All you need to know about the BetMGM Premier League Darts 2026 including the players, format and schedule.
The Premier League sees the world's best dart players go head-to-head over 17 nights of action from February to May every Thursday, with the annual tournament part of the PDC Darts schedule since its launch in 2005.
Luke Humphries returns as defending champion after he defeated Luke Littler in the final but the teenager will go into the competition as favourite after winning his second world title at the start of January.
World No 3 Gian van Veen will make his Premier League Darts debut and Michael van Gerwen is fourth in the PDC rankings, so claimed the last automatic spot with the top four on the Order of Merit guaranteed a place in the invitational series.
Jonny Clayton, Gerwyn Price, Josh Rock and Stephen Bunting were announced as the PDC's wild card picks to complete the eight-player line-up.
Matches take place every Thursday night from February 5 to May 28 and are played in different venues around the United Kingdom, Ireland and Europe, including Germany, the Netherlands and new for 2026, Antwerp in Belgium.
The series kicks off in Newcastle before finishing at the O2 Arena in London 17 weeks later with Finals Night.
Each Premier League night - since 2022 - has become a mini tournament where the eight players compete in four quarter-finals, with each of the players meeting once across the first seven weeks and then again from weeks nine to 15.
The winners progress to the semi-finals with the last four winners reaching the final, where the winner of the night will be declared.
Every match is best-of-11 legs and the winner gets five points, the runner-up three points and the two losing semi-finalists two points. The top four players on the Premier League table at the end of Night 16 in Sheffield will advance to the Play-Offs and Finals Night in London on May 28.
The player top of the table going into the final night of the season will play the fourth-placed player and the second-placed player takes on the man in third place, with the two semi-finals played over a best-of-19 legs.
The winner of those semi-finals will go head-to-head in the final later that evening, which is best-of-21 legs, with the first player to reach 11 legs then crowned Premier League champion.
As part of the PDC's prize money increase across the season, the 2026 Premier League champion will receive £350,000 - an increase of £75,000 compared to last year.
Each night's winner will be awarded a £10,000 bonus.
Phil Taylor won six of the first eight editions of the Premier League between 2005 and 2012, with James Wade (2009) and Gary Anderson (2011) the only players to stop "The Power" during that period.
Van Gerwen claimed the first of his record seven Premier League titles in 2013 and compatriot Raymond van Barneveld came out on top a year later, with Anderson claiming victory in 2015 ahead of Van Gerwen winning the next four editions.
Glen Durrant and Clayton were the Premier League champions in 2020 and 2021 respectively, with Van Gerwen winning back-to-back editions from 2022 before Littler's impressive breakthrough title - on his Premier League debut - in 2024 and Humphries triumphed in 2025.
Watch live darts throughout 2026 on Your Site including the Premier League every Thursday from February 5 to May 28.
