Nathan Aspinall’s European Darts Open title defence has been fixed for Leverkusen from 10-12 July, with PDC Europe confirming the 48-player event, £230,000 prize fund and session structure for European Tour Event 10.
The tournament returns to the Ostermann-Arena, where Aspinall won last year’s final against Damon Heta. Michael van Gerwen’s five-title history at the event also gives the stop extra weight, with the Dutchman named on PDC Europe’s event artwork alongside Aspinall, Mike De Decker, Gary Anderson and Stephen Bunting.
Leverkusen Route
The PDC Europe tournament guide confirms that the first round will be split across two Friday sessions before the seeded players enter on Saturday. Sunday then carries the round of 16 in the afternoon before the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final in the evening.
The prize money will count towards the PDC Order of Merit, ProTour Order of Merit and European Tour Order of Merit, keeping Leverkusen central to the European Championship race as well as the summer ranking picture.
The qualification list already includes Mario Vandenbogaerde, Sebastian Bialecki, Bradley Brooks, Rhys Griffin, Darius Labanauskas, Samuel Price, Lukas Wenig, Maik Kuivenhoven, Charlie Manby and Mickey Mansell from the Tour Card Holder Qualifier, plus German quartet Dragutin Horvat, Jaimy van de Weerd, Jan Schmidt and Daniel Klose through the Host Nation Qualifier.
