PDC Order of Merit

The PDC Order of Merit is a world ranking system used by one of the darts organisations, the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). Following the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship it superseded a world ranking system based on points being awarded for performances in ranking tournaments.

How it works

The Order of Merit is similar to that employed in golf's European Tour. Prize money won during the previous two seasons is calculated and the rankings are determined from this money list. The Professional Darts Corporation adopted an Order of Merit system in 2007, which is based on prize money won over two years for the main Order of Merit and separate one-year rankings for other PDC Pro Tour events.

PDC Top 32 Order of Merit

Template:PDC Order of Merit

PDC ProTour Order of Merit

The ProTour Order of Merit counts prize money won in Players Championship events, UK Open Qualifiers and European Tour events over a 12-month period. Players are seeded based on the ProTour Order of Merit to all Player Championship and European Tour events. It also is a main way to qualify to the major TV tournaments.

The top 16 players in the ProTour Order of Merit not already qualified gain entry to the World Grand Prix.
The top 16 players in the ProTour Order of Merit not already qualified gain entry to the World Matchplay.
The top 32 players in the ProTour Order of Merit not already qualified gain entry to the World Championship.

Besides ProTour Order of Merit there is also the Players Championship Order of Merit and the European Tour Order of Merit. Both of these are based solely on the prize money won in that year's Players Championship or European Tour events respectively. The top 64 players on the Players Championship Order of Merit after the last Player Championship event are the only qualifiers to the Players Championship Finals. The top 32 players on the European Tour Order of Merit after the last European Tour event are the only qualifiers to the European Championship.

Player exemptions

The PDC rankings determine exemptions from the qualifying competitions from each major event:

The top 16 in early July get an automatic entry to the first round of the World Matchplay (as a seeded player).
The top 16 in late September get an automatic entry to the first round of the World Grand Prix (top-8 as seeded players).
The top 32 in early December get an automatic entry to the first round of the World Championship (as a seeded player).
The top 4 after the World Championship get an automatic entry to the Premier League.

Televised Ranking Tournaments

There is often a lot of confusion with televised tournaments and knowing which ones count towards the PDC Order of Merit. While a lot of televised tournaments are ranked, some are not, usually due to the tournament in question having restricted places e.g. Premier League.

Ranked Tournaments

World Championship
UK Open
World Matchplay
European Championship (and associated European Tour events)
World Grand Prix
Grand Slam of Darts ^[1]
Players Championship Finals (and associated Players Championships events)

European Tour (Ranked)

Un-ranked Tournaments

World Series of Darts (Un-ranked)

German Darts Masters
U.S. Darts Masters
Shanghai Darts Masters
Auckland Darts Masters
Melbourne Darts Masters
Brisbane Darts Masters
World Series of Darts Finals

Pairs Tournaments (Un-ranked)

World Cup of Darts

Note: Flags are of the nation in which the 2018 event is held.

Previous world ranking system

Under the previous ranking points system, Colin Lloyd was the world number one player in the PDC for most of 2005 and 2006, despite most of the major titles being shared between Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld and John Part. Although Lloyd also won two major titles, he often accumulated ranking points in the less prestigious non-televised events, in which Taylor did not always compete. Similarly, Alan Warriner was world number one on four separate occasions before ever winning his first and only PDC major, the 2001 Grand Prix, while Taylor won eight world championships and a host of other titles during that period.

Previous World Number Ones

Player	Year(s) in which player stood #1
Phil Taylor	1996, 2000, 2002-2004, 2009-2013 (13)
Alan Warriner	1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002 (6)
Rod Harrington	1995, 1996, 1998–2000 (5)
Michael van Gerwen	2014–present (5)
Colin Lloyd	2005–2007 (3)
Dennis Priestley	1994, 1995 (2)
Peter Manley	2000, 2001 (2)
Raymond van Barneveld	2008 (1)
John Part	2003 (1)

Periods

^[4]

