The race to qualify for the 2025 Betfred World Matchplay continues this weekend, as the Elten Safety Shoes European Darts Open takes place in Leverkusen.
The year’s eighth European Tour event will be held at the Ostermann-Arena from May 30-June 1, with a 48-player field battling it out for the £30,000 top prize.
There are just six events remaining before the Betfred World Matchplay qualification cut-off, with the 32-player field set to be confirmed following the conclusion of Players Championship 21 on July 9.
The top 16 players from the PDC Order of Merit will be seeded for July's showpiece event in Blackpool, and they will be joined by 16 qualifiers from the 12-month ProTour Order of Merit.
Reigning champion Luke Humphries is bidding to retain the coveted Phil Taylor Trophy, with World Champion Luke Littler and three-time winner Michael van Gerwen also set to headline the £800,000 event.
Former champions Rob Cross, Nathan Aspinall, James Wade will be amongst the 16 seeds at the Winter Gardens, with Gary Anderson and Peter Wright also in the provisional seeded positions.
German number one Martin Schindler will head up the 16 qualifiers from the one-year ProTour Order of Merit, with Northern Ireland’s Josh Rock also poised to make his third consecutive appearance.
Cameron Menzies and Wessel Nijman are in line to make their World Matchplay debuts later this summer, as Mike De Decker and Dirk van Duijvenbode return after missing out on qualification 12 months ago.
However, 2022/23 World Champion Michael Smith is currently £5,250 adrift of the qualification places, with former World Matchplay semi-finalist Krzysztof Ratajski also facing a battle to book his place in Blackpool.
The table below displays the latest standings in the race to the Betfred World Matchplay, which will take place at Blackpool's Winter Gardens from July 19-27, televised on Sky Sports and through the PDC's global broadcast partners.
N.B. Players who are not listed in the graphic below can still qualify for July’s showpiece via the ProTour Order of Merit.
The ProTour Order of Merit table used for Betfred World Matchplay qualification runs from 2024 Players Championship 15 to 2025 Players Championship 21.
The tournament will be broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK, through the PDC's worldwide broadcast partners including DAZN and Viaplay, and on PDCTV (excluding UK, Germany, Austria & Switzerland based subscribers).