ANALYSIS | Disappointments, comebacks and young talent: Belgium prepares for a crucial darts year

In recent years, Belgium seemed to have everything in place to grow into a top nation in the darts world. Almost all major tournaments were broadcast live on television, local events were packed with entrants and, with two Euro Tours and even a Premier League night in Belgium this year, nothing appeared capable of halting the rise of the noble art of darts. But then came 2025, an annus horribilis for Belgian darts.

2025 started well for the Belgians, with Dimitri Van den Bergh and newly crowned major winner Mike De Decker sitting in or close to the top 16. Belgium lost two PDC Tour Card holders in Ronny Huybrechts and Robbie Knops, but gained one with Stefaan Henderyck.

At the first major of 2025 – the Winmau World Masters – there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Quite the opposite, in fact, as Van den Bergh beat the likes of Michael van Gerwen and Nathan Aspinall to reach the semi-finals. There, Jonny Clayton proved too strong with a 5-2 win, but Van den Bergh looked primed for a big season.

A month later, Van den Bergh was in action at the UK Open, where he defended his title from a year earlier. The DreamMaker made the last 16 in Minehead, losing 10-3 to Michael Smith. Van den Bergh was stuck on an average of barely 70 in that match. A one-off outlier or the start of a trend taking shape?

It turned out to be the latter. After a rough spell of inconsistent displays and a sudden withdrawal from a floor event in Rosmalen, he chose to step back to recover mentally and physically. He said he wanted to come back stronger. Van den Bergh ultimately skipped almost two months of tournaments and only returned at the World Cup of Darts. He teamed up with Mike De Decker there, but that also ended in disappointment when Belgium exited after the group stage.

The rest of the year brought little improvement for the 31-year-old Belgian. Only at the last floor events did he show any signs of recovery with another quarter-final. Van den Bergh headed to the Worlds with a sliver of optimism, but the disappointment at Alexandra Palace was stark: a comprehensive 3-0 defeat in the opening round to Darren Beveridge. VDB averaged barely 80 and was back to square one.

And so Van den Bergh enters the new season with a truckload of questions. He has slipped to 25th in the world rankings and is no longer Belgium’s number one. In the virtual Tour Card race he is only 51st. There is plenty of work to do for Van den Bergh. Talent does not simply vanish, though. He has won two majors in the past and played Premier League Darts among the world’s best. He is also still young enough to come back stronger. But that 2026 is a crucial year in his career is beyond doubt.

While Van den Bergh started 2025 as Belgium’s top player, De Decker has since taken over that position. Yet his year was far from stellar as well. Expectations around De Decker were high. He made his definitive breakthrough in 2024 by winning the World Grand Prix and surged towards the world’s top 20. To his own frustration, De Decker was not selected for Premier League Darts.

Determined to prove the PDC wrong, De Decker opened the new year in style with a run to the final on home soil at the Belgian Darts Open, where only Luke Littler was too strong. His form in the months that followed was certainly solid, but the big peaks did not come. The Real Deal also admitted he struggled to get fully comfortable with his new darts (De Decker switched from Bull’s Darts to Mission), an issue that would run through his results all year.

De Decker received PDC invites for the World Series events in Oceania and, at the Australian Darts Masters, he reached the final on debut, where Littler won 8-4. In the following months, De Decker made the last 16 at the World Matchplay and the quarter-finals at the World Series of Darts Finals. The recent World Championship also proved a huge disappointment for him, with a 3-2 first-round loss to David Munyua. De Decker is currently 19th in the world rankings, but must defend his World Grand Prix title this year. It remains to be seen which way De Decker’s career will turn.

Long the Belgian number one, then number two and now for some time number three: that is the fate of Kim Huybrechts. At 40, The Hurricane stands at a crossroads in his career. Huybrechts endured a dreadful year, sliding to 60th in the world rankings. In the virtual Tour Card race he is only 69th. The risk that Huybrechts will lose his PDC Tour Card at the end of 2026, after fifteen uninterrupted years on the Pro Tour, is very real.

The decline has been underway for some time and looks hard to stop for Huybrechts. The cause lies mainly in his mediocre performances on the floor events and barely qualifying for the Euro Tours, where valuable pounds for the world rankings can be earned. His World Championship also ended in disaster with a tame 3-1 defeat in the opening round against Arno Merk.

Huybrechts, however, has the talent to compete effortlessly in the PDC, as he has proven many times with titles on the European Tour and floor tournaments and even a major final. Huybrechts was a trailblazer for the current generation of Belgians in the PDC and helped pave the way for them. The new influx of players keeps getting younger and, although 40 is not old, this will be a crucial year for the Belgian. Can he dig deep one more time?

The best Belgian in 2025 may well have been Mario Vandenbogaerde. The likeable 52-year-old West Fleming had a very steady year on the Pro Tour and was the only Belgian to reach a final at a ranking event. In the final of the 28th Players Championship of the year he lost 8-6 to Ryan Searle.

Vandenbogaerde also spent the entire year battling to keep his PDC Tour Card. He hovered around 64th place and, after an early exit at the World Championship, seemed set to miss out. “Super Mario” suddenly became “Lucky Mario” when Dom Taylor’s prize money was stripped following a positive doping test. On the strength of his solid season, Vandenbogaerde deserved that bit of fortune and will therefore also compete in the PDC this season.

Andy Baetens became world champion with the WDF in 2023. The East Fleming seemed ready to make his mark in the PDC as well, but it played out differently. “The Beast” posted high averages here and there and scored a few fine wins, yet consistency eluded him. Baetens did manage to qualify for the World Championship via the qualifier, but after a tight match Dirk van Duijvenbode proved just a touch too strong.

We remain convinced of Baetens’ potential, but perhaps—as Van Duijvenbode mentioned in his post-match interview—the Belgian needs to decide whether to go all-in on darts or continue combining work with a darts career. In any case, Baetens failed to regain his PDC Tour Card at Q-School earlier this month and will therefore be seen mainly on the Challenge Tour and with the WDF this year.

Also set to feature on the Pro Tour in 2026: Stefaan Henderyck. The 52-year-old West Fleming earned his PDC Tour Card early last year but has barely managed to win matches so far. Keeping his Tour Card at the end of this year looks an almost impossible task.

At the recent Q-School, no Belgian player managed to secure a PDC Tour Card, although Lennert Faes came particularly close. Is everything negative then? No, definitely not. As mentioned at the start, Belgian darts fans can look forward to a Premier League night at the Afas Dôme (the former Sportpaleis), a first for Belgium. Previously the travelling darts roadshow only visited Germany and the Netherlands outside Great Britain. It is proof that the PDC rates the Belgian market highly. In addition, the Belgian Darts Open and the Flanders Darts Trophy return this year.

To keep the darts boom alive in Belgium, it is crucial to have a few top players the public can identify with. In that sense, we hope the current Tour Card holders bounce back in 2026, but also that fresh blood starts to come through.

There is strong, quality work being done with youth in Belgium, and it will be interesting to see what players like Lex Paeshuyse, Matthias Moors, and Rune Van Damme—to name just a few—can deliver in the future. Here too it is important not to pile on too much pressure. Unlike the Netherlands, the base in Belgium is still much thinner, and perhaps the focus should be more on the long term.