
Rusty-Jake Rodriguez is sat imperious at the top of the PDC European Development Tour Order of Merit after a trio of titles for the rising Austrian on the opening weekend.
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Rodriguez who has been in superb form since Q-School when he just missed out on a Tour Card could claim his spot on the PDC ProTour and a World Championship spot through this route.
This is after he became the first player to win three PDC Development Tour titles on the same weekend since Dean Reynolds won three out of four titles in September 2016.
He is currently ahead of Niels Zonneveld who himself had an excellent weekend and sits on £3,600.
This ahead of fellow winners Jurjen van der Velde and Kevin Doets, while Mike van Duivenbode rounds out the top five after his return to action.
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The tour is open to players between the ages of 16 and 23, provided they are not in the top-32 of the regular world ranking on January 4, 2021 and it is split between UK and European due to Coronavirus.
The Development Tour ranking is based on the prize money won. At the end of the season, the winners of both rankings (European and British Development Tour) will receive an invitation to the upcoming Grand Slam of Darts, the World Darts Championship and a Tour Card for 2022 and 2023.
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PDC European Development Tour Order of Merit
1 Rusty-Jake Rodriguez £6,500
2 Niels Zonneveld £3,600
3 Jurjen van der Velde £3,150
4 Kevin Doets £2,850
5 Mike van Duivenbode £2,500
6 Geert Nentjes £1,900
7 Niko Springer £1,750
8 Bradly Roes £1,750
9 Maikel Verberk £1,450
10 Jeroen Mioch £1,400
11 Gillian Koehoorn £1,300
12 Gian van Veen £1,300
13 Joshua Hermann £950
14 Tobias Scheifl £900
15 Tomas Houdek £900
16 Damian Mol £900
17 Mark Tabak £900
18 Sebastian Bialecki £800
19 Adam Gawlas £750
20 Levy Frauenfelder £750
21 Youri Brouwer £750
22 Robin Beger £700
23 Joost Geurts £700
24 Nico Kurz £650
25 Kevin Luhr £650
26 Jonathan Parvaneh £500
27 Haz Balint Gergely £500
28 Robert Kef £500
29 Moreno Blom £450
30 Marcel Gerdon £450
31 Bertus Herks £450
32 Brent Plaisier £450
33 Sam Coenders £400
34 Oliver Ufer £400
35 Tomas Rehak £400
36 Nic Mueller £400
37 Danny Jansen £400
38 Martijn Piree £350
39 Jamai van den Herik £350
40 Tobias Reisner £350
41 Alex Flohr £350
42 Jarno Bottenberg £350
43 Roman Benecky £350
44 Meinte Hibma £350
45 Tobias Pankow £350
46 Joey de Jong £350
47 Robin Radloff £350
48 Viani Van den Bergh £350
49 Julian Zwergel £300
50 Frederik Bosing £300
51 Kevin Troppmann £300
52 Yannic Wilhelm £300
53 Gijsbert van Malsen £300
54 Alexander Draisbach £300
55 Keanu van Velzen £250
56 Enrique Sasse £250
57 Felix Bollmann £250
58 Justin Paul £250
59 Wesley Veenstra £250
60 Phil Schneider £250
61 Jonathan Schuette £250
62 Owen Roelofs £250
63 Tom Heldt £250
64 Anton Salge £200
65 Egor Tvorogov £200
66 Rene Molendijk £200
67 Bjorn Ole Blohm £200
68 Leon Crump £200
69 Sebastian Keine £200
70 Jannis Kirstein £200
71 Lars Fransen £200
72 Markus Burger £200
73 Fynn Pfannebecker £200
74 Lars Plaisier £200
75 Ole Holtkamp £200
76 Nils Schierbrock £150
77 Luis Breuer £150
78 Sven Hesse £150
79 Marcus Richter £150
80 Dominik Gruellich £150
81 Toms Balodis £150
82 Marco Buecker £150
83 Felix Kleeberg £150
84 Simon Schreier £150
85 Winston van de Graaf £150
86 Ron Leon Kolberg £150
87 Marvin van Velzen £150
88 Andre Winter £100
89 Florian Preuss £100
90 Fabian Klos £100
91 Leopold Piribauer £100
92 Niklas Hess £100
93 Nils Muller £100
94 Luke van der Kwast £100
95 Marco Jungwirth £100
96 Robin Stegler £100
97 Till Stein £100
98 Marc Legant £100
99 Maximilian Kiessling £100
100 Guido Boskeljon £100
101 Nico Krause £100
102 Tim Nieborg £100
103 Jonas Aplowski £100
104 Miro Seemann £100
105 Mattis Kaletsch £100
106 Sara Schliemann £100
107 Elias Kessenbrock £50
108 Lucas Opitz £50
109 Yoerie de Vries £50
110 Christoph Kloetzer £50
111 Elias Henkel £50
112 Tobias Vettermann £50
113 Anna Votavova £50
114 Nicklas Specht £50
115 Aron Boroczi £50
116 Dominik Leidner £50
117 Florian Birzer £50
118 Karl Neumann £50
119 Louis Rodamer £50
120 Marcel Teders £50
121 Niklas Lande £50
122 Dominik Steinmann £50
123 Elias Hansch £50
124 Luca Rehm £50
125 Sam Groot Roessink £50

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- And why should he listen to you?Deduce635807-11-2026
