World champion Luke Littler will lead the 2025 Premier League Darts squad, while Stephen Bunting returns to the elite eight-player tournament after a 10-year absence.
On Friday, 17-year-old Littler became the youngest ever winner of the PDC World Championship he defeated Michael van Gerwen in the final in the Alexandra Palace.
The Warrington teenager is the defending Premier League champion, having beaten Luke Humphries in the final last May with a memorable nine-dart knock.
Former world champion Humphries makes his second appearance in the tournament, having won the World Cup, World Match Play Championship and Players’ Championship titles in 2024.
Bunting was rewarded for his recent resurgence after being selected as one of four wild card entries for the tournament.
The 39-year-old reached the semi-finals of the world championship, losing to Littler, and at number five in the world is the highest-ranked player outside the top four automatic qualifiers.
Bunting last took part in the 2015 Premier League season and in 2020 he was one of the title contenders.
Gerwyn Price, Nathan Aspinall and Chris Dobey are the other wild card selections, alongside two other automatic picks in Rob Cross and Van Gerwen, who is bidding for an eighth Premier League crown.
World number six Dave Chisnall and former world champions Peter Wright and Michael Smith took part in the 2024 edition but missed out this time.
PDC chief executive Matt Porter told Sky Sports: “Obviously in the case of Price, Dobey and Aspinall there are players in the rankings who have not been selected.
“But we looked at it in terms of big stage presence, popularity and how we manage to get an audience of 10,000 people every Thursday.
“We want people to be on the edge of their seats. We want people to get up and enjoy playing darts. This doesn’t mean other players can’t do it. You have to make decisions about who is right at any given moment.”
The Premier League takes place in stadiums across the UK and Europe and starts on February 6 in Belfast.
