The Darts World Championship is getting bigger than ever – and the qualification for the mega-event is also changing in some ways. Now details are becoming known.
The Darts World Championship in the coming winter will be bigger than ever – and therefore also gets a new qualification structure.
Because at the World Darts Championship 2025/2026 a whole 128 players will be at the start, the PDC is breaking new ground. Now she announced how the stars from all over the world can qualify for the mega-event (live on SPORT1).
The Darts World Championship is getting bigger than ever – and the qualification is also changing
The top 40 players of the PDC Order of Merit automatically get their ticket, the decisive factor is the status of the world ranking after the Players Championship Finals in November.
How German Darts stars can qualify
And also the 40 best not yet qualified players of the ProTour Order of Merit are automatically included. So far, this only applied to the first 32 of the respective rankings.
The twelve German Tour-Card-Holders around Martin Schindler can win one of these now 80 places.
But also German players who do not have a Tour Card can still move into the field of participants. Thus, the PDC Europe Super League offers, in addition to the Challenge and Development Tour, a possibility to qualify for the World Cup.
All other starting places will be played in international qualification tournaments.
At least four World Cup tickets for women
As the PDC announced, at least four women will belong to the 128-member starting field. So far there were only two fixed starting places.
The four players who play on the big stage in the Alexandra Palace will be determined in two competitions. In addition to the winner of the Women’s World Matchplay, the top three of the PDC Women’s Tour also qualify.
Last year, with series starter Fallon Sherrock and debutant Noah-Lynn van Leuven, two women went to the start, Matchplay winner Beau Greaves had renounced to participate in the Women’s World Championship.
Most women had participated so far in 2023, when in addition to Sherrock and Greaves also Lisa Ashton qualified. The trio leads the ranking of the Women’s Series currently before van Leuven, best German is Stefanie Lück on rank 17.
How the other World Cup starters are determined
Three participants each will come from the Development Tour and the Challenge Tour.
Five places go to players of the Championship Darts Corporation, five more to players of the PDC Asian Tour Order of Merit, who will participate together with the finalists of the PDC Asian Championship.
The PDC Nordic & Baltic Tour will send three representatives to the World Cup. In addition, the winner of the first PDC ANZ Premier League will be there. The same applies to the winners of the Order of Merit of the DartPlayers Australia ProTour, the DartPlayers New Zealand ProTour and the new ADA Australian Tour.
In addition to the new Quali mode, the PDC emphasized another innovation for the tournament: So all participants will start in the first round.
The 32 seeded players as well as the players ranked 33 to 64 will be randomly assigned to the left half of the tournament and will meet there the remaining 64 qualifiers.