Biggest Losers from 2025 Premier League Line-up Announcement

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Yesterday the PDC and Sky Sports announced the 2025 BetMGM Premier League line-up which sees four guaranteed places based on Order of Merit ranking and then four wildcard places which are invitational and based on factors outside of just a players overall ranking.

The eight players who will participate in the 2025 Premier League are the following:

Luke Humphries
Luke Littler
Michael van Gerwen
Rob Cross
Stephen Bunting
Gerwyn Price
Chris Dobey
Nathan Aspinall

In every fan and pundit’s prediction, Luke Humphries, Luke Littler and MVG were considered to be ‘guarantees’. The fourth automatic position (based on the PDC Order of Merit ranking) was essentially going to whoever did enough at the World Championships to grab fourth place.

Despite a second round exit, A number of quarter-finals appearances throughout 2024 meant Rob Cross had done enough to secure his place.

Bunting, Price, Dobey and Aspinall are the wildcard selections this year and the four wildcard places are always those mostly debated by fans.

Personal favourites, form, ranking position and other factors always make it hard to agree on the eight players that deserve it the most.

PDC Chief Executive Matt Porter would even comment on why lower ranked players have made it to this year’s PDC on the back of a below-par 2024 campaign.

Where there are winners though, there are also losers. Players who missed out this year despite having a strong case for inclusion.

Below we take a look at some of the players who were unfortunate to miss out on selection this year.

5 Players Missing Out on the 2025 Premier League

Peter Wright

Peter Wright has been in the Premier League main roster since 2014. Michael van Gerwen is the only active player to hold a longer streak having started in 2013 (and now continuing again this year).

From a sentimental viewpoint, Wright is one of the biggest losers from this announcement but unfortunately, it was expected by most.

Wright has finished bottom of the Premier League for the previous two seasons and 2024 was a particularly bad year for Snakebite as he suffered several early round exits in major competitions.

A quarter-final run at the 2025 World Championships whilst knocking out reigning champion Luke Humphries in the process showed that Wright still has an elite level in the game and his ability to sell tickets to events can’t be ignored by the PDC.

Unfortunately his form just hasn’t been good enough to justify inclusion this year and unless we see a resurgence in major tournaments, it’s hard to see him finding a way back into the Premier League in future years.

Dave Chisnall

Seeing the discussions online, Chizzy was mentioned just as much as Stephen Bunting as a player that many fans felt deserved an inclusion.

He’s 6th in the Order of Merit (Bunting’s SF run was enough to leapfrog the St Helens man) and was excellent on the Tour winning a couple of European Championship titles alongside Players Championship titles.

He’s also one of darts most loved characters but the main issue Chizzy has been facing is that he’s not been performing on the televised stages.

He’s performing in front of huge crowds on the Euro Tour but for the televised majors, he doesn’t make deep enough runs. He’s still regarded as one of the best players to never win a PDC Major and despite being an ever present in the top 10, the lack of a title does seem to hold him back.

Bunting lifting The Masters early last year was the catalyst for his resurgence and you can’t shake the feeling that Chisnall needs the same to happen to him…

Dimitri Van den Bergh

On the PDC teaser announcement, everyone was convinced that the bottom right silhouette was Dimitri Van den Bergh in one of his signature dance move poses.

Reminder that the 2025 @BetMGMUK Premier League line-up is revealed tomorrow…

Who makes your eight? 👇 pic.twitter.com/CZ70mkm334
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) January 5, 2025

His 2024 season certainly could have justified an inclusion.

He won the UK Open, had semi-final finishes in The Masters, World Grand Prix and World Cup of Darts and a quarter-final finish at the World Matchplay.

That’s a year of consistent deep tournament runs and he’s a player that plays to the crowd and is what the pro players would refer to as a stage player.

Well suited to the Premier League.

A third round exit at the World Championship will have dented his appeal though where the likes of Dobey has put himself fresh in the mind of fans.

His name would have been firmly in the hat so he’s taken a hard loss to miss out.

Mike De Decker

After his World Grand Prix victory, Mike De Decker’s name became mentioned in Premier League talk almost overnight.

Luke Humphries commented on it (see here), he was in most fans’ predictions, and as another Belgian player like Van den Bergh, he has a growing European fanbase.

He’s also the first Grand Prix winner to not feature in the Premier League!

His name being left off was one of the biggest surprises as he went from a relative unknown to being an ideal candidate in the space of a few months.

Matt Porter would give more context on his missed out specifically though saying:

“Mike (De Decker) is an outstanding talent and is someone that undoubtedly we will see in Premier League Darts in the future. We didn’t feel he was quite ready.

“There’s a lot of tournaments throughout the year and winning one – we’ve seen players in the past I don’t want to embarass by naming them – but players like Danny Noppert, Ross Smith and Andrew Gilding that have won TV tournaments. But you have to show that you can compete in the latter stages of TV tournaments on a regular basis.

“Doing it once is fantastic and is something that you will always have but to really be part of the elite, you have to be doing it on a regular basis over multiple years.”

Michael Smith

This is arguably the least surprising exclusion but Bully Boy can be considered the biggest loser of this 2025 Premier League line-up.

Throughout most of 2024, Smith was ranked 2nd in the Order of Merit.

His 2023 World Championship alongside other major titles at the backend of 2022 gave him favourable seeding for most tournaments this year alongside selection for invitational events.

He won the World Cup of Darts for England with partner Luke Humphries and finished 4th in the 2024 Premier League securing his place in the Finals.

His downfall has been swift though. He’s now sitting joint 16th in the OoM and was eliminated in just his first match at the 2025 World Championship – literally the last thing he needed to happen 🤦

A strong argument could be made for his inclusion based on his 2024 Premier League campaign but like we say, no one is really surprised by his omission, disappointed would be a better word for Bully Boy fans.

He now has a monumental task of climbing his way back to the top be in an interview earlier this year, he said the pressure is off as he’s no longer “defending a king’s ransom” so only time can tell.