The PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) ProTour is a series of tournaments held on the professional darts circuit and is made up of Players Championship and European Tour events. Prize money won in ProTour events counts towards the ProTour rankings, which is a one-year rolling ranking system that is used to determine qualifiers for European Tour events, as well as several major tournaments such as the PDC World Darts Championship, World Matchplay and World Grand Prix.

All of these competitions are non-televised but are streamed on the PDC’s own streaming service PDC TV. Players Championship events are held behind closed doors with no tickets available for fans to watch in person, whilst the European Tour tournaments are staged in front of large crowds, often bigger than a lot of the televised tournaments, and generate some of the best atmospheres on the darting calendar.

The ProTour is a shortened version of Professional Tour and its name comes from its stature in the world of darts. The ProTour is the main circuit for professional darts players to compete on, with it being open to players who have a PDC tour card. There are only 128 active PDC tour card holders, which is where the majority of the Players Championship and European Tour fields comes from, along with a small number of qualifiers and top-up players from the Challenge Tour.

The PDC ProTour forms the bulk of tournaments on the PDC calendar. In 2025, the ProTour expanded to 34 Players Championship events and 14 European Tour events. For many professional players, the ProTour is their main source of income from tournaments, with all 128 PDC tour card holders having automatic entry into every Players Championship event.

The PDC launched the ProTour in 2002 with the introduction of several UK Open Regional Qualifiers to the calendar. The next year saw the first Players Championship held in Blackpool, with the legendary Phil Taylor claiming the title. In 2011, the PDC introduced a tour card system for the ProTour, with the 128 players with tour card status eligible to participate in Players Championship events.

The following year saw the birth of the European Tour, a series of tournaments held on stages and offering players valuable experience playing in front of the cameras and big crowds. Justin Pipe was the first player to win a European Tour title, beating James Wade 6-3 to claim the Austrian Darts Open crown. Over the next two decades, the PDC ProTour has continued to grow with the 2025 season featuring no fewer than 48 events during the season.

The PDC ProTour affects the world rankings with all prize money won counting towards the PDC Order of Merit (known for sponsorship reasons as the Werner Rankings Ladder). In 2025, the ProTour boasts a total prize pot of £6.7 million, which is made up of £4.25 million from Players Championship events and £2.45 million from European Tour events.

Whilst the major televised tournaments like the PDC World Darts Championship (£5 million) and World Matchplay (£800,000) boast their own large prize funds, money won solely from ProTour events can have a big impact on the world rankings. For example, Germany’s Martin Schindler (pictured above) is on the cusp of the world’s top 16 and more than 60% of the money on his ranking has been won in Players Championship and European Tour events.

There are multiple ways players can qualify to compete on the PDC ProTour, with the main route being as an active PDC tour card holder. A tour card guarantees entry to every Players Championship event, whilst tour card holders make up the majority of the 48-player field for all of the European Tour events.

There are several ways to become a PDC tour card holder with the traditional route via Qualifying School (also known as Q-School). This is a competition held once a year and has a number of tour cards up for grabs. Alternative routes to gaining a tour card after Q-School is through the Challenge Tour or Development Tour, which are the PDC’s secondary tours and offer tour cards to the top two players on their rankings at the end of each season.

There are also a small number of spots available for non tour card holders in ProTour events. If a tour card holder does not enter a Players Championship event, their place in the field is taken up by a player from the Challenge Tour. In European Tour events, six spots are reserved for qualifiers including four host nation qualifiers, a Nordic & Baltic qualifier and an East European qualifier.

Find out more about Q-School and the various routes to earn a tour card by reading our ‘How To Become A Darts Pro’ blog.

The Players Championships are a series of events held each year on the ProTour and are sometimes referred to as ‘floor tournaments’. Players Championships are held behind closed doors and away from the bright lights of the big stage and the crowds, which is where the ‘floor’ name comes from. Matches are played in almost complete silence, with each tournament played over 16 boards. Four of these boards are streamed on PDC TV and the scores of every match can also be followed live and for free on DartConnect.

Every Players Championship is made up of 128 players, which are the 128 active PDC tour card holders. However, if a tour card holder decides not to enter a Players Championship, their spot is handed to a top-up player from the Challenge Tour. The Challenge Tour rankings are used as a reserve list to ensure each tournament has a full quota of 128 players.

The Players Championships have their own end of season finale called the Players Championship Finals. This is a three-day major televised tournament held at Butlin’s Minehead at the end of November and its 64-player field is based solely on the top 64 earners from the Players Championship events held during the season.

