Luke Littler and Co can win £10k every week as Premier League Darts rules and format explained

Luke Littler is set to begin the defence of his Premier League darts title in Belfast. The teenager stormed to victory in the darting roadshow last year, beating then-world champion Luke Humphries in the final and hitting a nine-dart finish to boot. Fresh from replacing Humphries as world champion last month, the Nuke is favourite to defend his crown. However, world No.1 Humphries, seven-time Premier League champion Michael van Gerwen and the five other contenders will have something to say about that over the 17-week tournament, which crosses the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe.

The opening night in Northern Ireland will see a repeat of the World Championship final between Littler and Van Gerwen in the quarter-finals. Here’s everything you need to know about the 2025 Premier League, including line-up, format and prize money... Half of the eight-player line-up is decided by the PDC’s Order of Merit (the world rankings), with the top four in the list being selected automatically. They are Humphries, Littler, Van Gerwen and Rob Cross.

The other four players are wildcard picks decided by the PDC. As the Premier League is a showcase for darts, big-name players who can put bums on seats and eyeballs on TV screens are often picked ahead of players higher up the rankings. The player fifth on the list, Stephen Bunting, did make the cut after a strong 2024, along with Chris Dobey, former world champion Gerwyn Price and Nathan Aspinall. The likes of Jonny Clayton, Dave Chisnall, Damon Heta and World Grand Prix champion Mike De Decker missed out.

For the fourth successive year, the Premier League will see a mini tournament each night, with quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final. The winner of each night earns five points, with the runner-up collecting three and the semi-finalists earn two each. The top four players in the league after 16 weeks progress to the play-offs at London’s O2 on May 29, with first playing fourth and second facing third in the semi-finals.

The Premier League boasts an overall prize fund of £1million, making it one of the most lucrative events in darts. The winner of each night before the play-offs pockets £10,000. The overall winner banks £275,000, with the runner-up netting £125,000 and the losing semi-finalists earning £85,000. The players who don’t make the play-offs are remunerated as follows:. Fifth place: £75,000. Sixth place: £70,000.

Seventh place: £65,000. Eighth place: £60,000. Sky Sports, who have extended their long-running deal with the PDC to 2030, will again be the home of Premier League coverage. If you’re not a Sky Sports subscriber, you can stream the action now through the Sky-owner NOW service, with daily and monthly passes available. If that isn’t for you, Sky have made night one in Belfast available on free-to-air channel Sky Mix, with coverage getting under way at 7pm on Thursday.