Players defending most prize money on PDC Order of Merit during 2022 season

With the resumption of PDC action to come in February, players will be defending big or small amounts of prize money and for eleven players in the current top 64 of the PDC Order of Merit, it will be more than most.

These eleven players will be defending more than 67% of their total prize money with the highest percentage going to Jeffrey de Zwaan.

'The Black Cobra' is set to defend 90.33% of his prize money which has been blighted by injuries in recent years. He will have to at least reach the PDC World Darts Championship to keep his Tour Card.

The latter also applies to Steve West, Glen Durrant, Keegan Brown, Jamie Hughes and Max Hopp. West also has to defend a hefty sum, no less than 86.32 percent. Durrant also faces a pivotal year. The former Premier League champion had a dramatic fall from grace in 2021 and now has to work hard to revive his career.

Other big names who have a lot to defend are Devon Petersen (73.66 percent), Simon Whitlock (71.59 percent) and Gary Anderson (67.18 percent). However, Anderson will only have to defend a large part of that during the World Darts Championship, as he was in the World final during the 2021 edition, which he lost to Gerwyn Price. That also means that Price has half a million pounds to defend during the upcoming World Darts Championship.

At the same time, there are also players who have relatively little to defend. Alan Soutar, Raymond van Barneveld and Florian Hempel, among others, have nothing at stake, because they are starting their second Tour Card year.

Up-and-coming talents such as Luke Humphries, Callan Rydz and William Borland also did not get much prize money in 2020. That also applies to Peter Wright, who this year has an excellent opportunity to take over the number one position in the world rankings from Price.