The PDC will debut a new major ranking event in central Europe in 2027, the organisation’s chief executive has confirmed.

A press release from PDC Europe earlier this month teased ‘a new major tournament of the PDC in 2027’, which will feature qualifiers from PDC Europe Start, a new series of events being held in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Switzerland next year.

Speaking to the Weekly Dartscast last night, the PDC chief executive Matt Porter verified that the new major event will be added to the calendar next year and take place during the first half of 2027.

“There will be another premier event that will be staged in central Europe next year,” Porter said.

“I think it’s really good in terms of wanting to balance out the calendar. A lot of the major ranking events are towards the second half of the year.

“The Premier League makes it quite difficult to schedule things earlier on in the year, but this one’s not that early in the year, but it is earlier than the majority of the other ones.

“I think that’s fair (to hold the new major early in the year). You have to look away from just the top eight, 10 or 12 players and say what are the opportunities that are there for the rest of the tour card holders. They need to have opportunities away from just the floor events.”

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Porter also revealed a new location will be added to the European Tour in 2027, off the back of successful first events being held in Poland and Slovakia this year.

“We spoke to the promoter in Slovakia afterwards and he was very happy with how it went,” the PDC boss said.

“We’ve got another new one coming on (the calendar) for next year, which is exciting. We’ll just keep pushing it.”

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The PDC are lining up a ballot system for ticket sales for the upcoming 2026/27 PDC World Darts Championship, which will be the first to be held in the 5,000 capacity Great Hall at Alexandra Palace.

An extra 70,000 tickets have been made available for the sport’s most lucrative tournament, following the move from the West Hall to the Great Hall at the north London venue.

Tickets for the World Championship usually go on sale shortly after the World Matchplay, which concludes this weekend, but Porter confirmed sales for the Ally Pally showpiece will start later this year as the PDC fine tunes their plans behind the scenes.

“We’re looking at mid to late August,” Porter said. “We want to get it right and get the message right.

“We’ve talked about ballot systems. We’re looking at that (a ballot) to increase the chance for more people to get tickets.

“It’s our aim that as many people as possible get to go to the event and, by increasing the capacity and changing the way tickets are distributed, we should be able to do that.”

The PDC recently adopted a ballot system for ticket sales for this year’s Grand Slam of Darts, with several other big sporting events, such as Wimbledon, also operating a similar structure.

“It’s quite difficult logistically,” Porter continued. “We want to reward our (PDC annual) members and make sure they get priority, but also we don’t want to close the door on people coming into the system.

“There’s been a lot of work going on behind the scenes with our ticketing partners and our data warehouse partner.”

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Porter also confirmed there are no immediate plans to change the qualifying criteria for PDC major events, such as the Players Championship Finals.

World number one Luke Littler, who won the Players Championship Finals last year, has not competed in any Players Championship event so far in 2026, and has stated that he will not play in any of the remaining floor events for the rest of the season if he is unsuccessful in retaining the World Matchplay in Blackpool this week.

If Littler was to miss out on back-to-back World Matchplay titles, it would mean he would not qualify for this year’s Players Championship Finals, as the 64-player field is made up of the top 64 earners in Players Championship events during the season.

“Luke and the other 127 players know what the criteria is,” Porter said.

“He’s absolutely within his rights not to play in ProTour events, with the demands on him from a time perspective, and I kind of don’t blame him.

“Maybe you’d say play in a couple of early ones (Players Championships) and win some money and get through to Minehead, but it’s up to the player. If he doesn’t want to play that’s absolutely fine and the other players will probably be happy about that!”

Listen to the full interview with the PDC chief executive Matt Porter on this week’s episode of the Weekly Dartscast (OUT ON THURSDAY)

Pictures: PDC