European Darts Championship 2025 | Day One Preview and Order of Play

The 2025 European Darts Championship gets under way in Dortmund on Thursday with a clutch of unmissable first round ties.

The 18th staging of the competition marks the culmination of this year’s European Tour, with the field comprised of the top 32 players from the European Order of Merit after 14 events.

This year’s European Championship will be the first not to feature a defending champion following Ritchie Edhouse’s failure to qualify, and a host of star names are bidding to join the nine players to have lifted this trophy since 2008.

The opening night at the Westfalenhallen features a grudge match between rivals Gerwyn Price and Daryl Gurney.

Old wounds resurfaced when the duo met in July’s World Matchplay, with Price prevailing 10-7 before the pair became embroiled in a post-match altercation on stage.

Price, European Championship runner-up in 2019, is bidding to end a three-year wait for a televised major title but has added four Players Championships and the Baltic Sea Darts Open title to his haul this year.

Gurney reached the semi-finals of this event in 2017 and 2019 and will be eyeing revenge on his rival, having missed the chance to face the Welshman in last weekend’s German Championship.

A fascinating all-Dutch encounter sees four-time champion Michael van Gerwen take on debutant Wessel Nijman.

Van Gerwen is the joint most successful player in the history of this event, alongside Phil Taylor, with his four titles coming in consecutive years from 2014-2017.

The world number three has endured a rollercoaster period of late, claiming the World Series Finals title on home soil last month before suffering a first round exit at the World Grand Prix and failing to qualify for the Players Championship Finals for the first time.

Van Gerwen has competing in only seven of the 14 European Tour events this year, winning the German Darts Grand Prix, and Nijman comes into the contest in a higher seeded position after reaching two semi-finals and two quarter-finals.

Two former European Champions collide in another high-profile fixture as two-time winner Peter Wright faces 2022 champion Ross Smith.

Wright, champion in 2020 and 2023, is one of only four multiple European Champions, but faces mounting pressure to defend his prize money from two years ago, provisionally dropping to 30th in the Order of Merit.

The 55-year-old has endured a torrid season on both floor and stage, but enjoyed a timely return to form in last week’s German Championship by reaching the quarter-finals before being edged out in a deciding leg by Dirk van Duijvenbode.

Smith enjoyed the best moment of his career to date in this venue three years ago by landing a maiden major title but has reached just one televised ranking semi-final since.

The world number 14, a winner of two ProTour events this year, is bidding to avoid suffering a third consecutive first round exit in a ranked TV major.

World Youth champion Gian van Veen, semi-finalist here two years ago, opens up with a tie against Aussie number one Damon Heta.

Van Veen’s best run in a televised ranking event to date came on debut in Dortmund and began with a 6-1 rout of Heta with a 107.3 average.

The 23-year-old has reached the quarter-finals of both the UK Open and World Matchplay this season as well as a European Tour final and has secured a maiden Players Championship title.

Heta was runner-up in June’s European Darts Open but has suffered four consecutive second round defeats on the European Tour, as well as successive first round exits in the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix.

German number one Martin Schindler aims to delight the partisan home crowd when he takes on four-time quarter-finalist Dave Chisnall.

Second seed Schindler claimed his third European Tour title at the Austrian Open earlier this year and is bidding for his first win in this event at the sixth time of asking.

Chisnall has featured in all but one European Championship since 2011 and left it late to clinch his qualification by reaching the quarter-finals of the German Championship to end a run of eight consecutive second round defeats.

Seventh seed Jonny Clayton, semi-finalist in 2020, faces a tough opener against Ryan Searle – twice a Players Championship event winner this year.

Clayton claimed the Dutch Championship title in May and has reached at least the semi-final stage of his last four televised ranking tournaments, while Searle is aiming to a avert a hat-trick of first round exits in TV majors.

Third seed Stephen Bunting faces a showdown with fellow Premier League star Chris Dobey in the final match of the night.

Bunting has claimed the International Open and Swiss Trophy titles this year but has not made it beyond the second round of this event since reaching the quarter-finals on debut back in 2014.

Dobey, semi-final here in 2022, has endured an underwhelming European Tour campaign by his standards, reaching just one semi-final, and is looking to bounce back from a first round exit to Cameron Menzies at the recent World Grand Prix.

The opening match of the night sees European Darts Trophy finalist Ryan Joyce take on Luke Woodhouse – who enjoyed a superb run to the semi-finals here 12 months ago and was also runner-up in the recent Swiss Darts Trophy.

The action gets under way from 6pm BST, with first round matches to be contested over the best of 11 legs.

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European Darts Championship 2025 Day One Schedule

All times BST (local time +1 hour)

Thursday October 23

First Round

6pm-10pm
Ryan Joyce v Luke Woodhouse
Ross Smith v Peter Wright
Gian van Veen v Damon Heta
Gerwyn Price v Daryl Gurney
Jonny Clayton v Ryan Searle
Martin Schindler v Dave Chisnall
Wessel Nijman v Michael van Gerwen
Stephen Bunting v Chris Dobey