PDC Order of Merit

The PDC Order of Merit is a world ranking system used by one of the darts organisations, the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). Following the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship it superseded a world ranking system based on points being awarded for performances in ranking tournaments.^[1]

How it works[]

The Order of Merit is similar to that employed in golf's European Tour. Prize money won during the previous two seasons is calculated and the rankings are determined from this money list. The Professional Darts Corporation adopted an Order of Merit system in 2007, which is based on prize money won over two years for the main Order of Merit and separate one-year rankings for other PDC Pro Tour events.

PDC Top 64 Order of Merit[]

Secondary Orders of Merit[]

PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit as of 5 September 2021.^[3]

Rank	Change	Player	Earnings
1		José de Sousa	£113,000
2	2	Gerwyn Price	£111,750
3	1	Joe Cullen	£106,250
4	1	Peter Wright	£94,250
5		Michael Smith	£88,000
6		Jonny Clayton	£75,250
7		Michael van Gerwen	£72,500
8		Damon Heta	£58,500
9		Brendan Dolan	£58,250
10		James Wade	£53,500
11		Devon Petersen	£50,000
12		Danny Noppert	£48,000
13		Krzysztof Ratajski	£45,250
14	5	Luke Humphries	£43,500
15	1	Dirk van Duijvenbode	£43,500
16	1	Nathan Aspinall	£43,000
*Change since 4 August 2021
Earnings calculated on 1 year rolling period of Pro Tour events

In addition to the main two-year Order of Merit, the PDC also operates secondary Orders of Merit for their different tours. These include the:

• ProTour Order of Merit, which counts money earned in Players Championships and European Tour events over a 12 month rolling period. In addition to qualification for televised tournaments, this ranking determines the seedings for Pro Tour events.^[4]
• European Tour Order of Merit, which counts money earned in European Tour events during the calendar year. The top 32 on this ranking list comprise the qualifiers for the European Championship, all seeded, at the end of the year.^[5]
• Players Championship Order of Merit, which counts money earned in Player Championship events during the calendar year. The top 64 on this ranking list are the seeded qualifiers to the Players Championship Finals.^[6]
• Challenge Tour Order of Merit, which counts money earned on the Challenge Tour (by non Tour Card holders that participated in Q-School) during the calendar year. The top players at the end of the year qualify for the World Championship, UK Open, and receive Tour Cards.^[7]
• Development Tour Order of Merit, which counts money earned on the Development Tour (by Tour Card holders and non Tour Card holders alike, aged 16–23) during the calendar year. The top players at the end of the year qualify for the World Championship, UK Open, and receive Tour Cards.^[8]

Player exemptions and seedings[]

The PDC rankings from all orders of merit determine exemptions from the qualifying competitions and seedings for all televised events. Additionally, the orders of merit are used to offer tour cards for the following year.

PDC Order of Merit Exemptions^[9]

Tournament	Qualifiers (seeds)
	By Order of Merit						Other
	Main	PT	ET	PC	CT	DT
Ranked televised events
World Championship	32 (32)	32	—		1	2	29
UK Open	TCH	—			8	8	16
World Matchplay	16 (16)	16	—
World Grand Prix	16 (8)	16	—
European Championship	—		32 (32)	—
Grand Slam of Darts	0 (8)	—
Players Championship Finals	—			64 (64)	—
PDC Pro Tour
European Tour events	—	16 (16)	—				32
Players Championship events	TCH (32)	—			RP	—
Non-ranked televised events
The Masters	24 (24)	—
Premier League Darts	4	—					6
Champions League of Darts	8 (8)	—
Tour Cards	64	—			2	2	var

Ranking Tournaments[]

The PDC holds a variety of ranked and unranked televised tournaments throughout the year. There are an additional selection of ranked floor and streamed tournaments that comprise the PDC Pro Tour, as well as unranked secondary tours and events such as the Challenge Tour, Development Tour, and event qualifiers. Money earned in all ranking events counts toward the Order of Merit, with none counting from the unranked events.^[9]

PDC Ranking Tournaments with Payouts^[9]

