The Dortmund arena takes the darts tour back for its biggest week of autumn tonight, with a £750,000 prize fund and £150,000 going to the winner spread across four days of play. Luke Littler walks in as the overwhelming favorite for a trophy he has never held.

The Warrington teenager has already lifted every other piece of silverware on the Professional Darts Corporation calendar in his short career. The European Championship is the single line still unchecked, and four nights in Germany would complete the sweep.

The run that ended and the one still in play

Littler’s hopes of winning every major in a single 2026 calendar year were already shut down in Amsterdam earlier this autumn, when Jonny Clayton beat him 10-4 in the quarter-finals of the World Series of Darts Finals.

The season silverware he has collected regardless, the World Championship, the Masters, the UK Open, the Premier League, the World Cup of Darts and the World Matchplay, is already an unusually heavy haul by any standard other than his own.

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The career sweep is the bigger prize. Only Dortmund still blocks it.

13 Englishmen in the field

Thirteen Englishmen qualified through the European Tour Order of Merit, more than any other nation. Seven of them are in the top 16:

Ross Smith is top seed, with Nathan Aspinall at six, Luke Woodhouse at nine, Littler himself at 11, Luke Humphries at 12, Ryan Joyce at 15 and James Wade at 16. Rob Cross, Chris Dobey, Dave Chisnall, Stephen Bunting, Ryan Searle and Andrew Gilding complete the English contingent.

The player most previews put next to Littler on the shortlist is Humphries, who lost last year’s final 11-10 to Gian van Veen and arrives in Dortmund with unfinished business. Gerwyn Price, the Welshman seeded 13th, is also widely fancied after a run of autumn form, while Wade and Ross Smith are the live outsiders in the English pack.

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Van Veen opens the defense, Littler plays Friday

Van Veen begins his title defense against Andrew Gilding, one of eight first-round ties on Thursday night that also pair Humphries with Ryan Searle and Price with Rob Cross. Littler plays on Friday evening, against Ireland’s William O’Connor.

Round one is best of 11 legs. The format then stretches to best of 19 for the second round and quarter-finals across Saturday and Sunday, and best of 21 for the semi-finals and final on Sunday evening, when the £150,000 trophy is lifted.

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