The European Tour is a series of tournaments staged each year on the ProTour and are played on stages in front of big crowds around Europe. All of these events are streamed on PDC TV and are made up of 48 players - including the world’s top 16 ranked players, the next top 16 players from the ProTour rankings, 10 PDC tour card holder qualifiers, four host nation qualifiers, a Nordic & Baltic qualifier and an East European qualifier.

In 2025, seven of the record 14 European Tour events will be held in Germany, along with two events in Belgium, and an event in Austria, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Switzerland. The PDC have announced a further expansion to the European Tour next year, with the addition of a tournament in both Poland and Slovakia.

The European Tour has its own end of season finale called the European Championship. This is a four-day major televised tournament held in Germany at the end of October and its 32-player field is based solely on the top 32 earners from the European Tour events held throughout the year.

The top 32 players on the ProTour rankings are seeded in Players Championship events, with the remaining 96 players randomly drawn into the draw bracket. For European Tour tournaments, the top 16 players on the PDC Order of Merit are seeded and receive byes into the second round (last 32). The rest of the draw bracket is drawn at random, but with the 16 ProTour qualifiers being drawn against the 16 qualifiers in the first round.

Here is a breakdown of the PDC ProTour’s current format:-

Players Championships

• · Round 1 (last 128) - best of 11 legs
• · Round 2 (last 64) - best of 11 legs
• · Round 3 (last 32) - best of 11 legs
• · Round 4 (last 16) - best of 11 legs
• · Quarter-finals - best of 11 legs
• · Semi-finals - best of 13 legs
• · Final - best of 15 legs

European Tour

• · Round 1 (last 48) - best of 11 legs
• · Round 2 (last 32) - best of 11 legs
• · Round 3 (last 16) - best of 11 legs
• · Quarter-finals - best of 11 legs
• · Semi-finals - best of 13 legs
• · Final - best of 15 legs

The prize money on the PDC ProTour has enjoyed a healthy rise over the years. In its inaugural year in 2002, tournaments on the ProTour had a prize fund of £12,000 each. Fast forward to 2025 and every European Tour event boasts a prize pot of £175,000 and all of the Players Championships offer £125,000 each in prize money.

Below is the PDC ProTour darts prize money breakdown for 2025:-

Players Championships

• · Winner - £15,000
• · Runner-up - £10,000
• · Semi-finalists - £5,000
• · Quarter-finalists - £3,500
• · Round 4 (last 16) - £2,500
• · Round 3 (last 32) - £1,500
• · Round 2 (last 64) - £1,000

European Tour

• · Winner - £30,000
• · Runner-up - £12,000
• · Semi-finalists - £8,500
• · Quarter-finalists - £6,000
• · Round 3 (last 16) - £4,000
• · Round 2 (last 32) - £2,500
• · Round 1 (last 48) - £1,250

Michael van Gerwen (pictured above) holds the record for the most PDC ProTour title wins with 90 tournament victories. The Dutchman’s most recent title came at the German Darts Grand Prix in April 2025 when he beat his compatriot Gian van Veen 8-5 in the final.

Van Gerwen passed Phil Taylor’s record of ProTour titles after winning a Players Championship title in February 2019. ‘Mighty Mike’ defeated Ian White in the final to claim his 71st ProTour tournament success, moving him clear of Phil Taylor’s haul of 70 titles.

Gary Anderson is third on the all-time list of ProTour victories with 38 titles to his name. The Scot’s last triumph on the ProTour was in the European Darts Grand Prix in May 2025.

The 2025 PDC ProTour is the biggest in the organisation’s history with a record 34 Players Championships and 14 European Tour events being held throughout the year. The ProTour this year has already provided plenty of entertainment for darts fans as well as some landmark moments for players in their professional careers.

As of September 2025, five players have won their maiden PDC senior titles on the ProTour this year. The reigning PDC world youth champion Gian van Veen opened his account with a victory in Players Championship 6 in March, before a flurry of first-time winners followed over the summer as Bradley Brooks, Sebastian Bialecki, Jermaine Wattimena and Jeffrey de Graaf all claimed their first titles in Players Championships 21-24.

It has also been a memorable year of European Tour action, with Premier League stars Nathan Aspinall and Stephen Bunting both winning their first European Tour titles in 2025. Aspinall won the European Darts Trophy, before doubling up with a victory in the European Darts Open, whilst Bunting lifted the International Darts Open, beating Aspinall in the final.

The 2025 PDC ProTour is set for an exciting conclusion as players bid to secure their spots in lucrative tournaments such as the PDC World Darts Championship, European Championship and Players Championship Finals. Next year will see the ProTour increase again, with the European Tour set to expand from 14 to 15 events and enter new territories with first visits to Poland and Slovakia on the calendar for 2026.

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Pictures: PDC/ Johannes Michel/ Paul Targyik/Jan Thoden/PDC Europe