World Darts Championship crucial for some players to retain PDC Tour Card: Who will be able to prolong stay as a professional dart player?

From December 15 to January 3, the 2024 World Darts Championship will take place at Alexandra Palace in London. For some participants, this tournament could be crucial to maintaining their status as professional dart players.

Players who have a PDC Tour Card are given two years to secure a position in the top-64 of the world rankings. If a player falls out of the top-64 after that period, that player must return to Q-School to try to earn back his Tour Card.

These notable names will not be present at PDC World Darts Championship

Mario Vandenbogaerde, Kevin Doets and Ian White need a first-round victory to be sure of retaining their Tour Card. If they lose their first match, they are dependent on the results of other players. Florian Hempel and Steve Lennon, with reaching the second round, would also do good business for retaining their Tour Card, but with reaching the third round at the World Darts Championship are completely certain of extending their status as professional darts players.

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Mervyn King failed to qualify for the World Darts Championship this year for the first time since 2008, but is still within the top 64. King could still lose his Tour Card, however, if the aforementioned players all manage to achieve good results and retain their Tour Card. A similar scenario happened to Paul Nicholson during the 2019 World Darts Championship.

Radek Szaganski will have to reach the third round at the World Darts Championship to retain his Tour Card. For the Pole, retaining his Tour Card would be of great benefit as his good results on the Pro Tour in recent months mean that he is currently in a good position to qualify for the World Matchplay next year. Connor Scutt could also retain his Tour Card by reaching the third round, but would still depend on the results of other players.

These players are already certain of losing their PDC Tour Card after this season

Rusty-Jake Rodriguez, Krzysztof Kciuk and Jules van Dongen need at least a run to the quarterfinals at the Alexandra Palace to extend their Tour Card for a third year. Darren Webster, who managed to qualify for the World Darts Championship via the PDPA qualifying tournament at the last minute, will even need to reach the semifinals to avoid going to Q-School next year.

World Championship participants without a Tour Card, such as Stowe Buntz and Fallon Sherrock, can earn a Tour Card for next season, by reaching the semifinals to get into the top 64 in the world. Berry van Peer and Owen Bates are already assured of a Tour Card, having finished at the top of the Challenge Tour this year. The same goes for Luke Littler and Wessel Nijman, who after Gian van Veen performed best on the Development Tour.

Indian darter replaced and must miss World Darts Championship due to suspension

PDC Tour Card Race (source: Dartsrankings.com)

