Gian van Veen

Gian van Veen, known as The Giant, is a Dutch darts player and the 2025 European champion. Born in Poederoijen on 23 April 2002, he was second on the PDC Order of Merit when the rankings were last published on 2 November 2026, with £1,060,250 in ranking prize money over the two-year period the list covers. The PDC credits him with two senior titles, both won in 2025.

Van Veen first made his name in the PDC's youth game. He won the PDC World Youth Championship in 2024, beating Jurjen van der Velde 6-5 in the final, and retained it in 2025 with a 6-3 win over Beau Greaves. His first senior PDC title came at Players Championship 6 in 2025, where he beat Luke Humphries 8-3 in the final. Later that year he won his first major, the European Championship, edging Humphries 11-10 in the final, so both of his senior titles came at the expense of the same opponent.

He reached the final of the 2026 PDC World Championship, where he lost 7-1 to Luke Littler. In October 2026 he made the semi-finals of the Dutch Darts Championship on home soil, beating Brendan Dolan and Ryan Searle before losing 7-5 to Danny Noppert. At the European Championship a week later, as defending champion, he beat Andrew Gilding 6-4 in the first round and then lost 10-6 to Luke Woodhouse in the last 16. The PDC records three nine-dart finishes for him across its events, two of them in senior competition. He throws 21-gram Winmau darts and walks on to "Astronomia" by Tony Igy and Vicetone.