Business End of Year Begins Now!!
This is the league table for who is defending what between now and the end of the worlds;
1 Michael van Gerwen Netherlands £821,000
2 Gary Anderson Scotland £243,500
3 Peter Wright Scotland £177,250
4 Raymond van Barneveld Netherlands £144,250
5 James Wade England £131,750
6 Mensur Suljovic Austria £125,000
7 Dave Chisnall England £124,000
8 Alan Norris England £109,000
9 Kim Huybrechts Belgium £85,750
10 Benito van de Pas Netherlands £82,000
11 Simon Whitlock Australia £80,500
12 Jelle Klaasen Netherlands £77,500
13 Phil Taylor England £75,500
14 Daryl Gurney Northern Ireland £74,000
15 Darren Webster England £62,000
16 James Wilson England £59,000
17 Ian White England £58,750
18 Brendan Dolan Northern Ireland £54,500
19 Joe Cullen England £54,000
20 Chris Dobey England £52,750
21 Gerwyn Price Wales £51,500
22 Adrian Lewis England £49,750
23 Michael Smith England £49,000
24 Stephen Bunting England £48,500
If you deducted the defending money from the players, the PDC OOM would look like this
1 - 1 Michael van Gerwen Netherlands £872,750
2 - 3 Rob Cross England £700,000
3 - 2 Peter Wright Scotland £569,500
4 - 4 Gary Anderson Scotland £379,500
5 - 5 Daryl Gurney Northern Ireland £364,750
6 - 6 Mensur Suljovic Austria £301,500
7 - 9 Michael Smith England £256,000
8 - 7 Simon Whitlock Australia £241,500
9 -12 Gerwyn Price Wales £216,000
10 - 13 Ian White England £204,250
11 - 14 Darren Webster England £197,250
12 - 8 Dave Chisnall England £184,750
13 - 16 Joe Cullen England £176,000
14 - 23 Johnny Clayton Wales £168,750
15 - 18 Adrian Lewis England £165,000
16 - 10 James Wade England £164,250
17 - 21 Mervyn King England £153,750
18 - 20 Stephen Bunting England £147,000
19 - 27 John Henderson Scotland £146,000
20 - 15 Kim Huybrechts Belgium £145,000
21 - 25 Steve Beaton England £136,000
22 - 26 Kyle Anderson Australia £134,750
23 - 11 Raymond van Barneveld Netherlands £131,750
24 - 24 Steve West England £131,000
A few others to mention are;
Chris Dobey, who's defending £56k out of £136k, Dimitri van den Bergh, defending £26k out of £113k Brendan Dolan defending £54k to of £11k, James Wilson defending £59k out of £156k, Cristo Reyes & Robert Thornton both defending £46k out of £146k.
The Rankings Majors we have coming up with prize pools are;
Grand Prix 30th September
Winner £100,000
Runner-up £45,000
Semi-finalist £23,500
Quarter-finalist £15,000
Second round losers £8,500
First round losers £5,000
European Championship 25th October
Winner £100,000
Final £40,000
Semi Final £20,000
Quarter Final £15,000
Last 16 £10,000
Last 32 £5,000
Grand Slam of Darts 11th Novemeber
Winner £110,000
Final £55,000
Semi Final £28,500
Quarter Final £16,000
Last 16 £10,000
Last 32 Group 3rd £5,000
Last 32 Group 4th £3,000
Group Winner Bonus £2,500
Players Championships 23rd Novemeber
Winner £100,000
Final £40,000
Semi Final £23,000
Quarter Final £12,500
Last 16 £8,000
Last 32 £5,000
Last 64 £2,500
As well as 6 more Player Championship Tournaments, and 4 more Euro Tour events.
As you would expect, most of the top players are gtd to be in all the majors, however a few worrying ommissions;
The Grand Prix: Currently Kyle Anderson, Jelle Klaasen, Benito van de Pas, and Dimitri van den Bergh are all some way off qualifying, Jamie Lewis and Vincent van der Voort are both under £1000 off sneaking in, Dimitri would need £10k minimum to get himself in.
The European Championships: The two biggest names that don't look likely to be turning up are Gary Anderson and Raymond van Barnevald. Gary makes a conscious decision not to play on the Euro Tour and you could argue it wouldn't take a schedule or more than 2-3 tournaments a yr to get himself there, RVB on the otherhand has failed at the qualification stage a few times and having nicked his way into 1 petered out early. Unlike Gary who's stronghold in the world top 10 is under little to no threat this year, Barney's place in the top 16 is at huge risk and not being in this tournament (especially having tried to qualify) is close to a disaster for him. Others who really should be there but aren't are; Jamie Lewis, Dimitri van den Bergh, Josh Payne and Krystof Ratajski. Jamie Lewis and Dimitri are both players who enjoy stage darts more than the floor, are young, motivated to travel and extremely talented, guys like Chris Dobey, Willie O'Connor, Luke Humphries are in the same boat and have managed to build secure themselves a place.
Grand Slam of Darts: One of the tougher ones to get yourself in, Barney is in on the grace of his World Cup win, Ian White, Mervyn King, Jeffrey de Zwaan and even old boy Mickey Mansell are in there, Corey Cadby is in there if he can get his visa issues fixed, Dimitri's world youth title gets him a gtd spot too. People currently missing though are; James Wade, Simon Whitlock, Dave Chisnall and Daryl Gurney - thats 4 of the top 10 in the world currently not in there, which is kinda crazy. Euro Tour, PPC win, or a Final in the Champs League, Grand Prix, World Series or Euros and some qualifers are the remaining chances, so wouldn't be surprised to see at least 2 of them sneak in. Others not in are; Adrian Lewis, Darren Webster, Kim Huybrechts and Joe Cullen.
Players Championships: Barney is the only high profile missing man from this, and he's miles off too, currently 117th on the Pro Tour OOM with £5500 in prize money, he'll need to add £28-30k at least to get himself in and that really takes a bit of doing, yet another ranking tournament he wont be in during a very tough period for him.
Then we have the yearly get out of jail card for someone....
World Championships 13th December.
Winner (1) £500,000
Runner-up (1) £200,000
Semi-finalist (2) £100,000
Quarter-finalist (4) £50,000
Fourth round losers (
£35,000
Third round losers (16) £25,000
Second round losers (32) £15,000
First round losers (32) £7,500
Everyone is in it, everyone gunning for it, and this is going to be the biggest ever, you need to reach the semis of the Grand Slam and Grand Prix combined to make as much as a 1/4 final here. Like Arbboy said, crazy weight on the worlds, but it can shoot guys in and out of the top 16, and the draw is crucial, with dangerous players all over the place no-one gtd an easy quarter final run any more!
This is my predicted post WC rankings;
1. MVG
2. Rob Cross
3. Peter Wright
4. Gary Anderson
5. Mensur Suljovic
6. Micheal Smith
7. Daryl Gurney
8. Simon Whitlock
9. Darren Webster
10. Ian White
11. Adrian Lewis
12. James Wade
13. Dave Chisnall
14. Gerwyn Price
15. Joe Cullen
16. Johny Clayton
Anyone else wanna post some guesses