Stats and facts around the PDC expansion in 2027!
The PDC Calendar coming out is always an exciting experience as a darts fan, with something new and fresh allowing the sport to grow at the rate that’s necessary with the increasing fanbase, as well as the strength in depth away from the United Kingdom.
The biggest change for most will be the introduction of a brand-new major tournament for the first time since the inaugural Champions League of Darts in 2016!
While it will mimic the format of the UK Open, the use of European amateur qualifiers certainly adds a new kink to the tour.
It has already been confirmed that eight of the amateur qualifiers will come from the new ‘PDC Europe Start’ system, allowing players from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein to not only qualify for the PDC Europe Super League, but also this new major tournament.
However, this all that’s known at the moment.
The UK Open historically has 16 amateur qualifiers, so there’s a chance of the remaining eight at the European Open will come from other nations across Europe.
Regions such as the Scandinavia and Eastern Europe have qualifiers for European Tours, while Poland, Czechia, Netherlands/Belgium, Hungary and the Mediterranean all have spots at the World Championships.
These all may prove to be viable routes to the 2027 European Open.
The event will be hosted in Salzburg, Austria across the 18th-20th June, the weekend after the World Cup of Darts in Frankfurt.
Furthermore, the European Tour will visit France for the first time, with the event to be hosted in Lievin towards the end of March.
This is joined by the first European Tour event in Ghent, Belgium, while Antwerp and Wieze lose their spots. This is accompanied by an increased prize pool for the tour.
Continuing the topic of the European Tour, there will also be major changes coming to the European Championship in 2027. The seasonal finals for the European Tour will remain in Dortmund at the end of October, but the event has increased from four to six days.
This is due to the field of qualifiers being extended from 32 to 48, with the top sixteen getting byes into the second round. This is also accompanied with a prize money increase, with the event rising from a total prize pool of £750k to £1 million.
This change will massively favour the players grinding through the Tour Card qualifiers throughout the year, facilitating a lot more of them to reach Dortmund.
As it stands in 2026, there are only two players in a spot for the European Championships that are mainly qualifying through the Tour Card qualifiers – Cristo Reyes and Kim Huybrechts.
With the extension of the event, this number would increase to 13, along with chances for the players who find their ways through host nation qualifiers on regular occasions.
This would also facilitate for a much more exciting race to the European Championship. There are often big gaps between 32nd and 35th on the European Tour due to 32 players automatically qualifying for every tournament, however the gaps are much smaller around the #48 mark.
Anyone would be able to make Dortmund down to a run in the final event!
The European Championships however is not the only major tournament with a big change up in the format. The final event before the World Championships – the Players Championship Finals – will also see a major change in 2027.
The event will extend from 64 players to 128, while maintaining its three-day weekend format. This results in an eight-board multi-system being necessary for a third time in the year, joining the UK Open and European Open.
The increase means that almost all Tour Card holders will qualify for the event, with the 2026 standings having 115 of them in the top 128, joined by thirteen top-up players from the Challenge Tour.
Altogether, this means a lot more experience in major tournaments as a Tour Card Holder, drastically increasing the value of winning one at Q-School in January.
The final big changes come to the secondary tours.
Both the Challenge Tour and the Development Tour will get a big of a reshuffle in 2027, with the number of events dropping from 24 to 18. This is because there will now be just one event per-day, no more back-to-back events on Friday’s and Saturday’s.
Reasons behind this weren’t specified by the PDC, but it’s likely a combination of increased entries over recent years, as well as the rumoured streaming of the events coming next year across PDC.tv and DAZN.
As a result, events have been increased to a total of £30k prize money from the £20k last year, and the £15k in 2025, as well as prize money being paid out from the Last 128, a round earlier than previous years.
The World Series of Darts schedule is yet to be released by the PDC, with Matt Porter hoping to confirm it by the end of November.
Images: PDC
