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Professional Darts Corporation secondary tours
Semi-professional darts tournaments From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The PDC secondary tours are semi-professional darts tours organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) open to players without a PDC Tour Card. The three secondary tours operated by the PDC are the Challenge Tour, Development Tour and Women's Series. Each tour consists of a year-long series of knockout tournaments which each carry their own prize money. Like the PDC Pro Tour, each of the Secondary Tours maintains its own Order of Merit which ranks players according to their total prize money won in each calendar year.[1] Players at the top of their respective Orders of Merit are able to qualify for certain televised PDC major events such as the World Championship.[2][3] In the case of the Challenge and Development Tours, the top two eligible players win PDC Tour Cards for the following season, while players on all three tours can win free entry to the following season's Q-School (the qualifying tournament for a Tour Card) by achieving a high rank.[4][5]
In addition to the three secondary tours, the PDC also sanctions several Affiliate Tours, which are largely operated in regions outside of the British Isles by local organisations. The Affiliate Tours have a similar structure to the secondary tours and some offer qualification to televised tournaments.[1][6] However, these qualification opportunities are fewer than those offered to the secondary tours and none offer Tour Cards.[4][6]
Several PDC major winners have participated in the secondary tours, including World Champions Michael van Gerwen, Rob Cross and Luke Humphries who won secondary tours prior to their World Championship successes.[7][8] Many winners of televised women's darts tournaments have won Women's Series events, including multiple-time BDO Women's World Darts Championship winners Trina Gulliver, Lisa Ashton and Mikuru Suzuki and the reigning and three-time WDF Women's World Darts Champion, Beau Greaves.[9][10] In February 2025, Beau Greaves became the only player to have led all three secondary tours at the same time.[11]
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Challenge Tour
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The PDC Challenge Tour, currently known as the PDC Winmau Challenge Tour for sponsorship reasons, is open to all players who attended that season's Q-School but failed to win a Tour Card. The Challenge Tour maintains an Order of Merit which tracks the prize money won across all tournaments in a calendar year, with the Challenge Tour winner being the player that wins the most money.[1] Both the Challenge Tour winner and runner-up receive Tour Cards for the following season, while players ranked 3-16 qualify automatically to the final stage of Q-School and are exempt from paying an entry fee.[4][5]
Four PDC majors offer places to Challenge Tour players. The Challenge Tour winner receives an invitation to the Grand Slam of Darts, while the top three players receive invitations to the World Championship.[6][13] Additionally, the UK Open and the preliminary stage of the World Masters offers places to the top eight players from the previous season's Challenge Tour who do not have a Tour Card by the time the competition is held.[1]
Currently, the tour consists of 24 events, rising from 16 events in 2014, the year the Tour was founded.[14] The first winner of a Challenge Tour tournament was Jamie Robinson, who beat Matthew Edgar 5–4 in the final of the first event.[15] In 2016, Rob Cross became the first future PDC World Champion to win a Challenge Tour event, though former BDO World Champion and PDC World Matchplay runner-up Richie Burnett won an event in 2015.[16][17] Luke Humphries, Nathan Aspinall and Ritchie Edhouse have all won Challenge Tour events before winning PDC titles. Additionally, BDO World Champion Scott Mitchell, PDC World Championship runners-up Kirk Shepherd and Andy Hamilton and PDC World Cup winner John Henderson all won Challenge Tour titles in the later years of their careers while no longer holding PDC Tour Cards.[14] In 2024, Noa-Lynn van Leuven became the first woman to win a Challenge Tour event, while Beau Greaves became the first woman to win multiple Challenge Tour events in 2025.[18][19]
- In 2021, COVID-19 restrictions meant the PDC split the Challenge Tour into UK and European tours, each with 12 events rather than the planned 24 for the regular tour.[20]
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Development Tour
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The PDC Development Tour, currently known as the PDC Winmau Development Tour for sponsorship reasons, is open to all players over the age of 16 who were aged under 24 the day after the previous season's World Championship.[1] In contrast to the Challenge Tour, Tour Card holders are eligible to play in Development Tour events if they are ranked outside the top 64 in the PDC Order of Merit. Additionally, there is no requirement for players to have played in the previous season's Q-School.[1]
Like the Challenge Tour, the top two Development Tour players at the end of the season receive Tour Cards for the following season, while players ranked 3-16 receive free entry to the final stage of Q-School.[4][5] The Development Tour offers the same qualification routes to television tournaments as the Challenge Tour, with the top-ranked player qualifying for the Grand Slam, the three best players qualifying for the World Championship and the eight best players that do not gain new Tour Cards over the winter qualifying for the next season's UK Open and the preliminary stage of the World Masters.[1][6][13] Additionally, once invitational and eligible Tour Card holder places have been filled, the Development Tour Order of Merit is used to fill the remaining spaces at the PDC World Youth Championship.[1]
