Flanders Darts Trophy: Dates, location, history & how to watch

The Flanders Darts Trophy is one of the 13 events on this year’s PDC European Tour and the best players in darts will be looking to put their name on the trophy in Antwerp, Belgium.

Michael van Gerwen is one of the 16 seeds, which could lead to a potential blockbuster third-round clash with number one seed and current world number one Luke Humphries.

Here we break down all you need to know about this tournament.

Flanders Darts Trophy dates

The Flanders Darts Trophy starts on Friday 6th September and runs through until Sunday 8th September. The three-day format is typical for European Tour events.

Flanders Darts Trophy times

All three days of the Flanders Darts Trophy will consist of an afternoon session and an evening one. The afternoon sessions will start every day at 12:00 GMT, while the evening sessions are scheduled to start at 18:00 GMT.

Flanders Darts Trophy venue/location

The Flanders Darts Trophy is due to take place at Antwerp Expo in Antwerp, Belgium. 

Primarily an exhibition centre, the venue hosts more than one million visitors a year at more than 60 fairs, shows and exhibitions – as well as other conferences, events and meetings.

The first event of this year’s European Tour was the only other tournament in Belgium, the Belgian Darts Open.

Luke Littler beat Rob Cross in the final of that event in Wieze.

Flanders Darts Trophy how to watch

The Flanders Darts Trophy will be streamed on bet365's Sports Live Streaming service, while it will be available to watch on PDC.TV.

Who is playing in the Flanders Darts Trophy?

There are 16 seeded players at this year’s Flanders Darts Trophy, headlined by Luke Humphries but also including Dave Chisnall, Gary Anderson, Gerwyn Price, Damon Heta, Danny Noppert, Josh Rock, Stephen Bunting, Ryan Searle, Ross Smith, Martin Schindler, Chris Dobey, Ricardo Pietreczko, Luke Littler, Gian van Veen and Michael van Gerwen.

These players enter the tournament at the second-round stage.

There are another 16 players who have qualified via the Order of Merit and as a result must start in the first round. They include Ryan Joyce, Daryl Gurney, Joe Cullen, Brendan Dolan, Luke Woodhouse, Jonny Clayton, Raymond van Barneveld , Krzysztof Ratajski, James Wade, Ritchie Edhouse, Andrew Gilding, Peter Wright, Dimitri Van den Bergh, Nathan Aspinall, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Callan Rydz.

Their opponents in the first round will be players who made it through qualifying events to reach the tournament proper. Those include Kevin Doets, Robert Owen, Gabriel Clemens, Jermaine Wattimena, Cameron Menzies, Richard Veenstra, Alan Soutar, Jitse van der Wal, Maik Kuivenhoven and Martin Lukeman.

The field has yet to be finalised however, with the Host Nation qualifiers still to be played.

Four players will make it from that tournament to represent Belgium in this event alongside the Order of Merit qualifier Van den Bergh.

How many times has the Flanders Darts Trophy taken place?

This is the first-ever edition of the Flanders Darts Trophy as the PDC looks to expand and improve its European Tour offering.

Players will be desperate to become the maiden winner of such an event.

Most wins on this year’s European Tour

This year’s European Tour has been a wide-open affair, with eight separate winners of the nine events to have come so far.

Luke Littler is the only player to have won more than one tournament, lifting the Belgian Darts Trophy in March and the Austrian Darts Open in April.

Littler reached the final of the last European Tour event, the German Darts Championship, but lost 8-5 to Peter Wright despite averaging 106.87 to Snakebite’s 96.62.

That victory last time out was a watershed moment for Wright, who has struggled with his performance levels in recent years. The two-time world champion has now also won nine European Tour events, a record only bettered by Michael van Gerwen.

World number one Luke Humphries lifted the German Darts Grand Prix earlier this year and also reached the final of the Baltic Sea Darts Open, but has failed to extend his dominance to this year’s European Tour.

Martin Schindler, Gary Anderson, Josh Rock, Rob Cross and Dave Chisnall have also lifted trophies on the European Tour this season with three events to go following the Flanders Darts Trophy.