How would the PDC Order of Merit look with a points system?

At the moment, the Order of Merit is all about the money. Earnings dictate where players stand and, ultimately, if they can hold on to the PDC Tour Card. There has been some debate over whether this is the best way of judging performance. Rod Harrington quashed any suggestion of a change being made. But there have definitely been calls for change.

Here at dartsnews.com, we've taken it upon ourselves to project that change.

Read on to see how the PDC rankings would pan out with a points-based merit system.

The main challenge in working out a points system is allocating totals to each events - not managing the right balance could make one event disproportionately important, or unimportant. The prize money offers a decent guideline in this case.

Becoming the world champion would land 2000 points. Even attending the World Championship would secure 20. The World Matchplay, World Grand Prix and Grand Slam of Darts fall into a second category. Then come the Minehead events, the UK Open and Players Championship Finals, as well as the European Championship.

250 points would be the prize for claiming a European Tour event. Players would need to go deep into the competition to rack up serious points, rather than turning up and claiming a handy £1,000 of ranking money. As you'll see later, this does have an impact on the Order of Merit.

The Pro Tour ranking rewards board winners. with a sharp rise from the last 32 to the last 16, and again up to the quarter-finals.

We've opted to include the Challenge Tour in this projection. This is inspired by tennis' ranking system - just as players on the Challenger Tour can earn important ATP or WTA points, the Challenge Tour should give an opportunity for standout players to earn their way up the rankings.

The 'difference' column refers to the position on our Order of Merit, compared to the current PDC Order of Merit. For example, as Peter Wright is the current PDC world number five but would be our number three, Snakebite has +2 in the column.

The main takeaway from the results is that there isn't a huge impact at the top of the Order of Merit. Neither should there be; while it's not ideal to see players picking and choosing events without dropping down the rankings, performing at the big events is still the most important thing.

Most of the big movers are from the Challenge Tour. In fact, John Goldie and Karel Sedlacek are the only exceptions. Good performances on the Challenge Tour benefit the likes of Scott Taylor, Shaun Carroll and Callan Rydz. The latter also profits from a strong Players Championship performance at the weekend.

Looking further up the Order of Merit, a number of 2019's top performers get a well-deserved boost. Ricky Evans, Jeffrey de Zwaan, Krzysztof Ratajski and Glen Durrant are among the movers and shakers.

Kevin Burness, currently enjoying a Order of Merit position built off a solitary World Championship win, suffers the biggest drop. The same is true for Devon Petersen, who often profits from regular Ally Pally appearances.