Gian van Veen is the new leader on the PDC Development Tour Order of Merit. The Dutchman has taken over the lead from 16-year-old Luke Littler after 15 out of 24 tournaments.
Van Veen was again successful on the Development Tour last weekend by capturing his fourth title of the season. The 21-year-old darter from Poederoijen has already earned £12,300 on the Development Tour circuit this season.
Littler is currently in second place with £10,175. Behind the English prodigy is another Dutchman. Wessel Nijman also had a rock-solid tournament weekend with a tournament win and second place. At £8925, Nijman is firmly in third place and may dream of World Championship participation and capturing a PDC Tour Card later this year. Bradley Brooks and Jarred Cole also won a tournament last weekend and worked their way up to fourth and fifth place respectively.
What is the PDC Development Tour?
The PDC Development Tour is considered the training institute of the PDC. Talented players have the opportunity to further develop their gift on this circuit.
Players may enter as soon as they reach the age of 16. They may then compete up to and including the season in which they turn 24.
Today, the Development Tour circuit consists of 24 tournaments. These are spread over five weekends. One of those five weekends is played in Hildesheim, Germany, the other four in the United Kingdom.
What are the follow-up opportunities through the PDC Development Tour?
A PDC Youth World Championship is organised every year. This season, it will take place on 20 August. The best players from the Development Tour are allowed to compete in it. They play a tournament until two players remain. The final is traditionally on the final night of the Players Championship Finals on 26 November.
The reward for the junior world champion is a cheque for £10,000, entry to the World Darts Championship and qualification for the Grand Slam of Darts the following season. The latter, incidentally, also applies to the runner-up of the PDC World Youth Championship.
But there are even more rewards to be earned through the Development Tour. The numbers one and two of the final ranking get to compete in the World Championship and receive a PDC Tour Card for the following two years. The number one on the Development Tour Order of Merit is also allowed to compete at the Grand Slam of Darts in the current season.
If one or more players from the top-2 of the PDC Development Tour Order of Merit have already secured placement for a specific TV tournament, they will advance to the next player on the ranking list. The same applies to the distribution of Tour Cards.
PDC Development Tour Order of Merit after 15/24 tournaments
Rank - Name - Prize money
1 Gian van Veen £12,300
2 Luke Littler £10,175
3 Wessel Nijman £8,925
4 Bradley Brooks £6,525
5 Jarred Cole £6,100
6 Jurjen van der Velde £5,450
7 Dylan Slevin £5,325
8 Nathan Rafferty £5,125
9 Sebastian Bialecki £4,800
10 Rusty-Jake Rodriguez £4,475
11 Bradly Roes £4,225
12 Ciaran Teehan £4,200
13 Owen Roelofs £4,125
14 Christopher Toonders £4,125
15 Adam Gawlas £3,850
16 Lewis Gurney £3,550
17 Nathan Girvan £3,400
18 Cam Crabtree £3,275
19 David Schlichting £2,725
20 Kevin Troppmann £2,650
21 Dominik Gruellich £2,525
22 Harry Gregory £2,425
23 Levy Frauenfelder £2,375
24 James Beeton £2,375
25 Jack Male £2,225
26 Jim Moston £2,225
27 Jitse van der Wal £2,150
28 Marvin Kraft £2,025
29 Leighton Bennett £2,025
30 Adam Paxton £1,875
31 Owen Bates £1,850
32 Damian Vetjens £1,700
33 Jacob Gwynne £1,700
34 Justin Hewitt £1,700
35 Jordan Sharpe £1,675
36 Henry Coates £1,675
37 Thomas Banks £1,650
38 Owen Maiden £1,625
39 Connor Hopkins £1,625
40 Connor Arberry £1,600
41 Pascal Rupprecht £1,550
42 Reece Colley £1,550
43 Danny Jansen £1,500
44 Daniel Perry £1,450
45 Keelan Kay £1,450
46 Jack Vincent £1,425
47 Keane Barry £1,400
48 Youri Brouwer £1,325
49 Tavis Dudeney £1,300
50 Stefan Dees £1,300
51 Riley Rees-Tucker £1,300
52 Oliver King £1,250
53 Filip Ljubenko £1,200
54 Tomas Houdek £1,200
55 Sam Cromwell £1,175
56 Robert Kef £1,125
57 Daan Bastiaansen £1,125
58 Charlie Manby £1,125
59 Ruben Mesters £1,050
60 Lewy Williams £1,050
61 Jarno Bottenberg £1,000
62 Marc Petermann £975
63 Lukas Fraulob £925
64 Alfie Thompson £900
65 Llew Bevan £900
