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PDC European Tour Order of Merit update: Luke Littler now leads Nathan Aspiinall as Niko Springer surges after title
Simon O'Connor/PDC

Budapest hosted the twelfth tournament of the European Tour 2025 last weekend. The final victory went to Niko Springer after a particularly exciting final. The 25-year-old German defeated Danny Noppert 8-7 in the final of the Hungarian Darts Trophy.

With two tournaments (Swiss Darts Trophy and German Darts Championship) still to go, it is becoming increasingly exciting to see who will and will not qualify for the European Championship. The top 32 after the completion of the 14 tournaments of the European Tour 2025 are sure of a starting place at this PDC major, which takes place October 23 to 26 in Dortmund.

Luke Littler lost in the semifinals of the Hungarian Darts Trophy last weekend, but is the new leader on the European Tour Order of Merit. 'The Nuke' won two European Tour tournaments this year, both in Belgium. Just behind Littler follows Nathan Aspinall in second place. Like Littler, 'The Asp' has already won two Euro Tours this year, but went down in the second round last weekend.

Completing the top three is Martin Schindler, who won this year's Austrian Darts Open. 'The Wall' made it to the third round last weekend, where he lost 6-2 to Littler.

Just outside the top four we find Luke Humphries. The European Championship is one of the few majors - Humphries never got past the quarter-finals - that the 30-year-old Englishman has never managed to win. Springer climbs to seventh place after his exploits this weekend, so he can prepare for his debut at the European Championship.

Springer had reached a final prior to his win this weekend so he was already up there in the rankings and now will look even towards the World Grand Prix potentially with another run in the coming weeks. The rest of the top 10 is made up of names that aren't much of a surprise including Josh Rock, Jonny Clayton, Ross Smith and Stephen Bunting.

Michael van Gerwen sits just outside the top 10 in 13th alongside fellow Dutchmen Wessel Nijman and Gian van Veen but the race to Dortmund now only has two more events to go with trouble for some names.

Who faces shaky Dortmund wait?

The 32nd and final qualifying spot is currently held by Ritchie Edhouse, last year's surprising winner of this PDC major when he defeated Jermaine Wattimena in the final. 'Madhouse' is only slightly ahead of the No. 33.

That number 33 is Joe Cullen. Together with Rob Cross (34th), 'The Rockstar' is one of the big names currently outside the qualifying places. Both Englishmen therefore have quite a bit of work ahead of them in the coming weeks. Especially for Cross - two-time winner of the European Championship - it would be a disgrace if he does not qualify.

Michael Smith (37th) will also not be there at this year's European Championship. The 35-year-old former world champion did not manage to qualify for the remaining two tournaments and can therefore no longer climb into the top 32. A new low in what is already a catastrophic year for 'Bullyboy'.

For the winner of a European Tour there is 30000 pounds waiting, so things can still change in the coming weeks on the European Tour Order of Merit. However, the nervousness towards qualification for the PDC major is reaching its boiling point.

Other well known names that won't make it to Dortmund right now include Krzysztof Ratajski who is a previous perennial winner in these events and made his name on the European Tour as well as Kim Huybrechts, Martin Lukeman, Mensur Suljovic and Dimitri van den Bergh who are mostly sunken further down and in the case of a few including as mentioned Smith, they aren't qualified for the next two anyway so won't make it to Dortmund.

