PDC Stats Analyst Christopher Kempf ranks PDC players according to the calibre of opponents in matches won and lost...
The Holistic Order of Merit Enhanced Ranking (HOMER) is a ranking system devised to measure and account for important factors in the game of darts:
1. Players receive ranking points for winning any PDC ranking match (including qualifiers for those events), and always receive 0 points for losing a match.
2. The base number of ranking points available to the winner of a ranking match doubles with each successive round of the tournament.
3. The final of the World Championship has twice the ranking impact of the final of any of the other six TV ranking events, four times the impact of any European Tour event final, and eight times the ranking impact of any Players Championship final.
4. Ranking points are totaled over the span of one year, with matches losing 1/365 (0.27%) of their ranking impact for each day prior to the present day. For example, a match occurring 6 months ago will have 1/2 the ranking impact of the same match occurring today.
5. Players earn ranking bonuses for defeating players ahead of them on the Order of Merit, with a minimal bonus for defeating a player one rank above up to a maximum of double ranking impact for any player who defeats the world #1.
Michael van Gerwen's victory over Gerwyn Price to claim his third Betfred World Matchplay title proved to be the decisive factor in reclaiming the number one spot in the Power Rankings.
Van Gerwen’s victory in last Sunday’s showpiece pushes him ahead of Luke Humphries and Michael Smith to set his highest points total - 1698 - in the HOMER system of 2022.
Claiming not only the 256 points on offer to the World Matchplay champion, MvG also received a hefty 189-point bonus by defeating the world number one in the final, in arguably the second most important match on the darts calendar.
Without those points, MvG would have remained third in the rankings, behind Michael Smith, whose high total was earned through Pro Tour titles and runner-up finishes in TV events.
The other big points bonus in Blackpool was awarded to Dimitri Van den Bergh, who knocked out top seed Peter Wright in the quarter-finals, avenging his loss in last year’s final.
As a result, the Belgian star doubled his ranking impact for winning that match, a total of 128 points, as he featured in a third consecutive World Matchplay semi-final.
Despite holding two World Series of Darts titles, with few major victories this year in ranking events, Van den Bergh is still only ranked 13th.
However, his ten-place rise represents the biggest improvement in ranking of any player who qualified for this year’s tournament at the Winter Gardens.
Nathan Aspinall and Dirk van Duijvenbode have replaced Ryan Searle and Jonny Clayton in the HOMER system top ten, courtesy of their quarter-final appearances at the Empress Ballroom.
Only three points separate Aspinall from the number eight spot currently occupied by Damon Heta, while Clayton’s conqueror Rowby-John Rodriguez has experienced a meteoric rise over the last three months, increasing his points total from 73 in April to 392 today.
This puts top 16 players like James Wade and Dave Chisnall outside of the top 16 in the power rankings, and vulnerable to resurgent performances from the likes of Jose De Sousa.
Elsewhere, the Tour Card holders that didn’t qualify for Blackpool will have their chance to move up the rankings at next month’s Pro Tour events, at the expense of players who opt for a summer break.