Porter: Premier League Darts Format Is Solid, New Ideas on the Way

PDC General Manager Matt Porter, in an exclusive interview with Sky Sports, spoke about whether there would be changes to the Premier League Darts format. Porter described the current format as "solid", while noting that "new ideas" would arrive soon.

Porter also spoke about whether Ross Smith would be included in the tournament and whether Michael van Gerwen could miss the tournament in 2027. Premier League Darts has undergone several format changes since it began in 2005. The most recent revision, made in 2022, cut the tournament to eight players and began crowning a one-night champion at each weekly event.

In the current system, each of the 16 league nights includes a mini tournament. These tournaments, made up of the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final, award the night's winner 5 points and the runner-up 3 points. The two players who lose in the semi-finals each earn 2 points, while the four players eliminated in the quarter-finals earn no points. The previous format, used in 2021, had 10 players competing in a league system. After the ninth week, the bottom two players were eliminated, and this stage was known as "Judgement Night". The remaining eight players competed for seven more weeks, and the top four advanced to the play-off stage. The play-off stage was not changed in the new format either.

Porter pointed to the strengths of the current format. Saying it is important for the best players to face each other every week, he noted that this keeps the arena crowd and the TV audience engaged until late in the night. Recalling that crowds had dwindled and venues emptied as the night went on in earlier league matches, Porter said this was not wanted. He added that the format has evolved many times over its more than twenty years of history and that this will continue.