Michael van Gerwen
Michael van Gerwen is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation events, where he is ranked world number four; he was ranked world number one from 2014 to 2021. He is also a three-time PDC world champion, having won the title in 2014, 2017 and 2019. He is the reigning World Series Finals champion.
Van Gerwen began playing darts at the age of 13. At age 17, he won the 2006 World Masters and threw a televised nine-dart finish at the 2007 Masters of Darts. However, after this initial burst onto the darting scene, Van Gerwen struggled for consistent form, losing the final of the PDC World Youth Championship in both 2011, and 2012, his breakthrough year. Improving from world number 38 at the start of 2012 to number four at the beginning of 2013, he won his first PDC major title at the World Grand Prix and reached the final at the 2013 World Championship. In 2014, at age 24, Van Gerwen became the then-youngest winner of the PDC World Championship.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, Van Gerwen has won 48 PDC major singles titles, placing him second in the all-time list behind Phil Taylor. This includes a record seven Premier League titles, three World Matchplay titles, and six World Grand Prix titles. He is also a three-time PDC World Cup of Darts champion, partnering Raymond van Barneveld for the Netherlands. Van Gerwen has reached seven PDC World Championship finals and is one of only five players to win the title more than once. He holds the record for the highest three-dart average in a televised darts match, with 123.4. As of January 2026, he has won the most PDC Pro Tour events, with 90, and has won a total of 159 PDC titles in his professional career.
Early life
Michael van Gerwen was born on 25 April 1989 in Boxtel in the Netherlands. He played football as a defender until he was 12 and began playing darts regularly at 13. He reached the final of the Primus Masters Youth event at the age of 14 in 2003. He then started to amass youth titles in 2006. He also won the Men's events in the Norway and Northern Ireland Opens in the same year that he took the youth titles. Before he became a professional darts player, he worked as a tiler.BDO career
Van Gerwen picked up several Open titles and rose up the BDO/WDF World Rankings having climbed to third before his 18th birthday. He reached the semi-finals of the Bavaria World Darts Trophy in 2006. Despite losing to Martin Adams, the Dutch youngster came within one dart of the perfect nine-dart finish, just missing double twelve. He did manage the highest possible checkout of 170 during the tournament.He managed to eclipse that performance at the 2006 Winmau World Masters by becoming the youngest ever champion. Having trailed 1–4 and 2–5 to Adams, he came back to win the title and took Eric Bristow's record as the youngest ever winner at the age of 17 years and 174 days.
His early career success led to speculation that he would join the other professional circuit of darts, the Professional Darts Corporation. However, during the 2006 World Darts Trophy, Van Gerwen held a press conference to make it clear that he wanted to stay with the BDO/WDF. He also finished top of the DDF Rankings, which would have secured him a place at the PDC World Championship, if he chose to accept. He had already committed to playing at Lakeside, so the place went to Rico Vonck, who finished second in the rankings.
Van Gerwen was the bookmakers' pre-tournament favourite to win the 2007 Lakeside World title, but his hopes were ended in the first round by Gary Robson. On the night of the 2007 BDO World Championship final, it was announced on Dutch television that Van Gerwen, along with Jelle Klaasen and Vincent van der Voort, would be switching to the Professional Darts Corporation.
PDC career
2007–2011
Although he was a BDO player he was eligible for certain PDC events in his home country, even before he switched to the PDC. This included the Open Holland in 2006, in which he took the title. He made his PDC debut on 20 January at the non-televised Players Championships in Gibraltar and beat Andy Hamilton before losing in the last 16 to Roland Scholten. In the second Players Championship the following day, he beat Raymond van Barneveld in the early rounds only to lose to Alan Warriner-Little in the quarter-finals. He followed up his victory over Van Barneveld by beating 13-time World Champion Phil Taylor 3–0 in sets on the opening night of the Masters of Darts tournament. He went on to reach the semi-final of the tournament and achieved a nine-dart finish against Van Barneveld, but lost the match.His televised PDC debut came at the 2007 UK Open, where he lost in the last 32 to Colin Osborne. His first PDC World Championship saw him play Phil Taylor in 2008's first round; notably, he had one match dart to knock Taylor out.
Van Gerwen ended his long wait for a tournament victory by beating Vincent van der Voort 6–3 in the final of the Players Championship in Taunton on 11 April 2009. Van Gerwen was defeated 6–4 by Arron Monk in the final of the inaugural PDC Under-21 World Championship.
2012: First PDC major title
In the 2012 World Championship, Van Gerwen made it to the last 16 for the first time by beating Colin Osborne and Mervyn King. However he lost to Simon Whitlock 4–3.Van Gerwen was named Young Player of the Year at the PDC annual awards ceremony on 3 January 2012, for winning four PDC Unicorn Youth Tour events during 2011 and his World Championship run.