- Ultimately it is a bye for whoever draws Barney. It will be another stroppy and sulky performance once he goes behind. Barney was excellent but really must completely call it a day now.richieburnettrocks07-11-2026
- I'm disappointed he was not able to secure a spot at the Grand Slam. With Carl Sneyd taking care of Daryl Gurney, he would have had to beat Andy Boulton before facing the winner of Sneyd vs Mensur Suljović for a Grand Slam spot. Unfortunately, after beating Filip Bereza comfortably, he succumbed to Boulton, and the board would ultimately be won by the highly inconsistent Carl Sneyd. Since he could instead have been drawn against the likes of Cristo Reyes, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Stephen Bunting, I think once Gurney was out of the picture he would have been favourite to win his board, and it seems like a massive missed opportunity to put 5 grand on his ranking and seal another major TV appearance ahead of the Worlds. The highs and lows of following Raymond van Barneveld!Deduce635806-11-2026
- Probably i will receive a lot of backlash and hate for this reaction, but well, so be it. I am more than sick and tired of those lies of you Barry Hearn. How dare you defend yourself over the back of Fallon’s son! He has a disability and not an illness, so let me correct that for you! I know because I have the exact same disability. I have tried to reach out to Fallon in the past, and offered her to help her and her son, because I was struggling with the same problems, and I understood the boy. I wanted him to have finally someone who understood him. However she told me that she did not want my help, and I have respected Fallon’s choice. I have never asked Fallon for money. They don’t need money in that case. I only ever wanted the best for Fallon and Rory, but I have to be honest about the situation. Fallon should tell the true story and not be forced to tell lies. I don’t hate Fallon, and I don’t begrudge or envy a single penny that she gets, but this situation/case is just not fair. I hate the lies and the dishonesty and injustice. I don’t want Fallon to be hated because there is an unfair disadvantage created. Don’t proclaim your false lies over the back of Rory! I only stand for integrity and justice. I am precisely the one who always sticks up for Fallon. And you don't, you don't give a damn about them. You were never there for them, and now you only want to save your own position! You are just trying to talk your way out of your own bad behavior at the expense of someone with a disability. And to Fallon, I don’t know if this may ever reach you, and you read it, but I want you to know I love you and I love your son Rory very much, I am sorry how things developed and went. I hope you and Harriet are still friends. I am sorry if I were too persistent to you, or you experienced it that way, but it was never my intention. Please understand I have autism as well. As Barry Hearn would say, I am only just a human being too, and I also make mistakes and misjudge things sometimes. I promise you I did everything out of the deepest love and care for you and Rory. If I were you, I should just keep all the money, only please never be dishonest or tell lies anymore for Barry Hearn, or anyone else. I hope you have the best life, and I wish nothing more than the best for you. I have always loved the two of you. Farewell.Hiddo05-11-2026
- She is a professional. If darts is her income, she is a professional. Same as Adrian Lewis, Martin Adams. A tour card just means someone can play on the PDC tour. You could even make a case that Clayton wasn't a professional (until recently I believe) because he had employment elsewhere.BandB04-11-2026
- She's technically not a professional though as she doesn't hold a pro tour card.mr-pablo04-11-2026
- Such a shame that lakeside has been reduced to this. Fantastic venue,and previously a great tournament. Not any morerick6703-11-2026
- Seems to me that the top 16 players pick and choose whatever they want to play. Good,all the money will get spread out more. They get more money from exhibitions than tournaments so let them all withdrawrick6703-11-2026
- Play all legs and the winners split the pot. Luke gets the lot of he wins them all. If your occupation is darts player you can't enter, regardless of ability.BandB01-11-2026