Tournament	Prize money
	Total	Champion	Runner-up	Semi-finalists	Top 8	Top 16	Top 32	Top 64	Top 96
Ranked televised events
World Championship	£2,500,000	£500,000	£200,000	£100,000	£50,000	£35,000	£25,000	£15,000	£7,500
UK Open	£450,000	£100,000	£40,000	£20,000	£12,500	£7,500	£4,000	£2,000	£1,000
World Matchplay	£700,000	£150,000	£70,000	£50,000	£25,000	£15,000	£10,000	N/A
World Grand Prix	£450,000	£110,000	£50,000	£25,000	£16,000	£10,000	£6,000	N/A
European Championship	£500,000	£120,000	£60,000	£32,000	£20,000	£10,000	£6,000	N/A
Grand Slam of Darts[A]	£550,000	£125,000	£65,000	£40,000	£20,000	£10,000	£4,000[B]	N/A
Players Championship Finals	£500,000	£100,000	£50,000	£25,000	£15,000	£10,000	£5,000	£2,500	N/A
PDC Pro Tour[C]
13 European Tour events	£140,000	£25,000	£10,000	£6,500	£5,000	£3,000	£2,000[D]	£1,000[E]	N/A
30 Players Championship events	£75,000	£10,000	£6,000	£3,000	£2,250	£1,500	£1,000	£500	N/A
Total yearly ranking payouts	£9,720,000	£1,830,000	£845,000	£933,000	£1,164,000	£1,452,000	£1,884,000	£1,312,000	£272,000

Unranked Tournaments

The PDC operates additional unranked tournaments for tour card holders and occasional qualifiers throughout the year. This includes five televised premier invitational events comprising the Premier League, Champions League of Darts, World Series of Darts Finals, The Masters, and the World Cup of Darts pairs event.^[10][11] Although none of these events count toward the Order of Merit, they all award some number of tournament spots based on Order of Merit position. Additionally there are usually five to seven World Series of Darts events scheduled across the globe each year with eight top PDC players seeded over eight local qualifiers.^[9]

Secondary Tours and Tournaments

The PDC also offers secondary tours that do not count toward the main Order of Merit, but do each include their own confined orders of merit. The Challenge Tour is open to any players who played at the most recent Q-School but failed to earn a tour card. Throughout the year, the top players on the Challenge Tour OoM are invited to fill openings on the Pro Tour, receive invitations to the World Championship and UK Open, and at the end of the year receive tour cards for the next two years.^[9]

The Development Tour is open to players outside of the top 32 on the main Order of Merit who are between the ages of 16 and 23. Similarly to the Challenge Tour, the top players on the Development Tour order of merit receive tour cards and invitations to the UK Open and World Championship. Additionally, 96 players - comprising 16 invitations, tour card holders of the appropriate age, and Development Tour competitors - partake in the World Youth Championship. Although this championship does not count toward any order of merit, there is a £60,000 payout, and the finalists receive tour cards as well as berths in the Grand Slam and World Championship.^[9]

Previous world ranking system[]

Under the previous ranking points system, Colin Lloyd was the world number one player in the PDC for most of 2005 and 2006, despite most of the major titles being shared between Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld and John Part. Although Lloyd also won two major titles, he often accumulated ranking points in the less prestigious non-televised events, in which Taylor did not always compete. Similarly, Alan Warriner was world number one on four occasions before ever winning his first and only PDC major, the 2001 Grand Prix, while Taylor won eight world championships and a host of other titles during that period.

Previous World Number Ones[]

Nine players have held the position of World Number One since the World Darts Council started new rankings in 1993. Only Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld, Michael van Gerwen, and Gerwyn Price have held the position since the PDC switched to the two-year earnings based Order of Merit system in 2007.

