The UK Open 2026 begins on Friday, March 6 at the Butlin’s Minehead Resort, with 158 players set to compete across three days for one of the PDC's most prestigious titles. The unique tournament format sees 128 PDC Tour Card holders joined by amateur qualifiers and talents from the Challenge Tour and Development Tour, often producing intriguing matchups between established names and dark horses. The opening day is a marathon, with the first four rounds played across eight stages, starting at 11:00 AM.
The first round features lower-ranked Tour Card holders (positions 97 to 128) alongside qualifiers from the Challenge Tour, Development Tour, Riley’s Amateur Qualifiers, and PDC in the Community qualifiers. Players ranked 65 to 96 enter in the second round, and those ranked 33 to 64 join in the third round, with all matches from these rounds completed before the evening session. The Friday evening session then sees the top 32 ranked players enter in the fourth round, including defending champion Luke Littler, Michael van Gerwen, and former winners Gary Anderson, James Wade, Danny Noppert, Nathan Aspinall, Dimitri Van den Bergh, and Andrew Gilding.
Notable names starting earlier include two-time winner Raymond van Barneveld and 2017 champion Peter Wright, who both begin in the third round, along with Gian van Veen, Gerwyn Price, and Jonny Clayton. The afternoon session starts at 12:00 PM, with the main stage program beginning at 1:00 PM. Opening matches on the main stage feature Stefan Bellmont versus Charlie Manby, followed by second-round matches involving Christian Kist, Jimmy van Schie, and Beau Greaves. The third round later includes Raymond van Barneveld against Karel Sedlacek, Ricky Evans versus Brendan Dolan, and Peter Wright facing an opponent to be determined from Czerwinski/Labanauskas/Francis.
Board 2 hosts twelve matches, including Kim Huybrechts versus Keane Barry and Joe Cullen's match against the winner of Rupprecht/Walker/Crabtree. All other matches are played in Studio 36, housing boards 3 through 8, featuring players like Mensur Suljovic, Callan Rydz, Jeffrey de Zwaan, James Hurrell, and Ian White. After the third round concludes, the draw for the fourth round will take place on the main stage, setting the stage for a weekend of unpredictable drama in the open-draw format.
