World Grand Prix 2025 Qualifying Race Update: Peter Wright and Raymond van Barneveld among number of big names in trouble ahead of cut-off

The end of September is dominated by the qualifying race for the 2025 World Grand Prix. Who will manage to secure a starting spot for the iconic double-in double-out tournament?

This major tournament in Leicester from Oct. 6 to 12 consists of top-32. The top-16 in the world rankings and the 16 best Pro Tour players may compete in the World Grand Prix. The cut-off for the event is on Sunday, Sept. 28, and two more tournaments will be played until then.

The next tournament in the qualification race is the Hungarian Darts Trophy (Sept. 19-21) in Budapest and a week later the Swiss Darts Trophy (Sept. 26-28) in Basel. So after the Euro Tour tournament in Switzerland, we will know which 32 players will compete in the World Grand Prix.

In recent years, there were eight seeds at the World Grand Prix, but starting with the 2025 edition, the PDC has increased that number to 16. This is similar to the World Matchplay, for example. So the number one seed could face the number sixteen seed in the second round and so on.

Although there are still two tournaments to go prior to the cutoff, it is already certain that Luke Humphries will lead the seedings list. It could easily be one of Humphries' last major tournaments as world number one. His rival Luke Littler is now breathing down his neck and Humphries has a lot of prize money to defend in the coming months. Since Littler is the second seed, Humphries and Littler can not meet at the World Grand Prix until the final.

Michael van Gerwen enters the World Grand Prix as the third seed, and finds himself in Littler's half of the draw. Following him, Stephen Bunting, James Wade, Jonny Clayton, Gerwyn Price, Chris Dobey, Rob Cross, Damon Heta, Josh Rock, Gary Anderson, Ross Smith, Danny Noppert, and Dave Chisnall are all guaranteed participation in the tournament, although they must still wait to see what seeding they will ultimately receive.

Current world number fifteen Peter Wright is not yet certain of qualifying for the World Grand Prix. That is because 'Snakebite' cannot fall back on his Pro Tour ranking. Wright must therefore remain in the top-16 of the Order of Merit to qualify.

And the two-time world champion does not have much of a margin after his mediocre results in recent months. He is just £2,750 ahead of number sixteen Chisnall, who has the benefit of still being able to fall back on his Pro Tour position. So, Wright will mainly try to keep Martin Schindler and Gian van Veen behind him at the next two tournaments. They are £9,750 and £11,750 behind Wright, respectively.

The Scot must therefore hope that Schindler and Van Veen do not perform well on the next two Euro Tours. Should Wright miss out on the World Grand Prix, it would be the first time since 2012 that he has not competed in one of the biggest majors on the PDC calendar.

For now, Wessel Nijman is the only player who can start looking forward to a debut at the World Grand Prix. After a strong Pro Tour year, the Dutchman is virtually the number three player to qualify for the tournament in Leicester via the Pro Tour.

Currently, six Dutchmen are certain of a spot at the World Grand Prix. Michael van Gerwen and Danny Noppert through the world rankings, and in addition to Nijman, Gian van Veen, Jermaine Wattimena and Dirk van Duijvenbode through the Pro Tour rankings.

This list also includes defending champion Mike De Decker, who sensationally won the World Grand Prix in 2024 with victories over Damon Heta (2-1), Gary Anderson (3-0), James Wade (3-0), Dimitri van den Bergh (5-2) and Luke Humphries (6-4).

In 2018, six Dutchmen also previously competed in the World Grand Prix and that number is now matched, but one or two more Dutchmen could be added to the lineup. The two spots outside the virtual field of participants will be occupied by Niels Zonneveld and Raymond van Barneveld.

Zonneveld is £4,250 behind number sixteen William O'Connor, and Van Barneveld's deficit is £5,250. Of this trio, Van Barneveld has the only two tournaments left to scoop prize money as 'Barney' has qualified for both the Hungarian Darts Trophy and the Swiss Darts Trophy. However, the five-time world champion will need to reach the last sixteen at least once at one of these two tournaments to have a good chance of qualifying.

O'Connor and Zonneveld have only qualified for the Swiss Darts Trophy, the last tournament before the cutoff. They will first have to await Van Barneveld's performance at the Hungarian Darts Trophy to know where they stand a week later.

The World Grand Prix will start anyway without Michael Smith and Dimitri van den Bergh. The pair have fallen out of the top-16 of the world rankings and also have not posted enough good results on the Pro Tour.

For Smith, it is the first time since 2013 that he will not be there at the World Grand Prix. Van den Bergh competed consistently from 2019 through 2024 and still managed to reach the semifinals at the double-in double-out tournament in 2024.