PORTER CONFIRMS PREMIER LEAGUE FORMAT CHANGE

MATT PORTER admits the Premier League Darts format will be changed in the future.

The eight-player tournament operates on a knockout system, with each competitor facing off once in the quarter-finals during weeks 1-7 and again in weeks 9-15.

But fans have voiced frustration at seeing the same match-ups repeated throughout the event. 

PDC chief executive Porter insists the televised viewing figures still back the existing structure but accepts it will not last forever. 

He told the Metro: “We will change it at some point, but at the moment you can only look at the numbers that are in front of you.  

“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. 

“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. 

“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 revealed that Danny Noppert was the unluckiest player to miss out on a place in the Premier League. 

‘The Freeze’ reached the semi-final of four major competitions in 2025 but was still omitted.

Bunting was the most controversial selection, having finished bottom of the table in 2025 and failing to reach the last four at a Premier event. 

Porter added: “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. 

“Danny Noppert was 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.”

Image by Taylor Lanning.