Mike de Decker becomes first Sky major winner ever to miss out on Premier League Darts selection

Mike de Decker has become the first player in the 20 year history of the Premier League Darts to win a major televised on Sky Sports and not be selected for the darting roadshow.

De Decker also is the latest in a long line of major winners now to miss out on overall selection. What started out as a lonely club with just Paul Nicholson has morphed into at least a few a year.

This in part due to the slip in domination of Michael van Gerwen and the amount of new major winners. Ritchie Edhouse was another not in the conversation this year. Dimitri van den Bergh also at the UK Open was also not included.

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This tournament though since Danny Noppert and Andrew Gilding won it has not gleamed a Premier League spot but De Decker winning the World Grand Prix and being a Sky major was a surprising choice.

Albeit he also had a poor PDC World Championship which likely threw him out of favour. Both Stephen Bunting and Chris Dobey who did qualify reached the semi-finals.

Gerwyn Price and Nathan Aspinall are the only contentious choices in the view of those on social media especially with Damon Heta also missing out on a spot despite his on stage persona and form. But De Decker is now a part of a new unwanted record club all of his own.

PDC Chief Executive Matt Porter gave his own take on De Decker after he wasn't picked.

"Mike (De Decker) is an outstanding talent and is someone that undoubtedly we will see in Premier League Darts in the future. We didn't feel he was quite read," he said on Sky Sports News. "There's a lot of tournaments throughout the year and winning one. We've seen players in the past I don't want to embarass by naming them but players like Danny Noppert, Ross Smith and Andrew Gilding that have won TV tournaments. But you have to show that you can compete in the latter stages of TV tournaments on a regular basis. Doing it once is fantastic and is something that you will always have but to really be part of the elite, you have to be doing it on a regular basis over multiple years."

Full History of major winners missing Premier League Darts

Paul Nicholson (2010)

Rob Cross (2022)

Danny Noppert, Ross Smith (2022)

Andrew Gilding (2023)

Dimitri Van den Bergh, Mike De Decker, Ritchie Edhouse (2025)

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