Power Rankings: Heta leapfrogs Wright into third

Damon Heta

PDC Stats Analyst Christopher Kempf ranks PDC players according to the calibre of opponents in matches won and lost...

*Full explanation of the Holistic Order of Merit Enhanced Ranking (HOMER) ranking system listed at the bottom of the page).

PDC Power Rankings

A second title for Damon Heta has seen him climb to 1045 points in the HOMER rankings, squeaking by Peter Wright for third place and completing a 628 point swing in his rank in just two weeks.

Heta, already ranked 19th on the PDC Order of Merit before his third ProTour title win, has won seven consecutive matches against top 16 players and a deep run at a TV ranking event will see him join them.

Much has already been said of the exploits of Josh Rock, and though even his singular weekend in Barnsley saw him defeat 13 of 15 players ranked above him on the Order of Merit, Rock remains just outside the top 64.

But in terms of the HOMER power rankings, with its substantial bonuses for defeating high-ranked players, Rock is ranked 11th - with a stunning 319 point gain relative to last week that puts him within striking distance of Gerwyn Price and Rob Cross.

Dave Chisnall and Cross' titles gave them large bonuses, putting both ahead of Price for the first time since 2021.

With Cross and Chisnall scoring wins over Wright and Price respectively, the two title-winners have thoroughly bolstered their 2022 resumés with impressive wins over World Champions.

Three continental players deserve a mention for their achievements this past weekend:

Gian van Veen, arising from total obscurity (two ranking points) to reach a ProTour quarter-final by defeating Premier League finalist Joe Cullen and achieving a 17-fold increase in his power ranking.

Ricardo Pietreczko, whose defeats of Ross Smith and Gabriel Clemens in a run to the last semi-final of the weekend earned him more points than he had achieved in total up to that point.

Damian Mol, vanquisher of an in-form Gary Anderson (for which he earned a near maximum ranking bonus).

Only three players - Wright, Heta and Luke Humphries - could conceivably usurp Michael van Gerwen at the top of the Power Rankings by winning the upcoming European Championship.

*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), 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 totalled 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 six months ago will have half 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 number one.