Stephen Bunting has secured his place at the 2026 European Championship after a dramatic final weekend of European Tour action in Maastricht, while former world champions Michael Smith and Gary Anderson are among the big names missing out on Dortmund. The final European Tour Order of Merit standings were confirmed following Sunday's Dutch Darts Championship, with Bunting recovering from a precarious position on the qualification cut-off to finish 28th. Karel Sedlacek claimed the 32nd and final ticket ahead of Kim Huybrechts despite both players finishing on £34,500.
Bunting arrived at the final European Tour event of the season in 32nd position with £33,000, just £2,000 ahead of Sedlacek. Results earlier in Maastricht pushed 'The Bullet' outside the provisional qualification places, leaving him needing victory over Cameron Menzies on Saturday evening to keep his Dortmund hopes alive. The former Masters champion delivered under pressure, defeating Menzies 6-2 before Nathan Aspinall's 6-1 victory over Michael Smith later that evening confirmed his European Championship qualification. Bunting continued his run into Sunday's semi-finals, where he eventually lost 7-4 to Niels Zonneveld. His £10,000 earnings from Maastricht lifted his final total to £43,000 and moved him up four places to 28th.
Smith was among those left disappointed. The 2023 world champion arrived in Maastricht with an outside chance of qualifying, but needed a deep run to overhaul those above him. His defeat to Aspinall ended those hopes, leaving him 36th in the final standings with £28,500. There was an even narrower outcome at the qualification cut-off. Sedlacek and Huybrechts both finished on £34,500, but the Czech occupied 32nd position on countback, leaving the Belgian immediately outside the field in 33rd. Huybrechts had started the weekend inside the qualification places, only for a first-round defeat to Jimmy van Schie to leave him vulnerable to those chasing from below. Sebastian Bialecki and Joe Cullen also missed out, both finishing on £29,500, while Gary Anderson ended his European Tour campaign in 45th position with £15,000. The two-time world champion's absence had already been apparent before Maastricht, with insufficient earnings from his European Tour appearances to mount a challenge for the qualification places.
Niels Zonneveld completed the biggest climb among the leading names by winning the Dutch Darts Championship in front of his home crowd. The Dutchman entered Maastricht in 20th position with £52,500, but Sunday's 8-5 final victory over Danny Noppert earned him another £35,000 and took his season-long total to £87,500. That lifted Zonneveld to fourth in the final Order of Merit, above the likes of Jonny Clayton, Gian van Veen, Luke Littler and Luke Humphries. He will consequently be the fourth seed at the European Championship, just days after securing the first European Tour title of his career. Noppert also enjoyed a significant rise despite losing the final, climbing from tenth to fifth with £87,000. Nathan Aspinall finished sixth on the same total, ahead of Clayton in seventh with £86,000.
Ross Smith had already guaranteed himself first place before the final tournament of the season. Another £5,000 in Maastricht took his total to £158,000, ensuring he will be the number one seed in Dortmund as he attempts to reclaim the European Championship title he won in 2022. Wessel Nijman retained second position with £124,000 after reaching the quarter-finals in Maastricht, while Krzysztof Ratajski finished third on £89,500. Van Veen, who produced a historic 120.24 average at the Dutch Darts Championship before losing to Noppert in the semi-finals, finished eighth with £81,000. The Dutchman heads to Dortmund as defending European champion, having claimed his maiden major title at the event in 2025. Luke Woodhouse and Josh Rock completed the top ten, with Littler and Humphries immediately behind them in 11th and 12th, both on £75,000. Littler achieved that total despite contesting just three European Tour events during the season, winning two of them. Michael van Gerwen finished 19th with £56,000, comfortably inside the qualification places despite ending his European Tour season without a title.
The final seedings have also produced several intriguing opening-round ties when the European Championship gets underway at Dortmund's Westfalenhalle from 22 to 25 October. Bunting's reward for surviving the qualification battle is a meeting with Noppert, while Sedlacek faces top seed Ross Smith. Zonneveld begins his campaign against Cameron Menzies, just days after the Maastricht triumph that transformed his position in the rankings.
