Nathan Aspinall’s European Darts Open defence has a date, a venue and a sharper edge after PDC Europe turned its ticket push back towards Leverkusen.
The official event page lists the ELTEN Safety Shoes European Darts Open for July 10-12, 2026 at the Ostermann-Arena, where Aspinall was the 2025 winner. That makes the next German European Tour stop more than another ranking weekend; it is a defence of one of the most emotional titles on his calendar.
Aspinall’s Leverkusen Stakes Rise
PDC Europe’s event listing pitches Leverkusen as one of the flagship European Tour stages, with final-day sessions scheduled for Sunday July 12. For Aspinall, the return matters because the European Tour now feeds two pressure races at once: prize money for Dortmund qualification and rhythm before the summer majors.
NineDartNews has already tracked how the post-Bratislava order has tightened around the top end of the circuit, with Wessel Nijman’s Slovak surge underlining how quickly one European weekend can move the table.
The clean read is simple: Aspinall goes back to Leverkusen as the name attached to last year’s trophy, but the 2026 field arrives with momentum spread across far more players. That is exactly the kind of stage where a defending champion can turn a listing into a statement.
