Gian van Veen

Pieter Gerard "Gian" van Veen is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation events, where he is ranked world number three. He won the European Championship in [2025 European Championship (darts)|European Championship (darts)|2025]. He is also the reigning back-to-back World Youth champion.
Van Veen won the 2024 and 2025 PDC World Youth Championships, as well as nine PDC Development Tours, which includes six titles in 2023 to top the 2023 Development Tour rankings. His first deep run at a major tournament came at the 2023 European Championship, where he reached the semi-finals. In 2025, he won his first PDC ranking title at Players Championship 6 and won his first PDC major title at the 2025 European Championship, defeating Luke Humphries in the final on both occasions. Van Veen reached the final of the 2026 PDC World Championship.

Career

2022

Van Veen attended 2022 PDC Pro Tour Qualifying School. He reached the final stage but lost his opening games on the first two days, losing 6–3 to Mario Vandenbogaerde in the last 16 in event three and to Ricardo Pietreczko 6–4 in the last 32 in event four. This meant he failed to gain a PDC Tour Card but gained access to the secondary tour, the 2022 Challenge Tour.
On 15 July 2022, Van Veen won his only PDC Challenge Tour title to-date at CT12, defeating David Pallett 5–4 in a deciding leg in the final.
While participating in the Challenge Tour, Van Veen suffered with dartitis, a neurological condition which makes it difficult to release a dart. Van Veen has spoken out about it, stating that dartitis actually made him play better, and that an opponent had accused him of cheating while he suffered with it.
On 4 November 2022, Van Veen reached the final of the Players Championship 29 event, losing 4–8 to Gerwyn Price in the final.

2023

In January 2023, he attended 2023 PDC Pro Tour Qualifying School and won a PDC Tour Card by finishing ninth on the European Q–School Order of Merit.
On 27 August, he reached his second Pro Tour final. He finished as the runner-up at Players Championship 18, being defeated by Gerwyn Price 8–1 in the final.
He qualified for the 2023 European Championship, held in late-October, and reached his first PDC major semi-final. He achieved victories against Damon Heta, Daryl Gurney and Michael van Gerwen. He lost to James Wade 11–9 in the semi-finals.
Van Veen won 6 titles and topped the 2023 Development Tour Order of Merit, ahead of Luke Littler. On 26 November, Littler beat Van Veen 6–4 in the 2023 PDC World Youth Championship final.

2024

Van Veen made his PDC World Championship debut in the 2024 edition. He was eliminated in the first round by Hong Kong qualifier Man Lok Leung, who overturned a 2–0 deficit to defeat Van Veen 3–2 in a major upset.
Van Veen won two 2024 Development Tour titles: DT5 on 25 February, with a 5–0 whitewash of Dylan Slevin in the final; and DT7 on 3 May, with a 5–1 win against Nathan Rafferty.
On 22 September 2024, he reached his third Pro Tour final at the Hungarian Darts Trophy. In his first PDC European Tour final, he finished as runner-up after missing a match dart at the bullseye. He was defeated by Michael van Gerwen 8–7. In November, he reached his second PDC major quarter-final at the Grand Slam. He was defeated by Gary Anderson 16–14. Having been defeated by Luke Littler in the previous year's final, Van Veen defeated fellow Dutchman Jurjen van der Velde 6–5 to win the 2024 World Youth Championship.

2025

Van Veen entered the second round of the 2025 World Championship as the 28th seed, but lost 3–1 to Ricardo Pietreczko. Van Veen made his third UK Open appearance at the 2025 event. He reached the quarter-finals for the first time, before losing there to world champion Luke Littler 10–4. He reached the final of Players Championship 5 by defeating Luke Littler 7–6 in the semi-finals – ending Littler's 19-match winning streak. In the final, he led 7–4 against Joe Cullen but missed six match darts on his way to an 8–7 loss. The following day, he won his first ranking PDC title by winning Players Championship 6, defeating world number one Luke Humphries 8–3 in the final. He reached a second European Tour final at the German Darts Grand Prix, where he lost 8–5 to Michael van Gerwen.
Van Veen represented the Netherlands at the World Cup of Darts for the first time, teaming with Danny Noppert. The pair reached the semi-finals, where they were defeated 8–5 by runners-up Wales. Following Players Championship 30, he entered the top 16 in the world on the PDC Order of Merit for the first time. At the European Championship, Van Veen defeated Michael van Gerwen 11–9 to progress to his first PDC major final against Luke Humphries. The match went to a deciding leg, where Humphries missed a match dart and Van Veen completed a 100 checkout to win 11–10 and capture his first PDC major title, resulting in him rising to world number seven.
Van Veen faced Humphries in a rematch in the first round of the Players Championship Finals, where Van Veen was once again victorious in a deciding leg. He was eliminated by Krzysztof Ratajski in the second round. On 23 November, Van Veen won his second World Youth Championship by defeating Beau Greaves 6–3 in the final, becoming the second player to defend the title.

2026

At the 2026 World Championship, Van Veen achieved his first win at the event by beating Cristo Reyes 3–1 in the first round. He followed this with wins over Alan Soutar, Madars Razma, Charlie Manby, Luke Humphries and Gary Anderson to reach the final for the first time in his career, before losing 7–1 to Luke Littler. Van Veen's success at the tournament saw him rise to a career-high third in the world and replace Michael van Gerwen as the Dutch number one. His rise in the world rankings also saw him qualify for the Premier League for the first time in his career.
Van Veen reached his maiden World Series final at the Bahrain Darts Masters, where he lost 8–6 to Michael van Gerwen.

Personal life

Van Veen was born Pieter Gerard van Veen on 23 April 2002 in Poederoijen, a small village in the small Dutch province of Gelderland. His parents gave him the name "Gian" in honour of a young boy from their neighbourhood named Gian who had died.
He studied aerospace engineering and earned a bachelor's degree in aviation in 2023. He worked a part-time office job near Amsterdam Airport Schiphol before pursuing darts full-time. He is colourblind. He is a supporter of the Dutch football club FC Den Bosch.

World Championship results

PDC

2024: First round
2025: Second round
2026: Runner-up

Career finals

PDC major finals: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Winner	1.	2025	European Championship		11–10
Runner-up	1.	2026	World Championship		1–7