mini knockout every week: quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final. The nightly winner takes five points, the runner-up three, the beaten semi-finalists two each, and the quarter-final losers nothing.
Porter’s defence of it rests on the crowd. Under the old round-robin system, used until 2021 with ten players and the famous ‘Judgement Night’ cut after week nine, he said attendance would drop and fans would drift out as the evening went on. Now the top names meet every week and arenas stay full until the end.
He was candid about the limits of any change. “We’ll never keep everybody happy,” he said, adding that as long as fans keep arguing about it, the PDC is happy.
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Ross Smith in the frame
The more pressing question for 2027 is who gets in. The top four on the PDC Order of Merit after the World Championship qualify automatically, with four wildcards completing the field.
Ross Smith has made a loud case. The Englishman won the European Championship in Dortmund on Sunday, beating Martin Schindler 11-8 for his second TV major of the season after the World Series Finals in September. He is now a career-high sixth in the Order of Merit and has said he “definitely” deserves a debut.
Porter did not argue. He described Smith as one of the best players in the world and said nobody would be surprised if he were included.
A tough year for Van Gerwen
Michael van Gerwen is the opposite story. The seven-time Premier League champion has gone past the opening round in only one of his last five events, and he suffered four first-round exits on the European Tour, his worst tally since the tour started in 2012.
Porter still backed him. “Michael’s career record speaks for itself,” he said, insisting the Dutchman remains committed to the tour and “will come again”. The Grand Slam of Darts starts on Saturday.
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