Who has withdrawn from the Swiss Darts Trophy?
Price, Anderson, Aspinall and Joyce are the four, and no explanation has been published for any of them. Their places went to the reserve list, which on the European Tour is not an arbitrary queue: the vacancies are filled by the highest-ranked players who lost their final match at the Tour Card Holder Qualifier. That produced Karel Sedlacek, Alan Soutar, Rob Owen and Nick Kenny, all four of whom were an hour of darts away from qualifying on merit and are now in the field anyway.
| Withdrawn | Original status | Replaced by |
|---|---|---|
| Gerwyn Price | 7th seed | Karel Sedlacek |
| Gary Anderson | 11th seed | Alan Soutar |
| Nathan Aspinall | 14th seed | Rob Owen |
| Ryan Joyce | Unseeded | Nick Kenny |
Anderson’s absence is the one with a pattern behind it. He also missed this tournament last year, and he is the only one of the four who sits inside the top ten of the two-year Order of Merit— tenth, on £591,750, after the World Grand Prix. A top-ten ranking and a thinning schedule pull in opposite directions, because the qualifying tables that decide the autumn majors are fed by appearances rather than by reputation. DartsNews reported on Thursday that his Players Championship Finals place is now genuinely precarious.
Why Woodhouse, Schindler and Ratajski are suddenly seeded
European Tour seeding is taken from the two-year Order of Merit, but it counts only the players who have actually entered — so an entry list that loses three seeded players does not leave three gaps in the bracket. It shuffles the whole thing upward.
Price was the seventh seed, Anderson the eleventh and Aspinall the fourteenth. Remove them and everyone below each one moves up: Stephen Bunting from eighth to seventh, Chris Dobey from twelfth to tenth, Ross Smith from fifteenth to twelfth. The three places that open at the bottom then pull in the next three entrants on the list.
| Seed | Player | Country | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luke Humphries | ENG | — |
| 2 | Gian van Veen | NED | — |
| 3 | Jonny Clayton | WAL | — |
| 4 | James Wade | ENG | — |
| 5 | Michael van Gerwen | NED | — |
| 6 | Josh Rock | NIR | — |
| 7 | Stephen Bunting | ENG | Up 1 |
| 8 | Danny Noppert | NED | Up 1 |
| 9 | Ryan Searle | ENG | Up 1 |
| 10 | Chris Dobey | ENG | Up 2 |
| 11 | Wessel Nijman | NED | Up 2 |
| 12 | Ross Smith | ENG | Up 3 |
| 13 | Jermaine Wattimena | NED | Up 3 |
| 14 | Luke Woodhouse | ENG | New |
| 15 | Martin Schindler | GER | New |
| 16 | Krzysztof Ratajski | POL | New |
Luke Woodhouse, Martin Schindler and Krzysztof Ratajskiwere all down to start on the Friday as ProTour Order of Merit qualifiers. They now do not throw a dart until Saturday. The symmetry is hard to miss: Schindler won the inaugural Swiss Darts Trophy in 2024 and Woodhouse lost last year’s final 8-3 to Bunting, so both previous finalists and both previous champions are now exempt to the last 32 in a hall where none of them expected to be.
What a bye is actually worth in Basel
The practical value is a round of darts. A first-round entrant has to win six matches to lift the trophy; a seed has to win five. Because the format runs best-of-11 all the way to the quarter-finals before stretching to best-of-13 and best-of-15, that difference is six legs.
Cumulative legs for a player who starts on the Friday. The 16 seeds enter at the 12-leg mark. Source: PDC Europe format — best of 11 to the quarter-finals, best of 13 semi-finals, best of 15 final.
There is a cash difference too, and it is smaller than it looks. A first-round loser collects £2,000 and a second-round loser £3,500, so the three promoted men have banked an extra £1,500 for turning up. The catch, as ever on the European Tour, is that a pre-qualified player who loses their opening match has that cheque paid but credited to no Order of Merit at all. Woodhouse, Schindler and Ratajski have gained a guaranteed £3,500 and a day off; what they have not gained is ranking money without winning a game.
Swiss Darts Trophy 2026 first-round draw
Thirty-two unseeded players contest 16 matches on the Friday, and each winner inherits a seed on the Saturday. The fixture that leaps off the sheet is Michael Smith against Rob Owen: a former world champion, in Basel only because he came through the Tour Card Holder Qualifier, drawn against one of the four men who got in because somebody else dropped out.
| First round | Round two opponent |
|---|---|
| Kevin Doets v Nick Kenny | (1) Luke Humphries |
| Niko Springer v Roman Wellinger | (2) Gian van Veen |
| Raymond van Barneveld v Maik Kuivenhoven | (3) Jonny Clayton |
| Dirk van Duijvenbode v Bruno Stöckli | (4) James Wade |
| Mensur Suljović v György Jehirszki | (5) Michael van Gerwen |
| Dave Chisnall v Alan Soutar | (6) Josh Rock |
| Jeffrey de Graaf v Sietse Lap | (7) Stephen Bunting |
| Damon Heta v Alex Fehlmann | (8) Danny Noppert |
| Cameron Menzies v Cristo Reyes | (9) Ryan Searle |
| Niels Zonneveld v Bradley Brooks | (10) Chris Dobey |
| Sebastian Białecki v Karel Sedlacek | (11) Wessel Nijman |
| William O’Connor v Jani Haavisto | (12) Ross Smith |
| Michael Smith v Rob Owen | (13) Jermaine Wattimena |
| Rob Cross v Mario Vandenbogaerde | (14) Luke Woodhouse |
| Joe Cullen v Tom Bissell | (15) Martin Schindler |
| Andrew Gilding v Stefan Bellmont | (16) Krzysztof Ratajski |
Two more Friday ties carry real weight. Raymond van Barneveld meets Maik Kuivenhoven for the right to face third seed Jonny Clayton, and Rob Cross plays Mario Vandenbogaerde with the newly seeded Woodhouse on the other side. Dave Chisnall, who is only in the field because Luke Littler withdrew before the Tour Card Holder Qualifier, faces Soutar with Josh Rock to follow.
How the withdrawals affect the race for Dortmund
The European Championship field is settled by a one-year table of 2026 European Tour prize money, and Basel is the second-last chance to add to it. Price, Anderson and Aspinall cannot now add anything here; only the Dutch Darts Championship in Maastricht on 16-18 October is left to them.
That matters most at the cut. Bunting holds 32nd place on £33,000 with Joe Cullen £3,500 behind him in 33rd, and the draw has given them very different Fridays. Cullen plays Tom Bissell in the first round, so one win banks ranking money and puts him in front of Schindler. Bunting, exempt until Saturday, cannot add a penny to his Dortmund total until he beats whichever of de Graaf or Lap survives. The live standings sit on the European Championship race page.
Schedule and how to watch
All three days run two sessions, and the PDC lists the schedule as subject to change. Friday’s first round starts at 13:00 local time (12:00 BST) and resumes at 19:00 local (18:00 BST); Saturday’s second round follows the same pattern. Sunday opens with the third round at 12:00 CEST (11:00 BST), with the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final all in the evening session from 18:00 CEST (17:00 BST).
Coverage is on DAZN in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, on CANAL+ SPORT 5 and CANAL+ streaming in Poland, and on PDCTV everywhere outside Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The rest of the autumn is on the 2026 calendar.