In 2012, he won the second UK Open qualifier of the season, defeating Dave Chisnall in the final 6–1. In the UK Open itself he lost in the last 16 to Terry Jenkins. Van Gerwen topped the PDC Youth Tour Order of Merit going into the 2012 PDC World Youth Championship, but went on to lose in the final for a second consecutive year, this time against James Hubbard. Van Gerwen won the eighth Players Championship event in June after beating Simon Whitlock 6–1 in the final. At the World Matchplay, he won 5 legs in a row to record a 10–6 victory over Simon Whitlock in the first round, and then faced a last 16 encounter with Steve Beaton, which he won 13–9 while throwing the fourth nine-dart finish in the tournament's history in the tenth leg. Van Gerwen was 5–11 down in his quarter-final against James Wade, but produced a fightback to only trail 11–12 and then missed one dart to level the game. He went on to lose 13–16.
Van Gerwen's third title of the year came at the 11th Players Championship, where he defeated Ian White 6–1 in the final with a 107.85 average. Van Gerwen was involved in an exceptional match in the last 16 of the European Championship as he was defeated by compatriot Raymond van Barneveld 9–10, despite averaging 104. Another Players Championship success followed with a 6–5 victory over Robert Thornton.
In October 2012, Van Gerwen won his first PDC major title at the World Grand Prix. He came from behind to knock out Colin Lloyd 2–1 in the first round, and then beat an out of sorts Adrian Lewis 3–1 in the second. In the quarter-final against Andy Hamilton, he missed four darts to win 3–1, only for Hamilton to take out a 160 finish to force a decider. Van Gerwen maintained his composure and took the final set 3–2 and then heavily out-scored Wes Newton in the semi-finals in a 5–1 win. He played Mervyn King in the final, defeating him 6–4, after being 0–3 and 1–4 down. Van Gerwen afterwards described the win as the best day in his life and in claiming the £100,000 prize he rose to world number eight, overtaking Van Barneveld as the highest placed Dutchman. He did not have to wait long for his sixth title of the year, as he won the following week's Players Championship averaging 113 against Jamie Caven in the semi-finals, before beating Nick Fullwell 6–3 in the final.
In a Championship League game, van Gerwen averaged 121.86 while defeating Steve Beaton 6–0. He won six of his seven league matches to finish top of the table, but then lost 5–6 to the same opponent in the semi-finals. He soon returned to winning ways by taking another Players Championship title, coming back from 0–4 in the final against Ian White to triumph 6–5.
Van Gerwen won all three of his group games at the Grand Slam of Darts to top Group B and face Phil Taylor in the last 16, in a match billed as a clash between the current best two players in the world. There, Van Gerwen ended a five-year, 15-game losing streak against Taylor to defeat him 10–5 with a 108.38 average in a performance he described as the best of his career. He played Scott Waites in the quarter-finals, who himself had already beaten Taylor in the tournament, and produced another superb display as he hit two 170 finishes and an average of 106.63 in a 16–12 win. He averaged over 100 once more to defeat Dean Winstanley 16–8 in the semi-finals, to set up a clash in the final against compatriot and five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld. Van Gerwen was never ahead in the final and couldn't quite match the heavy scoring and clinical finishing he had produced earlier in the tournament as he was beaten 14–16.
His eighth tournament win of 2012 came at the 20th and final Players Championship, where he beat Taylor for the first time in a final and also beat reigning world champion Adrian Lewis in the semi-finals. He was 4–5 down to Taylor, but produced back-to-back finishes of 164 and 124 to win and in doing so finished third on the ProTour Order of Merit to qualify for the Finals. Van Gerwen went out of the Finals in the second round 10–8 to Andy Hamilton.
