Premier League Darts 2026: Who will join Luke Littler and Luke Humphries for this year’s tournament? | Darts News

World No 1 Luke Littler and defending champion Luke Humphries will headline this year’s Premier League Darts, but who will join them?

The roadshow event will be staged on Thursday nights from February until May, as the top names in world darts compete for the coveted title and a record prize fund of £1.25m, with the overall winner picking up £350,000, and a £10,000 bonus available at each weekly stop.

The line-up will be revealed on Monday at 3.30pm, live on Sky Sports News, with the format of the competition unchanged this season.

Premier League Darts qualification involves four automatic spots for the top players on the PDC Order of Merit (world rankings) and four wild-card selections chosen by the PDC, making an eight-player field for the season, so who’s in and who’s in contention?

Top Four automatic spots

Luke Littler

The 2024 Premier League champion and the 2025 runner-up has won almost all the ranking majors in the past year. ‘The Nuke’ is the reigning back-to-back World Champion and Grand Slam of Darts winner. He is also the reigning UK Open, World Matchplay, World Grand Prix and Players Championship Finals winner and will be odds-on to regain the Premier League crown.

Luke Humphries

The world No 2 dethroned Warrington ace Littler in the 2025 final having finished as runner-up the year before. Humphries can look forward to a third appearance in the travelling darts roadshow. ‘Cool Hand’ suffered a third consecutive televised major final defeat at the Grand Slam in Wolverhampton but then suffered a 5-1 demolition at the hands of Gian van Veen in the quarter-finals of the Worlds.

Gian van Veen

The 23-year-old Dutchman is one of the rising young stars in the world of darts and reaffirmed his title credentials by defeating Humphries to claim his maiden TV major title with European Championship victory in Dortmund before destroying the world No 2 in the quarter-finals of the world championship en route to his maiden final at Alexandra Palace where he was demolished by Littler.

Michael van Gerwen

There are suggestions ‘Mighty Mike’ could miss this year’s tournament, but the 36-year-old naturally belongs in the best darts competition in the world. He won the Premier League title for a record-breaking seventh time after defeating Gerwyn Price 11-5 in 2023 but he lost in the Play-Offs in 2024 and failed to qualify for Finals Night last year.

Four wild-card selections: The contenders

Jonny Clayton

Clayton has dropped down the Order of Merit, but remains a strong consideration for a wild-card spot as a former Premier League winner in 2021. The 51-year-old Welshman lost the finals of the World Masters and the World Cup of Darts, and reached the last four at the UK Open, World Matchplay, and World Grand Prix.

Gerwyn Price

The former rugby ace went from having love-hate relationship with the crowd to becoming one of the fans’ favourites in recent times. ‘The Iceman’ endured a disappointing Worlds, exiting in the second round to Wesley Plaisier, but the Welshman has also won multiple titles, including the Poland Darts Masters, several Players Championship events, and the Baltic Sea Darts Open.

Josh Rock

‘Rocky’ was a semi-finalist at the World Matchplay and UK Open, alongside his World Cup win for Northern Ireland with Daryl Gurney. The 24-year-old has a game to mix it with the very best, although he journey at the worlds was stopped by a majestic Justin Hood in the last 16.

Nathan Aspinall

Aspinall has one of the best walk-ons in darts when he comes out to ‘Mr Brightside’ by The Killers. However, it doesn’t guarantee him an automatic Premier League spot. He finished third in the regular standings, winning two nights last year. The Stockport ace was only stopped in the third round of the Worlds by an inspired Kevin Doets.

Stephen Bunting

‘The Bullet’ has slipped out of the top four of the Order of Merit putting his Premier League ambitions in doubt. However, his popularity with fans helps his case, but judged on his very poor autumn and a disappointing world championship there are doubts about his participation. The St Helens star arrives in style with his iconic ‘Titanium’ walk-on song, but will we see it in the Premier League?

