These big name players are defending more than 50% of their PDC Order of Merit earnings in 2025

As the new season begins as does the battle to defend Prize Money on the PDC Order of Merit and some big names are at risk during 2025 of even dropping out of the top 16 or for some cases lower down losing their Tour Cards.

A video from Matthew Edgar on his channel Edgar TV provided some names who could feasibly drop out of the top 16 and one of those was Gerwyn Price.

Price won £118,000 in 2024 until the World Championship when he won £50,000 topping it up by over 30%. It made £168,000 total. He is defending £312,000 from the year previous which equates to 65% of his total ranking.

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This includes two European Tour titles and four ProTour titles. But most of them are at the back end of the year so a good start to 2025 would remove some of the burden. £60,000 at the World Grand Prix for instance also needs to be defended. A TV title could be needed for Price.

Nathan Aspinall is another reaching £140,000 for 2024. 70% of his ranking money is up for grabs with £200,000 of that coming at the World Matchplay. Even if he wins a tournament like the UK Open, he still remains in danger for the top 16 drop.

Can Nathan Aspinall stave off the drop?

Michael Smith dropped out of the top 16 at the end of 2024. He's defending £221,000, he picked up £184,000 last year. That sits at around a £40,000 differential but most of his money comes off at the start of the year. He is currently not in the World Matchplay especially given that with him now out he won't benefit either from the European Tour comfort blanket given to the top 16 elite.

Brendan Dolan is in the top 32 but he will defend 62% of his Prize Money and currently won't qualify for the World Matchplay either. £169,000 he defends to be exact.

Edgar also mentioned in his video about Jose de Sousa. He sits at World Number 45 now with £25,000 picked up only last year as 81% of his prize money will fall off defending £113,000. So his Tour Card sits at risk.

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