2013: First world final, Premier League champion
After his exceptional year in 2012, Van Gerwen entered the 2013 World Championship as the second favourite behind Phil Taylor. In his semi-final match against James Wade, Van Gerwen hit a nine-dart finish. He almost repeated the feat in the very next leg, after hitting eight perfect darts before missing one dart at double 12 that would have seen him become the first player ever to hit back-to-back perfect legs. However, he lost the set but won the match 6–4. In his first World Championship final, he played Phil Taylor and led 2–0 and 4–2, but lost 7–4. Van Gerwen's run in the tournament saw him climb to number four on the Order of Merit, which guaranteed his place in the Premier League for the first time.At the PDC awards dinner in January 2013, Van Gerwen won three awards; Young Player of the Year, PDPA Player of the Year and Fans' Player of the Year. In his first World Cup of Darts, he partnered Van Barneveld and the Dutch pair suffered a shock in the last 16 when they were beaten 3–5 by the Finnish duo of Jani Haavisto and Jarkko Komula. Van Gerwen won his first tournament of 2013 at the first UK Open Qualifier of the year with a 6–2 victory over Dave Chisnall in the final. He completed a weekend double a day later by defeating Brendan Dolan also by a 6–2 scoreline in the second Qualifier. The win saw Van Gerwen replace Wade as the world number three. His run continued by taking the third event with a 6–2 win against Michael Smith. Van Gerwen's first defeat on the 2013 Pro Tour came a day later when Robert Thornton beat him 4–6 in the semi-finals of the fourth Qualifier. His unbeaten run stood at 29 matches until this defeat. Despite losing in the semi-finals of the European Darts Trophy to Paul Nicholson in April, Van Gerwen replaced Adrian Lewis as the world number two. Van Gerwen won the sixth qualifier with a 6–5 defeat of Kim Huybrechts in the final. He also won the final event with a 6–0 win against Mervyn King in the final, meaning he had won five of the eight Qualifiers. His sixth title of the year came a week later at the second Players Championship by beating Stuart Kellett 6–1 in the final.
In the 2013 Premier League, Van Gerwen became the first player other than Phil Taylor to finish top of the league after Taylor had done it in all eight previous stagings of the event. He won 11, drew two and lost three of his 16 games, averaging over 100 in nine of them. He beat James Wade 8–4 in the semi-finals to face Taylor in the final. Van Gerwen was 2–5 down but then won five unanswered legs before Taylor stopped the rot by taking out a finish of 65. In the next leg, Van Gerwen declined a dart at the bull when on a finish of 87 to set up 32, but Taylor stepped in to finish 160 to level the match at 7–7. However, Van Gerwen began the 15th leg with a 180 and won two consecutive legs to move within one game of the title. He missed two darts at double eight to win 10–7, but with Taylor leaving 40 after 12 darts in the next, Van Gerwen finished 132 on the bull to become only the fourth player to win the Premier League.
Van Gerwen's play continued as he won the European Darts Open in Düsseldorf, Germany, saving his best performance for the final where he beat Simon Whitlock 6–2 with an average of 106.68. Another title followed less than a week later as he won the non-ranking Dubai Darts Masters, taking out finishes of 170 and 164 during an 11–7 triumph over Raymond van Barneveld in the final. His 10th tournament win came in June at the Austrian Darts Open by beating Mervyn King 6–3 in the final. It was Van Gerwen's fifth title in a row and he was on a run of 24 unbeaten games. He was the number one seed for the UK Open having earned £35,600 in the eight qualifying events, just over £25,000 ahead of Robert Thornton in second place. Van Gerwen stretched his unbeaten streak to 27 games before he met Taylor in the quarter-finals. Van Gerwen did not quite produce his best game as he was beaten 7–10.
Two weeks later he won the sixth Players Championship by defeating Andy Hamilton 6–1 in the final. At the Gibraltar Darts Trophy his unbeaten run of 15 matches in European Tour events was ended as he lost to Adrian Lewis 5–6 in the quarter-finals.
At the European Championship, Van Gerwen beat Mervyn King and Jelle Klaasen both with 104 averages, but was defeated 8–11 by Lewis in the semi-finals. Lewis was also the victor when the two met at the same stage of the World Matchplay, beating Van Gerwen 17–15. Van Gerwen overcame Lewis in the semi-finals of the Sydney Darts Masters 10–7, but was then defeated 10–3 in the final by Taylor. In the defence of his World Grand Prix title, Van Gerwen swept past John Part 2–0 and Van Barneveld 3–0 in 21 minutes to play Dave Chisnall in the quarter-finals. Van Gerwen came from 2–0 down to level the match but Chisnall halted his momentum by winning the final set by three legs to one. He qualified from Group 5 of the Championship League having lost in the final of two previous groups which included a nine-dart finish in a 6–5 loss to Terry Jenkins in Group 4.
In the Winners Group, Van Gerwen was the only player to beat Taylor and he finished second in the table by winning five of his seven games. In the semi-finals, he saw off Richie Burnett 6–2 to face Taylor in the final. Van Gerwen fell 5–0 down before winning three successive legs but had left himself too much to do and lost 6–3. He finished the year as the top seed for the Players Championship Finals having amassed £125,350 during the year in ProTour events, over £50,000 ahead of Chisnall in second place. He produced two superb comebacks in the event, the first coming in the second round when he took six legs in a row to see off Lewis 9–6. He produced the second in the final as from 6–3 down he hit a seven leg burst against Taylor and secured his second major title of the year with an 11–7 victory.