66 Bram van Dijk £875
67 Fred Box £850
68 Craig Galliano £850
69 Rune Van Damme £825
70 Pim van Bijnen £825
71 Moreno Blom £825
72 Bradley Aldous £800
73 Jamai van den Herik £750
74 Roman Benecky £750
75 Marvin Koch £725
76 Viani Van den Bergh £725
77 Dylan Dowling £700
78 Johnny Stewart £700
79 Sam Aitkens £700
80 Oliver Madge £650
81 Dylan Tuite £650
82 Marvin van Velzen £650
83 Jaikob Selby-Rivas £650
84 Wesley Veenstra £600
85 Enrico Frank £575
86 Travis Baur £575
87 Xanti Van den Bergh £575
88 Luke Cottrell £575
89 Jordan Boyce £575
90 Byron Garner £575
91 Dylan Quinn £550
92 Jimmy Bristow £525
93 Niclas Wierling £500
94 Joshua Hermann £500
95 Ieuan Halsall £500
96 Nathan Care £500
97 Damien Moore £500
98 Charlie Large £500
99 Matteo Ognibeni £475
100 Kalem Marsh £475
101 Cole Davey £450
102 Declan Cox £450
103 Keaton Williams £425
104 Mark Connolly £425
105 Rohan Brouwers £425
106 Zac Griffiths £425
107 Finn Chudziak £425
108 Robbe Dasseville £425
109 Jan Schmidt £400
110 Killian Heffernan £400
111 Tom Garfield £400
112 Lewis Mayes £400
113 Sascha Stuhlemmer £375
114 Robin Radloff £375
115 Laszlo Ancsin £375
116 Coby Jones-Swanson £375
117 Charlie Stocks £375
118 Luke Van der Kwast £375
119 Jannes Bremermann £350
120 Alexander Steinmetz £350
121 Sem Devoght £350
122 Ondrej Frystacky £350
123 Adam Dee £350
124 Mitchell Leeming £350
125 Keenan Thomas £350
126 Colinn Haverkate £300
127 Andras Borbely £275
128 Charlie Wiles £275
129 Dominik Nebe £275
130 Dieter Van Ham £275
131 Seppe Dasseville £275
132 Sydnee de Vries £275
133 Samuel Palmer £275
134 Anna Votavova £275
135 Bailey White £275
136 Jenson Walker £275
137 Marius Brink £275
138 Nathan Potter £275
139 Keanen Norris £275
140 Mark Tabak £275
141 Dylan van Lierop £225
142 Alan Halfmouw £225
143 Fabian Schmutzler £225
144 Harry Jake Robinson £225
145 Lloyd Walker £225
146 Angelo Balsamo £225
147 Jamie Gardner £225
148 Angelo van Deventer £225
149 Ciaran Forde £225
150 Maikel Mossou £225
151 Sean Cummins £225
152 Cayden Smith £225
153 Jake Neale £225
154 Pascal Lausch £200
155 Meinte Hibma £200
156 Joshua Adriaanse £200
157 Keith Zahner £200
158 Louis Hornig £200
159 Niclas Menz £200
160 Paul Vogt £200
161 Jeffrey Keen £200
162 Luca Pfaff £200
163 John Wightman £200
164 Jack Howarth £200
165 Matthew Chegwin £200
166 Cameron Lee £200
167 Jamie Tilley £200
168 Cian Fitzpatrick £200
169 Sam Coenders £200
170 Carl van Mens £150
171 Djowy Verhagen £150
172 David Drewanz £150
173 Jeremy Jendrzejewski £150
174 Laurenz Kelm £150
175 Nic Mueller £150
176 Derek Barry £150
177 Reiss Markley £150
178 Jonathan Parvaneh £150
179 Shane Weeks £150
180 Kevin van der Voort £150
181 Lennon Cradock £150
182 Nando Engelen £150
183 Justin van Tergouw £150
184 Robbie Chalmers £150
185 Patrik Williams £150
186 Jake Fewell £150
187 Jurre Begard £75
188 Keanu van Velzen £75
189 Lukas Holtewert £75
190 Max Pauly £75
191 Nicolas Roehre £75
192 Oliver Mueller (Dorzbach) £75
193 Timm Gothier £75
194 Vilem Sedivy £75
195 Julian Zwergel £75
196 Daan Beernink £75
197 Tom Kloppmann £75
198 Leon Remde £75
199 Jan Zagel £75
200 Mattia Pinelli £75
201 Mika Niems £75
202 Miro Seemann £75
203 Oliver Ufer £75
204 Patrick Schroeder £75
205 Sebastian Keine £75
206 Bram Jongejeugd £75
207 Hendrik Riechel £75
208 Louis Rodamer £75
209 Mike Verschuur £75
210 Noah Hanfland £75
211 Noah Weller £75
212 Jan Luca Limburg £75
213 Leonard Ingles £75
214 Marvin Fink £75
215 Massimo Balsamo £75
216 Maurice Junker £75
217 Ben Phillips £75
218 Luke Rutter £75
219 Marco Jungwirth £75
220 Aaron Colley £75
221 Antony Richardson £75
222 Dean Fitch Jnr £75
223 Jack Hook £75
224 Scott Smith £75
225 Jonas Aplowski £75
226 Charlie Bubb £75
227 Lleyton Molyneux £75
228 Daniel Coates £75
229 Egor Tvorogov £75
230 Matyas Rejhon £75
231 Noah Roeschlein £75
232 Chris Birch £75
233 George Lynch £75
234 Harrison McMullen £75
235 Joseph Lynaugh £75
236 Cameron Christie £75
237 Sebastian Bech £75
238 Tyler Radlett £75
239 Bradley Timlin £75
240 Danny Goddard £75
241 Jack McNeilly £75
242 Lars Plaisier £75
243 Billy Warriner £75
244 Joshua Bean £75
245 Philip Want £75
246 Rene Molendijk £75
247 Andrew Ingman £75
248 Connor Woodcock Colk £75
249 Mitchell Koster £75
250 Liam Fowkes £75
251 Sean Negrette £75
252 Kishan Prakash Jiwa £75