Player	#	Years in which player stood Number 1
Phil Taylor	13	1996 2000 2002 2003 2004 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Michael van Gerwen	7	2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Alan Warriner	6	1993 1994 1997 1998 2001 2002
Rod Harrington	5	1995 1996 1998 1999 2000
Colin Lloyd	3	2005 2006 2007
Dennis Priestley	2	1994 1995
Peter Manley	2	2000 2001
Raymond van Barneveld	1	2008
John Part	1	2003
Gerwyn Price	1	2021
Italic indicates the player was reigning world champion that year Bold indicates the player stood number one at the conclusion of that year's world championship

Periods[]

No.	Player(s)	From		To	Length	Ref.
1	Alan Warriner-Little	January 1993	Incarnation of the WDC	6 November 1994	674 days[A]	[12]
2	Dennis Priestley	6 November 1994	1994 Lada UK Masters	10 April 1995	155 days	[12][13]
3	Rod Harrington	10 April 1995	1995 UK Matchplay	August 1996	479 days[A]	[12][13]
4	Phil Taylor	August 1996		September 1996	31 days[A]	[12][13]
	Alan Warriner-Little (2)	September 1996		1 August 1998	699 days[A]	[12][13]
	Rod Harrington (2)	1 August 1998	1998 World Matchplay	29 July 2000	728 days	[12][13]
	Phil Taylor (2)	29 July 2000	2000 World Matchplay	24 September 2000	57 days	[12][13]
5	Peter Manley	24 September 2000	2000 Windy City Open	28 October 2001	399 days	[12][13]
	Alan Warriner-Little (3)	28 October 2001	2001 World Grand Prix	5 January 2002	69 days	[12][13]
	Alan Warriner (4) and Phil Taylor (3)	5 January 2002	2002 World Championship	2 February 2002	28 days	[12][13]
	Alan Warriner-Little (5)	2 February 2002	2002 Eastbourne Open	May 2002	88 days[A]	[12][13]
	Phil Taylor (4)	May 2002		4 January 2003	248 days[A]	[12][13]
6	John Part	4 January 2003	2003 World Championship	26 July 2003	203 days	[12][13]
	Phil Taylor (5)	26 July 2003	2003 Bobby Bourn Memorial Trophy	27 February 2005	582 days	[12][13]
7	Colin Lloyd	27 February 2005	2005 West Tyrone Open	11 June 2006	469 days	[14][13]
	Phil Taylor (6)	11 June 2006	2006 UK Open	18 June 2006	7 days	[15][16]
	Colin Lloyd (2)	18 June 2006	2006 Players Championship 3	1 January 2007	197 days	[16][13]
	Phil Taylor (7)	1 January 2007	2007 World Championship	1 January 2008	365 days	[12][13]
8	Raymond van Barneveld	1 January 2008	2008 World Championship	8 June 2008	159 days	[17][13]
	Phil Taylor (8)	8 June 2008	2008 UK Open	1 January 2014	2,033 days	[17][18]
9	Michael van Gerwen	1 January 2014	2014 World Championship	3 January 2021	2,559 days	[18][19]
10	Gerwyn Price	3 January 2021	2021 World Championship	Present	257 days	[19][20]

Key

Before 2008	Used old points system
Current	Reigning number one on Order of Merit

First WDC/PDC rankings[]

Following the World Darts Council (now PDC) split from the British Darts Organisation during 1992-94 the WDC drew up its first ranking list in the run-up to its inaugural 1994 World Championship. Mike Gregory and Chris Johns later went back to the BDO set up and Bobby George and many of the non-UK players never competed in the early days of the WDC.^{[citation needed]}

Ranking	Player		Ranking	Player
1	Alan Warriner		16	Jann Hoffmann
2	Rod Harrington		=	Chris Johns
3	Phil Taylor		=	Roland Scholten
4	John Lowe		19	Raymond van Barneveld
5	Mike Gregory		=	Keith Deller
6	Peter Evison		21	Bobby George
7	Kevin Spiolek		22	Per Skau
=	Dennis Priestley		23
9	Bob Anderson		=	Andree Welge
10	Jocky Wilson		=
11	Jamie Harvey		26	Leo Laurens
12	Eric Bristow		=	Bert Vlaardingerbroek
13	Cliff Lazarenko		=	Tom Kirby
14	Magnus Caris		=	Wayne Weening
=	Steve Beaton		=

See also[]

• Professional Darts Corporation

References[]

External links[]

• Official PDC Order of Merit