The tour was founded in 2011 as the PDC Youth Tour and was briefly named the PDC Challenge Tour in the 2013 season, before becoming the Development Tour in 2015.[22] The first winner of a Development (then Youth) Tour event was Adam Hunt, who beat Josh Jones 4–2 in the final of the first event in 2011.[23] Michael van Gerwen won four titles and the Order of Merit in the inaugural season, and later went on to become one of the most successful players of all time.[24][25] In 2012, Michael Smith became the next Youth Tour event winner who would go on to become a PDC World Champion, followed by Luke Humphries in 2017 and Luke Littler in 2023.[26][27][28] Other PDC major winners that won events on the Development Tour before winning senior major titles are Joe Cullen, Dimitri Van den Bergh, Mike De Decker and Josh Rock.[29]
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Women's Series
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The PDC Women's Series is open to all female players over the age of 16. Like the Development Tour, female Tour Card holders are eligible to play so long as they are outside the top 64 of the PDC Order of Merit. Unlike the Challenge Tour and Development Tour, no Tour Cards are awarded to the best performers of the Women's Series, though the top eight players are invited to the first stage of Q-School and are exempt from the entry fee.[5]
Like the other secondary tours, the winner of the Women's Series qualifies for the Grand Slam of Darts.[13] Eight players qualify for the Women's World Matchplay, the PDC's only all-female televised tournament, through a separate Order of Merit tracking money won on the Women's Series in an approximately 12-month period prior to the event, which traditionally occurs in July.[1] The three players at the top of Women's Series Order of Merit (excluding the Women's World Matchplay Champion) qualify to the World Championship, guaranteeing that at least four places in the tournament are occupied by women.[2] Additionally, the top 8 players without Tour Cards qualify to the preliminary stages of the next season's World Masters.[1]
The Women's Series was founded in 2020 as a mini-tour of four events to determine the two female qualifiers for the World Championship, replacing the previous women's qualifier.[31] This occurred at the same time as the demise of the British Darts Organisation, which previously organised the majority of women's darts events.[32] The Women's Series became a full Tour in 2021, expanding to 12 events in two locations (though three were originally planned).[33] It further expanded to 20 events in 2022 and its current 24 events in 2023.[34][35]
Initially, Lisa Ashton and Fallon Sherrock dominated the Women's Series, winning all but two of the 2020 and 2021 events between them, with Deta Hedman and Mikuru Suzuki winning the other two events.[36][37] However, after starting to participate midway through the 2022 season, Beau Greaves has dominated the Women's Series. Despite missing the first 12 events in 2022, Greaves won all eight remaining events to qualify for the 2023 World Championship.[9][38] In 2023, Greaves won half the events, a feat which she is on track to repeat in 2025.[39][40] In 2024, Noa-Lynn van Leuven challenged the Greaves-Ashton-Sherrock triumvirate, becoming the first transgender player to win Women's Series events, collecting four titles and qualifying for the World Championship.[41][42] Other than Greaves, Sherrock, Ashton and van Leuven, Mikuru Suzuki, Gemma Hayter and Robyn Byrne are the only players to win multiple Women's Series titles.[43][44][45]
| Qualified for World Championship and Grand Slam of Darts |
| Qualified for World Championship only |
| Qualified for Grand Slam of Darts only |
- In 2021, Grand Slam qualification was awarded to the players that earned the most ranking money from Women's Series events 1-6 and 7-12. Fallon Sherrock led both, so the second spot was awarded to Lisa Ashton, the second-highest earner during events 7-12.[46] [47]
- In 2023 and 2024, a PDC ruling meant that players could not compete in both the PDC and WDF World Championships. Beau Greaves forfeited her PDC World Championship qualification to defend her WDF Women's World Championship title. Her place was awarded to the third-placed qualifier.[48]
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Affiliate Tours
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The Affiliate Tours are mostly regional tours sanctioned, but not directly run by, the PDC. With the exception of the Junior Darts Corporation, an organisation offering multiple tours for players under the age of 18, most share the format of the secondary tours, where multiple knockout tournaments are held through the year and prize money won contributes to a single Order of Merit.[49] The Next-Gen Europe tour differs slightly, offering prize money both for the stage reached in a tournament and performance-based bonus money for high scores, high checkouts and short legs, as well as including format changes such as group stages and master-out play.[50] Alongside their tours, some PDC affiliates also organise standalone affiliate events, which are often televised in their region.
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References
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