World No. 1 Luke Humphries and three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen are unsurprisingly in the top-five for scoring this season. But there is a player little-known to casual fans who has both of them trumped. In fact, only the red-hot Luke Littler boasts better numbers than fellow darting youngster Gian van Veen.
The Dutchman has been in Littler’s shadow ever since they met in the 2023 World Youth final. While ‘The Nuke’ has banked well over £1million in prize money and converted his youth title into a senior world title, Van Veen has been steadily going about his business, which has seen him rise to a respectable 24th in the PDC Order of Merit.
But on pure scoring alone, particularly this season, Van Veen deserves to be talked about amongst the very best. The 22-year-old’s superb seasonal average of 99.44 puts him second on the overall list, behind Littler on 102.11, but comfortably ahead of third-place Humphries, fourth-place Gerwyn Price and fifth-place Van Gerwen.
Van Veen mixing it with the big guns is made even more impressive by the fact that he is still far from a household name in non-darting circles.
‘The Giant’ is yet to win a major title, has never been beyond the second round of the World Darts Championship, and was nowhere near consideration for this year’s Premier League Darts line-up.
That could soon change if Van Veen continues on his current trajectory. He clinched his first ranking title on Wednesday, beating Humphries in the final of Players Championship 6 the day after losing to Joe Cullen in the final of Players Championship 5.
“After what happened yesterday, this feels amazing,” said Van Veen. “I’ve had two incredible days here. I felt a bit hard done by yesterday and I was heartbroken after I lost the final, so to rectify that today is unbelievable.
“I’ve been playing well so far this year and my goal was to win a title. I knew I was the highest-ranked player without a ranking title. I’ve achieved that now and this win will give me massive confidence going into a busy next few weeks.”
Though Van Veen is off the mark, he will be forced to watch on while eight of the world’s best head to Nottingham on Thursday night for the latest edition of Premier League Darts, with Littler, Humphries and Van Gerwen among those in action.
