With places in the forthcoming European Championship still up for grabs, this weekend’s tournament takes on additional significance for several participants. Only the top 32 players in the PDC European Tour Order of Merit are invited to attend the finals, which will take place at Dortmund’s Westfalenhallen later this month.
Jonny Clayton enters the tournament as defending champion, after edging past German youngster Niko Springer in last year’s showpiece. The Welshman has encountered a mixed bag of results in 2026, suffering early exits at the Masters and World Matchplay but registering four weekly wins during an impressive Premier League campaign.
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This is the first time the Dutch Darts Championship are being staged in Maastricht since 2018, when Ian White defeated Ricky Evans in an all-English final. White’s maiden European Tour triumph occurred at the city’s Exhibition & Conference Centre, the same venue that will host this year’s edition of the Netherlands’ most prestigious darts event.
The action gets underway early on Friday afternoon with the opening round, before the 16 seeded players (more on this to follow) enter the draw the following day. The tournament reaches its climax on Sunday evening, when the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final are scheduled as part of a bumper concluding session.
2026 Dutch Darts Championship – Key information
Date: Friday, October 16th – Sunday, October 18th
Venue: Maastricht Exhibition & Conference Centre, Maastricht (Netherlands)
Participants: 48
PDC European Tour: 15th of 15 events
TV Channels/Live stream: PDCTV
2025 winner: Jonny Clayton (defeated Niko Springer 8-6 in final)
Qualification process
A total of 48 participants will compete in the 2026 Dutch Darts Championship, with the vast majority of the world’s best players in attendance.
The top 16 players in the PDC Order of Merit not only qualified automatically, but were also seeded ahead of the draw. All of these players will skip the opening round, instead joining proceedings during Saturday’s second round.
The next 16 slots were allocated to the highest-ranked players in the PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit who hadn’t already qualified by virtue of their PDC Order of Merit performance, with the likes of 2018 world champion Rob Cross, Australian ace Damon Heta, and last year’s beaten finalist Niko Springer gaining access via this pathway.
The remaining 16 places were ringfenced for four separate qualifying events, one of which will unfold just 24 hours before the tournament’s first round commences. A general Tour Card Holder qualifier was staged at the end of last month, with ten participants progressing through to the main draw. Two regional events were held in August: the Nordic & Baltic Associate Member Qualifier and the East European Associate Member Qualifier, but only the winner of each – Jonas Masalin of Finland and experienced Pole Krzysztof Kciuk – will feature in Maastricht this weekend.
Thursday’s Host Nation Qualifier will determine who secures the final four available places, so these are guaranteed to be taken by Dutch competitors.
Changes to roster
As is usually the case in darts tournaments, the original line-up for the Dutch Darts Championship has changed on several occasions since it was first published.
There were a number of withdrawals throughout September, most notable of which was Luke Littler’s decision not to take part. The reigning world champion is refusing to attend any tournaments that are hosted in the Netherlands, largely due to the hostile reception he received in Amsterdam at the recent World Series of Darts Finals.
The AFAS Live crowd subjected Littler to a chorus of boos and whistles in each of his three matches, but particularly during his first-round contest with native favourite Danny Noppert. After his dreams of achieving a calendar clean sweep of televised majors were ended by Jonny Clayton in the quarter-finals, the talented teenager immediately removed himself from the two Players Championship events that were held in Den Bosch during the following midweek.
Another one of this weekend’s high-profile absentees is Gary Anderson, who continues to cherry-pick the tournaments he attends. The veteran Scotsman missed the aforementioned World Series of Darts Finals for the fourth consecutive year, before also opting out of last weekend’s Swiss Darts Trophy in Basel.
Josh Rock, James Wade, and Kevin Doets also won’t be gracing the Maastricht Exhibition & Conference Centre with their presence, but all three players are already assured of a place in the European Championship.
The departed five are replaced by Sebastian Białecki, Cristo Reyes, Karel Sedláček, Jeffrey de Graaf, and Martin Schindler, who is now also the 15th seed. As a result of these alterations to the roster, Jermaine Wattimena and Luke Woodhouse have also been promoted into seeded positions.
Seeded players
1. Luke Humphries (England)
2. Gian van Veen (Netherlands)
3. Gerwyn Price (Wales)
4. Jonny Clayton (Wales)
5. Michael van Gerwen (Netherlands)
6. Danny Noppert (Netherlands)
7. Stephen Bunting (England)
8. Wessel Nijman (Netherlands)
9. Ryan Searle (England)
10. Ross Smith (England)
11. Chris Dobey (England)
12. Nathan Aspinall (England)
13. Jermaine Wattimena (Netherlands)
14. Luke Woodhouse (England)
15. Martin Schindler (Germany)
16. Krzysztof Ratajski (Poland)
Schedule
Here is the confirmed schedule for the upcoming Dutch Darts Championship (all times BST):
Friday, October 16th
First round (12:00-16:00 – afternoon session)
First round (18:00-22:00 – evening session)
Saturday, October 17th
Second round (12:00-16:00 – afternoon session)
Second round (18:00-22:00 – evening session)
Sunday, October 18th
Third round (12:00-16:00 – afternoon session)
Quarter-finals, semi-final, and final (18:00-22:00 – evening session)
The draw is set to take place on Thursday afternoon following the Host Nation Qualifier, as all 48 participants will be confirmed by then.