No.	Nationality	Player(s)	From	To
1	England	Alan Warriner	January 1993	November 1994
2	England	Dennis Priestley	November 1994	April 1995
3	England	Rod Harrington	April 1995	August 1996
4	England	Phil Taylor	August 1996	September 1996
	England	Alan Warriner (2)	September 1996	August 1998
	England	Rod Harrington (2)	August 1998	August 2000
	England	Phil Taylor (2)	August 2000	September 2000
5	England	Peter Manley	September 2000	October 2001
	England	Alan Warriner (3)	October 2001	January 2002
	England	Alan Warriner (4) and Phil Taylor (3)	January 2002	February 2002
	England	Alan Warriner (5)	February 2002	May 2002
	England	Phil Taylor (4)	May 2002	January 2003
6	Canada	John Part	January 2003	July 2003
	England	Phil Taylor (5)	July 2003	February 2005
7	England	Colin Lloyd	February 2005	March 2006
	England	Phil Taylor (6)	March 2006	May 2006
	England	Colin Lloyd (2)	May 2006	January 2007
	England	Phil Taylor (7)	January 2007	January 2008
8	Netherlands	Raymond van Barneveld	January 2008	June 2008
	England	Phil Taylor (8)	June 2008	January 2014
9	Netherlands	Michael van Gerwen	January 2014	Present

Key

	Current number-one player
	Used old points system

Post World Championship number ones

Year	Nationality	Player(s)
1994	England	Alan Warriner (1)
1995	England	Dennis Priestley (2)
1996	England	Rod Harrington (3)
1997	England	Alan Warriner
1998	England	Alan Warriner
1999	England	Rod Harrington
2000	England	Rod Harrington
2001	England	Peter Manley
2002	England	Alan Warriner and Phil Taylor (4)
2003	Canada	John Part (5)
2004	England	Phil Taylor
2005	England	Phil Taylor
2006	England	Phil Taylor
2007	England	Phil Taylor
2008	Netherlands	Raymond van Barneveld (6)
2009	England	Phil Taylor
2010	England	Phil Taylor
2011	England	Phil Taylor
2012	England	Phil Taylor
2013	England	Phil Taylor
2014	Netherlands	Michael van Gerwen (7)
2015	Netherlands	Michael van Gerwen
2016	Netherlands	Michael van Gerwen
2017	Netherlands	Michael van Gerwen
2018	Netherlands	Michael van Gerwen

First WDC/PDC rankings

Following the World Darts Council (now PDC) split from the British Darts Organisation during 1992-94 the WDC drew up its first ranking list in the run-up to its inaugural 1994 World Championship. Mike Gregory and Chris Johns later went back to the BDO set up and Bobby George and many of the non-UK players never competed in the early days of the WDC.^{[citation needed]}

Ranking	Player	Ranking	Player
1	Alan Warriner	16	Jann Hoffmann
2	Rod Harrington	=	Chris Johns
3	Phil Taylor	=	Roland Scholten
4	John Lowe	19	Raymond van Barneveld
5	Mike Gregory	=	Keith Deller
6	Peter Evison	21	Bobby George
7	Kevin Spiolek	22	Per Skau
=	Dennis Priestley	23	Bernd Hebecker
9	Bob Anderson	=	Andree Welge
10	Jocky Wilson	=	Pascal Rabau
11	Jamie Harvey	26	Leo Laurens
12	Eric Bristow	=	Bert Vlaardingerbroek
13	Cliff Lazarenko	=	Tom Kirby
14	Magnus Caris	=	Wayne Weening
=	Steve Beaton	=	Mauro Levy

References

^ "2015 Grand Slam of Darts becomes a ranked tournament". PDC. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
^ "2015 Masters held in Milton Keynes". PDC. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
^ "Champions League of Darts: BBC to broadcast inaugural tournament". BBC. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
^ "List of Former World Number Ones". PDPA. Retrieved 7 May 2016.

External links

Official PDC Order of Merit

[1] "2015 Grand Slam of Darts becomes a ranked tournament". PDC. Retrieved 16 January 2015.

[2] "2015 Masters held in Milton Keynes". PDC. Retrieved 16 January 2015.

[3] "Champions League of Darts: BBC to broadcast inaugural tournament". BBC. Retrieved 9 February 2016.

[4] "List of Former World Number Ones". PDPA. Retrieved 7 May 2016.

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