Updated 15:54, 05 Jan 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nDouble world champion Luke Littler tops the billing of the new Premier League roster(Image: Getty Images)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/button><\/p>\n
Jonny Clayton, the 2021 champion, Stephen Bunting, Josh Rock and Gerwyn Price have been named as the four wildcards for this year\u2019s BetMGM Premier League season.<\/p>\n
The quartet will join the top four automatic picks who are the top four in the order of merit \u2013 the new double world champion Luke Littler, who is world No 1, defending champion Luke Humphries, Gian van Veen and Michael van Gerwen. It means both van Veen, who put up a superb display but lost 7-1 to Littler in last Saturday\u2019s world final, and Northern Ireland\u2019s World Cup winner Rock will be both making their debuts in the competition.<\/p>\n
European Champion Van Veen catapulted himself up to World No 3 following his superb run at Alexandra Palace, which saw him overhaul van Gerwen to become the new Dutch number one. Van Gerwen is a seven-times Premier League champion.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Luke Littler set to lose over half of \u00a31m prize but can boost bank balance immediately<\/span><\/span>READ MORE: World Darts Championship star who failed drugs test officially stripped of tour card<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThe season lasts 17 weeks, with 16 weeks of league matches starting in Newcastle on Thursday February 5 before the final at The O2 in London on May 28.<\/p>\n
Fresh from his world championship glory at the Ally Pally, Littler will be looking to regain this crown after Humphries and him battled out the last two finals. In 2024, Littler beat Humphries 11-7 in the final and then 12 months later the positions were reversed. Humphries triumphed this time 11-8.<\/p>\n
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\nJonny Clayton is in the Premier League line-up(Image: (Photo by James Fearn\/Getty Images))<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/button><\/div>\n
Littler is determined to have another amazing year after his sensational win on Saturday night and while the Masters and the European Championships are the majors he has not win, he will be determined to go all the way again in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
Clayton, the world No 5, was the Premier League champion in 2021 as he beat Jose de Sousa 11-5 in the final in Milton Keynes. The sport\u2019s biggest names compete for a record \u00a3350,000 top prize.<\/p>\n
Rock inspired Northern Ireland to a maiden World Cup victory in June, while also featuring in a hat-trick of televised semi-finals at the UK Open, World Matchplay and World Series of Darts Finals.<\/p>\n
World number seven Bunting had a trophy-laden campaign that saw him claim six PDC titles, including World Series wins in Bahrain and Copenhagen, as well as European Tour successes in Riesa and Basel.<\/p>\n
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\nFan favourite Stephen Bunting will also mix it up with Littler and Co(Image: (Photo by James Fearn\/Getty Images))<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/button><\/div>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a fresh new look to this year\u2019s line-up, which I\u2019m sure will entertain our incredible crowds across the UK and Europe\u201d, said PDC Chief Executive Matt Porter. \u201cThe selection for this year\u2019s tournament was particularly difficult given the incredible standard of darts we\u2019ve seen over the last 12 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing on from a historic World Championship, we\u2019re determined to build on this momentum in 2026, and we\u2019re particularly looking forward to taking the BetMGM Premier League to Belgium for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll eight players boast considerable pedigree on the sport\u2019s biggest stages, and following record-breaking ticket sales for the 2026 season, this year\u2019s event promises to be a memorable one.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 16 nights of action will see each league night comprising quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final over the best of 11 legs.<\/p>\n
Points will be awarded each night to form the league table, from which the top four players will progress to Finals Night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The PDC have confirmed that Jonny Clayton and Stephen Bunting are among the four wildcards<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}