Premier League darts line-up 2025: Luke Littler in as two World Champions axed

The PDC have named the line-up for this year's Premier League.

By: irishmirror.ie

Jan 06 2025
0
4008 Views

Premier League darts line-up 2

The line-up for the 2025 Premier League of darts has been announced, and while Luke Littler is in, a couple of former World Champions have been left out.

17-year-old Littler beat Luke Humphries in the 2024 Premier League final last Summer, and backed that victory up with a stunning win over Michael Van Gerwen in the 2025 World Darts Championship final earlier this month.

Humphries and Van Gerwen will join Littler in the 2025 edition of the Premier League, thanks to their PDC Order of Merit rankings. They will be joined by Rob Cross, who sits fourth on the list at the time of the announcement. Stephen Bunting, Chris Dobey, Nathan Aspinall and Gerwyn Price make up the rest of the line-up.

Former world champions Michael Smith and Peter Wright, both of whom took part in 2024, will miss out on a shot at the million pound prize fund.

The Premier League format sees players take part in 16 weekly tournaments, earning points and prize money along the way. The first of these is scheduled for Belfast on February 6, with the remaining weeks spread across the UK, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands.

Those with the most points after 16 weeks will progress to the play-offs, which take place at the end of May in London. Weekly winners will take home £10,000, but the big money is on the line at the play-off stage, with last year's winner Littler bagging a huge £275,000 payday.

Littler finished top of the points standings in 2024, with Humphries second. The two Lukes beat Smith and Van Gerwen respectively in their semi-finals before Littler claimed the title with an average of 105.60 in the final.

Littler's inclusion emphasises just how far he has come in the last 13 months. There was some debate over his wildcard for the 2024 edition, and the youngster's own stance was telling in its own right.

"As soon as I came off the stage [after the World Championship final], did the media and saw the family, my manager pulled me aside and said, 'Do you want to do it? ' I said, 'Let's do it, it might not happen again'," Littler said.

Littler didn't achieve his first weekly win until the ninth round of the 2024 Premier League, but followed a victory over Aspinall in Belfast by overcoming Price in the Manchester final one week later. He added two further weekly wins, both at the expense of Cross, and also boasted a pair of runner-up finishes.

He goes into the 2025 edition safe in the knowledge he can do the business against high-ranked opponents. Last year's runner-up Humphries, meanwhile, will be out for a big response after his early World Championship exit at the hands of Wright.