Van Gerwen on top of alternative world ranking list

Last week Michael van Gerwen won the World Matchplay for the third time in his career. As a result, he has climbed to third place in the world rankings and number one in an alternative ranking.

Christopher Kempf, who analyses tournament statistics for the PDC, ranks players based on the calibre of opponents in matches won and lost. The Holistic Order of Merit Enhanced Ranking (HOMER) is a ranking system devised to measure and account for important factors in darts.

Players receive ranking points for winning each match during a ranking tournament. Those ranking points increase as you progress through a tournament. The World Cup final has twice the effect on the ranking as the final of one of the other six TV ranking tournaments, four times the effect of a final of a European Tour event, and eight times the effect on the ranking of a Players Championship final.

Players also earn bonuses for beating players ahead of them in the world rankings, with a minimum bonus for beating a player one place higher to a maximum of double ranking impact for any player who beats the world number one.

Thanks to his final victory at the World Matchplay, Michael van Gerwen is the new number one in the HOMER system. Luke Humphries is second and in third place we find Michael Smith. Remarkably, we only find Gerwyn Price, the current number one of the world rankings, in sixth place. Dimitri Van den Bergh, semi-finalist at the last World Matchplay, is only thirteenth.