Rank	Name	Prize money
1	Michael van Gerwen	1097.25
2	Michael Smith	1086.25
3	Luke Humphries	1010.5
4	Nathan Aspinall	637.5
5	Gerwyn Price	627.25
6	Danny Noppert	527.75
7	Peter Wright	511.25
8	Rob Cross	505.5
9	Jonny Clayton	470
10	Damon Heta	458.25
11	Dave Chisnall	454.5
12	Dirk van Duijvenbode	438.75
13	Joe Cullen	420.75
14	Dimitri Van den Bergh	408
15	Ross Smith	361
16	Andrew Gilding	358
17	Stephen Bunting	351.25
18	James Wade	349
19	Chris Dobey	343.75
20	Ryan Searle	324.75
21	Josh Rock	324.5
22	Gabriel Clemens	311
23	Martin Schindler	290.25
24	Krzysztof Ratajski	288.5
25	Jose de Sousa	274
26	Daryl Gurney	249.25
27	Gary Anderson	247.25
28	Brendan Dolan	224
29	Raymond van Barneveld	210.5
30	Kim Huybrechts	186.75
31	Callan Rydz	170.75
32	Madars Razma	165.75
33	Martin Lukeman	156
34	Luke Woodhouse	150.25
35	Ryan Joyce	143.75
36	Ricardo Pietreczko	139.75
37	Mike De Decker	131.5
38	Gian van Veen	122.5
39	Keane Barry	121
40	William O'Connor	120.75
41	Jim Williams	120.25
42	Alan Soutar	118.5
43	Scott Williams	113.25
44	Simon Whitlock	112.75
45	Rowby-John Rodriguez	111.5
46	Jermaine Wattimena	106
47	Steve Beaton	103.75
48	Adrian Lewis	101.25
49	Ricky Evans	98
50	Vincent van der Voort	97
51	Matt Campbell	95.75
52	Mensur Suljovic	94
53	Ritchie Edhouse	89.5
54	Cameron Menzies	87
55	Ryan Meikle	87
56	Adam Gawlas	86.5
57	Mickey Mansell	86
58	Boris Krcmar	84.25
59	Jamie Hughes	83.75
60	Mervyn King	81.75
61	Ian White	80.75
62	Martijn Kleermaker	80
63	Kevin Doets	76
64	Mario Vandenbogaerde	75
65	Steve Lennon	70.5
66	Nathan Rafferty	69.25
67	Florian Hempel	69.25
68	Radek Szaganski	66.5
69	Connor Scutt	62.75
70	Danny Jansen	59.25
71	Darius Labanauskas	51.25
72	Richard Veenstra	50
73	Scott Waites	49.5
74	Richie Burnett	48.5
75	John O'Shea	47.75
76	Jules van Dongen	46
77	Niels Zonneveld	44
78	Ted Evetts	43.5
79	Dylan Slevin	42.75
80	Jeff Smith	42.75
81	Rusty-Jake Rodriguez	41.75
82	Lewy Williams	40.25
83	Krzysztof Kciuk	40
84	Christian Kist	38.75
85	George Killington	38.5
86	Lee Evans	37.5
87	Brian Raman	36.75
88	Jimmy Hendriks	36.5
89	Stowe Buntz	36
90	Bradley Brooks	35.75
91	Jose Justicia	35.5
92	Keegan Brown	32.75
93	Joe Murnan	32
94	Maik Kuivenhoven	29.75
95	James Wilson	28.75
96	Jeffrey De Zwaan	28.5
97	Berry van Peer	28.25
98	Stephen Burton	27.25
99	Daniel Klose	26
100	Ross Montgomery	25.25
101	Chris Landman	24.25
102	Tony Martinez	23.5
103	Darren Webster	22.5
104	Shaun Wilkinson	22.5
105	Andy Boulton	22.25
106	Karel Sedlacek	22
107	Owen Bates	21.5
108	Devon Petersen	21.5
109	Damian Mol	21.25
110	Arron Monk	20
111	Jurjen van der Velde	19.75
112	Luc Peters	18.5
113	Robert Owen	18
114	Jeffrey Sparidaans	18
115	Pascal Rupprecht	18
116	Cam Crabtree	17
117	Kevin Burness	16.75
118	Jamie Clark	16
119	Graham Usher	15.75
120	Fallon Sherrock	15.5
121	Josh Payne	15.5
122	Graham Hall	15.5
123	Marko Kantele	13.75
124	Nick Kenny	13.75
125	Adam Smith-Neale	13.75
126	Thibault Tricole	13.5
127	Geert Nentjes	13.5
128	Wesley Plaisier	13.25
129	Darryl Pilgrim	12.75
130	Haruki Muramatsu	12.5
131	Ronny Huybrechts	12.25
132	Dom Taylor	11.25
133	Owen Roelofs	11
134	Nick Fullwell	10.25
135	Jeffrey de Graaf	10
136	Dragutin Horvat	10
137	Luke Littler	10
138	Adam Warner	10
139	Danny van Trijp	9.5
140	Vladimir Andersen	9.5
141	Jelle Klaasen	9
142	Robbie Knops	8.75
143	Beau Greaves	8
144	Callum Goffin	7.75
145	Nico Kurz	7.75
146	Alex Spellman	7.5
146	Ben Robb	7.5
146	Bhav Patel	7.5
146	Darren Penhall	7.5
146	David Cameron	7.5
146	Haupai Puha	7.5
146	Lourence Ilagan	7.5
146	Man Lok Leung	7.5
146	Mikuru Suzuki	7.5
146	Norman Madhoo	7.5
146	Paolo Nebrida	7.5
146	Reynaldo Rivera	7.5
146	Sandro Eric Sosing	7.5
146	Simon Adams	7.5
146	Tomoya Goto	7.5
146	Wessel Nijman	7.5
146	Xiao Chen Zong	7.5