- I'm quite a jaded person all things considered, but to be honest I found Beat Luke Littler to be pretty entertaining. It certainly wasn't seamless, which is to be expected given the lack of precedence, but I actually think the pacing was pretty good, the production was impressive, and there was a good sense of humour and levity to it. I think it was a very ambitious undertaking but one that, for the most part, paid off. I liked the system with the four pots and I think it added to the drama and intrigue. I enjoyed seeing the diverse range of entrants and learning about their backstories. I think the interactivity was pretty clever and well-integrated. The panel was a little incoherent at times; Lee Mack shone however, and his improvisational skills were appreciated during some more awkward interstitial moments. As far as the darts is concerned, it was a shame that the format didn't allow Littler to get into full flow. You obviously don't want him to steamroll everyone but you want to feel like you're getting the full Littler package rather than seeing him struggling to get out of first gear. I will say that his leg against Jayden Walker was very impressive, but it was mostly downhill from there. The attraction revolves around Littler being this untouchable, indomitable force, yet the format doesn't really allow him to fulfil that characterisation. As for Fallon Sherrock, she was mightily impressive and deserved the victory. It is a testament to her unshakeable character that she was able to bang in a 14-darter under such mind-bending pressure. Everything that has been said about the misleading marketing is valid, though they were clear about their eligibility criteria and were able to offload the responsibility somewhat by bringing the viewers into the decision-making process in real time. What is clear though, is that Fallon played the game according to the rules, and she should not be criticised for that, much less abused. I will admit though that it is a kick in the teeth for those true amateurs who committed time and money to the course, and I would also question those who think pub players would have no chance, given that some of Littler's winning legs were dispatched in 7 visits to the board! The great thing about darts is that it isn't so much that amateurs cannot replicate the feats of brilliance pulled off by professionals of the sport, than it is that they simply cannot replicate the consistency of their output, something that this format almost entirely removes from the equation. It should also be noted that, financially, Fallon certainly stands to benefit much less in relative terms from the paycheque than would your average pub thrower, as I'm sure she nets a fair income from the lucrative exhibition circuit alone. What I do hope is that she might use this as an opportunity to really build up a head of steam heading into the new season, as it seems long overdue that she come through Q-School and really take it to the pros on a week-in week-out basis, but whatever she chooses to do, she has certainly achieved enough already for one if not several lifetimes, so who am I to dictate terms? To conclude though, I will state once again that I found Beat Luke Littler to be a pretty enjoyable evening of entertainment. I do feel for the contestants who never actually had the chance to try their luck against the world #1, although I suppose it comes with the format, but all which inevitably raises the question: will Netflix be tempted to do it all again next year? It's hard to say. Whether it would be financially viable, I can't weigh in there. One point I have been making though, and which I touched on earlier, is that the entire concept relies on a public perception that Littler is more or less unbeatable, and that certainly hasn't been the case of late. If the execs had been trying to pitch the show in recent months while Littler has seemed vulnerable, rather than when he was mopping up almost every major title on the calendar, it would certainly be a tougher sell. We will have to see in about 6 months' time whether Littler can still reliably command perception as a near-unstoppable force in darts, and then we'll have a clearer idea about whether we should expect a second helping. Even as a one-off experiment though, and with all the controversy taken into account, I still don't think they disgraced themselves by any means, and that will probably be my lingering assessment of the event when all is said and done.Deduce635801-11-2026







