Scots Peter Wright and Gary Anderson will be among the eight players battling it out for the Premier League Darts title.
World champion Wright will be looking to win the Premier League for the first time, having been a runner-up in 2017, while Anderson is a two-time winner of this competition.
Joining them in the field will be world number one Gerwyn Price, Michael van Gerwen, UK Open winner James Wade, defending champion Jonny Clayton, world-finalist Michael Smith and Joe Cullen, who was in imperious form to win the Masters on Sunday night and seal the final spot.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮
The eight stars that will battle it out in the 2022 @CazooUK Premier League!
But, there’s more…
𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗘𝗥𝗔 𝗜𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗪
PDC 🤝 @Winmau – The Official Darts Equipment Supplier to the PDC pic.twitter.com/1wMYYEqNAW
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) January 31, 2022
The Premier League is played over 16 nights around the UK, starting in Cardiff on Thursday with Aberdeen hosting night 12 on April 21. The play-offs will take place in Newcastle on May 26.
Cullen will be making his Premier League debut in 2022 after a hugely impressive display over the weekend.
He defeated Anderson, van Gerwen and Dave Chisnall en-route to winning his first TV title.
Wright, Anderson, van Gerwen, Clayton and Wade all return after featuring last year. Price, who missed the 2021 competition after testing positive for Covid, is back, as Michael Smith who was left out of last year’s event.
Beaten-finalist Jose de Sousa, Dimitri van den Bergh, Rob Cross and Glen Durrant all drop out from the 2021 Premier League.
Rather than the usual head-to-head format, which has been the staple of the tournament since its inception in 2005, players will now play a round-robin event on each night of its tour round the United Kingdom.
The winner of each event will be awarded five points, with three going to the runner-up and two to the losing semi-finalists, to help comprise the overall table.
The field, which has been reduced to eight players for 2022, will play each other twice in quarter-final ties across the 14 weeks. The top four will then advance to the play-offs.