Prize money
Around Spring last year, the PDC announced that a significant increase in prize money would be introduced for 2026 and beyond. The organisation will now hand out a colossal £25 million each season, a £7 million uplift on 2025’s equivalent figure. This unprecedented cash injection facilitated the sport’s first £1 million payout, which was issued to Luke Littler following his historic victory at the PDC World Championship.
Although a significant portion of these additional funds were allocated to the televised majors, the money has trickled its way down to the vast majority of the smaller events on the PDC circuit.
This weekend’s winner will bank a cool £35,000 for their endeavours, while the runner-up stands to receive £15,000. The remainder of the purse is distributed on a sliding scale in relation to performance, with those progressing to the latter stages of the tournament receiving a larger share of the prize pot.
Given the current status of the PDC European Tour Order of Merit, a positive display at the Dutch Darts Championship could enable a player to leapfrog a considerable number of places. Those positioned in the bottom half of the rankings table who are competing in Maastricht this weekend could theoretically still finish amongst the top 32 players, providing them with a late opportunity to qualify for the European Championship.
Even the likes of Owen Bates – who currently assumes 88th position heading into the final event of the season – have an outside chance of making it to Dortmund, although the 23-year-old would need to claim an unlikely first European Tour title.
Here’s a full breakdown of the 2026 prize fund (2025 amounts in brackets):
Winner: £35,000 (£30,000)
Runner-up: £15,000 (£12,000)
Semi-finalists: £10,000 (£8,000)
Quarter-finalists: £8,000 (£6,000)
Third round: £5,000 (£4,000)
Second round: £3,500 (£2,500)
First round: £2,000 (£1,250)
The current state of play
Having already accrued £153,000 of prize money on this season’s PDC European Tour, Ross Smith is guaranteed to conclude the weekend at the summit of the Order of Merit and therefore enter the European Championship as the top seed.
Smith is targeting his third European Tour crown of 2026, after sweeping aside the field at the International Darts Open and Hungarian Darts Trophy during the summer. Those two triumphs were sandwiched in between appearances in the finals of the European Darts Grand Prix and Flanders Darts Trophy, which he lost to Gerwyn Price and James Wade respectively.
Although he did scoop the World Series of Darts Finals title just a few short weeks ago, the European Championship is still the only ranked televised major that Ross Smith has won. ‘Smudger’ was crowned 2022 champion following an 11-8 victory over his namesake Michael Smith, who currently occupies 35th place in the European Tour Order of Merit table.
That puts the ‘other’ Smith – a former world champion – at genuine risk of not qualifying for this year’s finals, alongside the likes of 2022 Masters winner Joe Cullen and German star Ricardo Pietreczko. Kim Huybrechts (30th), Martin Schindler (31st), and Stephen Bunting (32nd) all still have plenty of work to do, given that this trio of big-hitters is also on the cusp of elimination.
Nevertheless, defending European champion Gian van Veen has already booked his ticket to the Westfalenhallen, but will hope to build on the £73,000 he’s earned so far by producing a strong display at his native championship.
PDC European Tour – 2026 Event Winners
List of results from the finals of this season’s PDC European Tour events (winner in capitals):
Poland Darts Open (February 20th-22nd): LUKE LITTLER 8-4 Gian van Veen
European Darts Trophy (13th-15th March): WESSEL NIJMAN 8-3 Gerwyn Price
Belgian Darts Open (March 20th-22nd): LUKE HUMPHRIES 8-6 Jonny Clayton
German Darts Grand Prix (April 4th-6th ): NATHAN ASPINALL 8-5 Danny Noppert
European Darts Grand Prix (April 17th-19th): GERWYN PRICE 8-6 Ross Smith
Austrian Darts Open (May 8th-10th): JOSH ROCK 8-6 Kevin Doets
International Darts Open (May 22nd-24th): ROSS SMITH 8-3 Ryan Searle
Baltic Sea Darts Open (May 29th-31st): LUKE WOODHOUSE 8-4 Ryan Joyce
Slovak Darts Open (June 19th-21st): WESSEL NIJMAN 8-3 Rob Cross
European Darts Open (July 10th-12th): KRZYSZTOF RATAJSKI 8-6 Jermaine Wattimena
Hungarian Darts Trophy (August 28th-30th): ROSS SMITH 8-2 Gary Anderson
Czech Darts Open (September 4th-6th): LUKE LITTLER 8-6 Luke Humphries
Flanders Darts Trophy (September 11th-13th): JAMES WADE 8-4 Ross Smith
Swiss Darts Trophy (October 9th-11th): JONNY CLAYTON 8-4 Luke Humphries
Where to watch on TV or live stream?
The 2026 Dutch Darts Championships will be shown live on PDCTV, the official streaming platform of darts’ leading regulatory body. Coverage commences at 12:00pm (BST) each day and enables viewers to watch every dart thrown, with a short break scheduled between the afternoon and evening sessions.
Fans can subscribe to PDCTV for as little as £5.99 per month, or pay an annual fee of £59.99 to gain year-round access. Those who purchase an annual subscription can also get their hands on early-bird tickets for televised PDC events, such as the World Championships, Premier League of Darts and the UK Open.