PDC Darts Challenge Tour explained
The PDC Challenge Tour provides a platform for emerging darts players. Players compete in a series of events across the UK and in Europe on what could be described as the second division of the PDC darts circuit.
The challenge tour consists of multiple tournaments, and is open to players who competed in PDC Qschool at the start of the calendar year but didn’t win a 2 year tourcard. Every tournament in the annual cycle counts towards the challenge tour ranking with pounds won equating to points. Accumulating points improves a player’s standing and may lead to opportunities on the professional darts circuit, I explain these opportunities further on in the article.
Format and order of play on the darts challenge tour
Just like the PDC Pro Tour every challenge tour event is played straight down to a winner on the same day which serves as excellent practice for the conditions on the full circuit. Due to the sheer number of entries the challenge tour receives however, the format of the events does differ slightly from the Pro Tour. With the main tour being capped at 128 players and the challenge tour often seeing upwards of 300 competing there are some key differences. The format of play on the challenge tour is like the Pro tour in that all matches are played as 501 darts but unlike the Pro Tour where matches are best of 11, the challenge tour sees a best of 9 format throughout.
Dartboard setup as used on the PDC tours on an event day. Sponsored by Winmau the tour sees the winmau blade 6 triple core dartboard used for all matches
Frantic schedule for PDC challenge tour weekends
As well as the shorter format of the games, and the larger fields, the challenge tour differs from the Pro Tour in another key way. Pro Tour days consist of 1 tournament whereas the Challenge tour sees 2 of the three days in the schedule have 2 tournaments taking place, with the third day a single event on the docket. All of this combines to see the PDC challenge tour to be an extreme test of stamina and concentration for those who have deep runs in tournaments.
PDC Challenge tour order of merit
As previously mentioned the challenge tour does offer big opportunities to those performing well throughout the year.
Alongside the 15000 pounds in prizemoney on offer in each of the tournaments, players and their proizemoney won are included in the PDC challenge tour order of merit. This order of merit offers the top 2 players at the end of each season a 2 year PDC tour card and a spot in the annual PDC World darts championships at the end of the season.
How much can dart players earn?
As mentioned above there are significant benefits to be earned by players competing on the PDC Challenge tour. As well as the tourcard and world championship tickets up for grabs, each of the 25 events carry a 15000 pound prizepool which will see the top players earning solid prize money throughout the challenge tour season.
PDC Challenge tour prize money 2025
Winner £2,500
Runner-Up £1,000
Semi-Finalists £750
Quarter-Finalists £500
Last 16 Losers £300
Last 32 Losers £200
Last 64 Losers £75
Total £15,000
The challenge tour order of merit also serves as a “top up” list for the Players championships on the main tour with the top ranked players throughout the season receiving an invitation to pro tour events when the number of tour card entries drop below the 128 required. In previous seasons players have managed to achieve significant results through these invites with players like Connor Scutt and Krzysztof Ratajski gaining enough prize money through this route to gain a spot in the top 64 of the main order of merit. Wesley Plaisier even made 3 finals on the Pro Tour winning one of them.