Van Veen takes lead on PDC Development Tour Order of Merit after fourth title of the season

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