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This year, the PDC European Championship is again held in Dortmund, where 32 players compete. In this article, you will find all the essential information about the 2025 PDC European Championship.
Venue and Date
The 2025 European Championship (known as the Machineseeker European Championship) will be held between 23–26 October 2025 at the Westfalenhalle arena in Dortmund. This will be the fourth consecutive time that the city of Dortmund hosts the tournament.
Schedule
The darts European Championship will be held between 23 and 26 October, meaning the entire competition will be completed in four days.
- October 23, 2025 (Thursday) — Opening day, first round matches
- October 24, 2025 (Friday) — Round of 16
- October 25, 2025 (Saturday) — Quarterfinals, semifinals
- October 26, 2025 (Sunday) — Final match
Matches are held in two sessions, an afternoon and an evening programme, with the former starting at 1:00 PM and the latter at 7:00 PM.
Format
The European Championship is open to the 32 players who have qualified through the European Tour Order of Merit. The top 32 players on the European Tour Order of Merit compete against each other in a straight knockout format.
The match length varies as the tournament progresses: in the first round the winner must take 6 legs, in the second round 10, and in both the semi-finals and the final 11 legs are required to win.
- 1st round: 6 legs to win
- 2nd round (round of 16): 10 legs to win
- Quarter-final: 10 legs to win
- Semi-final: 11 legs to win
- Final: 11 legs to win
Total Prize Money and Prizes
The PDC has made great efforts in recent years to make darts popular not only in the United Kingdom but also across Europe. With the introduction of the European Tour series, the organisation has achieved this goal, as Germany has now become the second largest darts market after England.
The growing popularity is built on solid professional foundations, with the standard of ET events rising year on year, thanks to the biggest stars regularly competing in the tournaments.
Competing in the European Championship is also lucrative, with this year’s total prize pool reaching £600,000. Prize money is awarded from the qualifying stage onwards, with every player who qualifies for the event guaranteed to take home £7,500. The winner can pocket £120,000, while the runner-up will take home £60,000.
PDC Darts European Championship 2025 Prize Money
- 1st round: 7,500
- 2nd round: 15,000
- Quarter-final: 25,000
- Semi-final: 40,000
- Final: 60,000
- Winner: 120,000
What broadcasts the Darts European Championship?
The 2025 PDC Darts European Championship, held between October 23 and 26, is broadcast in Hungary on Sport Televízió.
Previous champions at the Darts European Championships
The PDC first held the European Championship in 2008, meaning 17 tournaments have been staged since then. The record champion is Dutch player Michael van Gerwen, who has reached the final five times and won it on four occasions.
The sport’s legend Phil Taylor is also a four-time winner at this tournament, and besides the two legends, Peter Wright and Rob Cross have also managed to win the European Championship more than once.
The defending champion is Englishman Ritchie Edhouse, who last year triumphed here as a massive surprise, a true underdog, however, for the first time in the tournament’s history, the reigning champion has failed to qualify for the European Championship.
- Michael van Gerwen: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
- Phil Taylor: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
- Peter Wright: 2020, 2023
- Rob Cross: 2019, 2021
Nine-darters at the Darts European Championship
In the tournament’s 17-year history, there have been four occasions on which a player has hit a perfect leg.
The first perfect leg was thrown by England’s Adrian Lewis in the 2011 semi-final against Raymond van Barneveld, while the last nine-darter was witnessed in 2020, when Portugal’s José de Sousa checked out 501 in nine darts against Jeffrey de Zwan in the first round.
- 2011, semi-final – Adrian Lewis (vs Barneveld)
- 2014, semi-final – Michael van Gerwen (vs Barneveld)
- 2017, semi-final – Kyle Anderson (vs Van Gerwen)
- 2020, round 1 – José de Sousa (vs de Zwan)
Highest averages at the Darts European Championship
Eight of the 10 highest average matches in the tournament’s history belong to Phil Taylor (5) and Michael van Gerwen (3), with Raymond van Barneveld and Jonny Clayton also making it into the top averages alongside the two legends.
- 118.14 Phil Taylor (vs Gary Anderson, 2009)
- 113.92 Phil Taylor (vs Mervyn King, 2008)
- 113.33 Phil Taylor (vs Robert Thorton, 2008)
- 113.04 Raymond van Barneveld (vs Terry Jenkins, 2012)
- 111.62 Michael van Gerwen (vs Mensur Suljovic, 2016)
Top favorites for the 2025 Darts European Championship
The tournament’s top seed will be England’s Nathan Aspinall, who finished first in the overall standings across this year’s 14 European Tour events. That said, it would be a massive upset if the world number 23 were to win this tournament, as his form this year has not been strong enough to make that a realistic prospect.
Since the 2023 Grand Slam of Darts, Luke Humphries and Luke Littler have been trading victories at the major tournaments.
A telling statistic: during this period, only four PDC major events were held that were not won by one of the two Lukes.
The bookmakers available in Hungary have not yet opened markets for the outright winner — once the odds are released, we will update this article.