Gary Anderson

The 55-year-old Anderson remains defiant that he will not be a part of the Premier League. Across 2025, Anderson scooped up his third European Tour trophy and remarkable 30th Players Championship title, as well as making a quarter-final run at the World Grand Prix. He said: “No, no, I’m quite happy, I need to concentrate on my rankings. If I’ve done the Premier League, Europeans gone, Players Championship gone. I couldn’t give a monkey’s [if I’m world champion]. I can’t do it, it’s been great the years I’ve done it. But I can’t do it for 16 weeks on the road then try to get back for them. I can’t do it.”

Ryan Searle

Searle is worried his face “doesn’t fit” the Premier League alongside Littler and has hinted that he doesn’t expect a place, despite a run to the semi-finals of the Worlds. “I’ve kind of said privately that the Premier League is something that I would like to do once, just to say that I’ve done it,” he said. “Whether it’s this year or not… if you look at Chris Dobey last year, he kind of had a similar path to me, where in previous majors he didn’t do a huge amount and then got to the Worlds and made a semi and they put him in. Not sure whether my face fits for that, but we’ll see what happens.”

Ricky Evans

Cult hero ‘Rapid Ricky’ would light up the Premier League if he were to be given a spot in the competition having wowed the Ally Pally crowd with his fast-paced play and energetic personality, but he’s a real outsider. “Tell me a darts match that I’ve been in that has been boring, that’s what I’m saying. I’m fun, I can make a 3-0 defeat seem fun. I’m box office. I’m not Premier League standard, but cor, you’d have a better Premier League if I was in it! That’s the dream but I say it every year and it never works, because I’m not good enough. If I’m world champion, they have to put me in.”

Anybody else?

James Wade is a highly decorated Premier League star having won the title in 2009. The 11-time major winner has not competed in the competition since 2022, where he finished third in the table to reach Finals Night. “I’m not what they need and I’m not probably what they want, but I want to be there a hundred per cent,” Wade said at the World Matchplay.

Former world champion Rob Cross lost to Littler in the last 16 of the Worlds and that defeat will see him drop to 20th in the world. He finished runner-up to Van Gerwen in the 2019 Premier league and seventh last year, but has struggled for results.

Former UK Open champion Danny Noppert has made great strides in recent years and has broken into the world’s top 10. He reached the semi-finals of the Masters, Grand Slam, World Grand Prix and European Championship last year, but will it be enough for a spot in the Premier League after his disappointing exit at the Worlds to No 86 Justin Hood?

How does the Premier League work?

Matches take place every Thursday night between February and May and are played in different venues around the United Kingdom, Ireland and Europe, including Germany, the Netherlands with Antwerp, Belgium a new venue this year.

Since 2022, the format has been an eight-person knockout bracket every night, with each of the players meeting once across week 1-7 and then again in weeks 9-15 with weeks 8 and 16 drawn based on league standings.

The points system is as follows:

• Nightly winner: 5 points
• Runner-up: 3 points
• Losing semi-finalists: 2 points

After week 16, the top four in the table contest the semi-finals and the final at The O2 in London.

First plays fourth and second plays third in the best-of-19-leg semi-finals before a best-of-21-leg final.

Premier League Darts winners

• 2005: Phil Taylor
• 2006: Phil Taylor
• 2007: Phil Taylor
• 2008: Phil Taylor
• 2009: James Wade
• 2010: Phil Taylor
• 2011: Gary Anderson
• 2012: Phil Taylor
• 2013: Michael van Gerwen
• 2014: Raymond van Barneveld
• 2015: Gary Anderson
• 2016: Michael van Gerwen
• 2017: Michael van Gerwen
• 2018: Michael van Gerwen
• 2019: Michael van Gerwen
• 2020: Glen Durrant
• 2021: Jonny Clayton
• 2022: Michael van Gerwen
• 2023: Michael van Gerwen
• 2024: Luke Littler
• 2025: Luke Humphries

Who will win this year’s Premier League Darts? Luke Humphries will be defending his title and you can watch the action every single Thursday from February until May on Sky Sports. Stream darts and more top sport with NOW.