Rk Name Prize Money
1 Luke Littler 81.000
2 Nathan Aspinall 81.000
3 Martin Schindler 76.500
4 Luke Humphries 69.000
5 Gerwyn Price 62.000
6 Josh Rock 59.500
7 Niko Springer 58.500
8 Jonny Clayton 54.500
9 Ross Smith 52.500
10 Stephen Bunting 52.000
11 Gary Anderson 50.500
12 James Wade 50.000
13 Michael van Gerwen 46.500
14 Wessel Nijman 46.000
15 Ryan Joyce 41.750
16 Gian van Veen 40.500
17 Mike De Decker 39.000
18 Danny Noppert 38.000
19 Damon Heta 36.000
20 Dirk van Duijvenbode 35.000
21 Cameron Menzies 34.000
22 Luke Woodhouse 33.500
23 Daryl Gurney 33.000
24 Peter Wright 30.000
25 Ricardo Pietreczko 28.750
26 Ryan Searle 27.000
27 Chris Dobey 26.500
28 Andrew Gilding 25.000
29 Jermaine Wattimena 24.000
30 Raymond van Barneveld 22.000
31 Dave Chisnall 22.000
32 Ritchie Edhouse 20.750
33 Joe Cullen 20.500
34 Rob Cross 20.000
35 Krzysztof Ratajski 20.000
36 William O'Connor 18.500
37 Michael Smith 16.500
38 Matt Campbell 15.250
39 Karel Sedlacek 14.750
40 Kim Huybrechts 14.000
41 Martin Lukeman 13.500
42 Mickey Mansell 12.750
43 Thibault Tricole 10.250
44 Mario Vandenbogaerde 10.250
45 Kevin Doets 9.000
46 Mensur Suljovic 9.000
47 Boris Krcmar 9.000
48 Callan Rydz 8.750
49 Lukas Wenig 8.750
50 Niels Zonneveld 8.000
51 Leon Weber 7.750
52 Richard Veenstra 7.500
53 Madars Razma 6.500
54 Darius Labanauskas 6.250
55 Matthew Dennant 6.250
56 Ian White 6.250
57 Tom Bissell 5.000
58 Cam Crabtree 5.000
59 Johan Engstrom 5.000
60 Daniel Klose 5.000
61 Andy Baetens 4.000
62 Andreas Harrysson 4.000
63 Dimitri Van den Bergh 4.000
64 Rob Owen 3.750
65 Benjamin Pratnemer 3.750
66 Christian Kist 3.750
67 Justin Hood 3.750
68 Ryan Meikle 3.750
69 Bradley Brooks 3.750
70 Darryl Pilgrim 3.750
71 Ricky Evans 3.750
72 Max Hopp 3.750
73 Connor Scutt 3.750
74 Michael Unterbuchner 3.750
75 Cor Dekker 2.500
76 Darren Beveridge 2.500
77 Steve Lennon 2.500
78 Kevin Troppmann 2.500
78 Martin Kramer 2.500
80 Wesley Plaisier 2.500
81 Radek Szaganski 2.500
82 Owen Bates 2.500
83 Andras Borbely 2.500
84 Brendan Dolan 2.500
85 Maik Kuivenhoven 2.500
86 Dylan Slevin 2.500
87 Francois Schweyen 2.500
88 Kevin Knopf 2.500
88 Petr Krivka 2.500
90 Alan Soutar 2.500
91 Jeffrey Sparidaans 2.500
92 Berry van Peer 2.500
92 Teemu Harju 2.500
94 Nathan Rafferty 2.500
95 Paul Krohne 2.500
96 Chris Landman 2.500
97 Scott Williams 2.500
98 Thomas Lovely 2.500
99 Felix Springer 1.250
99 Maximilian Czerwinski 1.250
99 Tomislav Rosandic 1.250
102 Andreas Toft Jorgensen 1.250
102 Dalibor Smolik 1.250
102 Jitse Van der Wal 1.250
102 Oskar Lukasiak 1.250
106 Andreas Hyllgaardhus 1.250
106 Jim Williams 1.250
106 Levente Sarai 1.250
106 Nandor Major 1.250
106 Nandor Pres 1.250
111 Filip Manak 1.250
111 Jiri Brejcha 1.250
111 Lukas Unger 1.250
114 Adam Gawlas 1.250
114 Jeffrey de Graaf 1.250
114 Xanti Van den Bergh 1.250
117 Liam Maendl-Lawrance 1.250
117 Miroslaw Grudziecki 1.250
117 Sebastian Bialecki 1.250
117 Tytus Kanik 1.250
117 Yorick Hofkens 1.250
122 Dragutin Horvat 1.250
122 Joshua Hermann 1.250
122 Moritz Bohrmann 1.250
125 Jeffrey De Zwaan 1.250
125 Jerry Hendriks 1.250
127 Gabriel Clemens 1.250
127 Marcel Erba 1.250
129 Christian Goedl 1.250
129 Gyorgy Jehirszki 1.250
129 Patrick Geeraets 1.250
129 Rowby-John Rodriguez 1.250
129 Zoran Lerchbacher 1.250
134 Adam Paxton 1.250
134 Andy Boulton 1.250
134 Finn Behrens 1.250
134 Michael Rosenauer 1.250
134 Rene Eidams 1.250
134 Robert Grundy 1.250
140 Patrick Klingelhoefer 1.250
140 Paul Goyer 1.250
142 Adam Hunt 1.250
142 Dominik Gruellich 1.250
142 Laurin Welk 1.250
142 Marko Kantele 1.250
146 Cedric Waegemans 1.250
146 James Hurrell 1.250
146 Jim Long 1.250
146 Patrick De Backer 1.250
146 Sybren Gijbels 1.250

This article first appeared on Dartsnews.com and was syndicated with permission.

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