"We will change it at some point": Matt Porter hints at Premier League Darts format change but not for now

PDC chief Matt Porter has hinted that the format of the Premier League Darts will change in due course. The eight-player tournament currently runs on a knockout system, with each player facing an opponent once in the first seven weeks and repeating this in weeks 9 to 15.

That leads to familiar faces on stage, and some fans are unhappy about it. Porter acknowledges the criticism of repeated matchups in Premier League Darts but stresses that the numbers show the current format still works.

"We will change it at some point, but at the moment you can only look at the numbers that are in front of you,” says Porter. “The live crowd and the TV audience, the numbers are telling us that the format is working.

“If people stop buying tickets or start changing the channel then it wouldn’t be working, but every metric is improving.

He points out that no format in the Premier League is permanent. “It’s not a format that will keep forever because we never keep any format forever in the Premier League.

“The format must have changed half a dozen times in the 20 years of the event. But at the moment, it’s still the right format, we believe, for what we’ve got.

Porter concedes that repetition is a common complaint. “I would accept that that is the biggest criticism of it. There is a lot of repetition. But you’re looking at it through the eyes of somebody who’s perhaps watching it on TV every week.

“If you’re in Nottingham, you want to see Littler vs Humphries, and if you’re in Aberdeen, you might want to see the same, and if you’re in Brighton, you might want to see the same. It’s very difficult to turn around to people and say, ‘oh, sorry, you can’t see the biggest matchup in your city.’

“Actually the nature of the bracket with those short format games, you should get enough variety in it anyway. But clearly with the same eight players playing each other over 16 weeks, there is going to be some repetition. I don’t remember many tennis fans complaining about watching Federer versus Nadal.”

Porter also discussed player selection. According to him, Danny Noppert had the strongest case for disappointment, as he narrowly missed out on the Premier League despite four semi-finals in 2025.

The most controversial pick was Stephen Bunting. He finished bottom of the table last year and did not reach any semi-finals at Premier events. Porter said: “Stephen probably didn’t finish the year as strongly as he’d wanted, but he was world-ranked number seven.

“He won six tournaments across the year. He’s a popular player and we felt that jettisoning him after one year probably wasn’t the right thing to do.

On Noppert he said: "Probably the one who would have the most cause to say he could have been in it and he had a very valid case and he was very, very unlucky not to be selected. Everyone’s in consideration, but obviously only to a point. James [Wade] started the year really, really well, then faded away.

“He was runner-up at the UK [Open], runner-up at the World Matchplay and then had a more disappointing year after that, first round defeats in four tournament and two quarter-finals. So there were players who outperformed him in the second half of the year.”

In short: the current format remains in place for now, but fans can expect the Premier League Darts to take on new shapes in the future.