The day’s key development is clear: Yorick Hofkens added Winmau Development Tour Event 19 to the Hildesheim picture, just hours after Jamai van den Herik had won Event 18. Saturday therefore produced two different winners, with Hofkens taking his first Development Tour title and Van den Herik making a clear move back into the race.
According to the PDC report, more than 290 players competed at Halle 39, with £3,000 on offer to the winner of each event. The stakes go beyond the trophy: the top two on the final Order of Merit will earn PDC Tour Cards for 2027-2028, while the top three will also secure World Championship places.
For context, we had already followed the Development Tour shift at Arena MK in early June. This time, Hildesheim adds another important layer: the race behind Sebastian Bialecki is still open, and every final is starting to carry real weight.
| Event | Final |
|---|---|
| Development Tour 16 | Owen Bates beat Kaya Baysal 5-0 |
| Development Tour 17 | Sam Jackson beat Jan Schmidt 5-3 |
| Development Tour 18 | Jamai van den Herik beat Angelo Balsamo 5-3 |
| Development Tour 19 | Yorick Hofkens beat Adam Gawlas 5-4 |
| Venue | Halle 39, Hildesheim |
| Season stakes | Tour Cards for the top two, World Championship places for the final top three |
Hofkens lands his first Development Tour title
The strongest new angle is Hofkens. The 19-year-old German won his first Winmau Development Tour title by beating Adam Gawlas 5-4 in a tense final. Gawlas took the first two legs, Hofkens answered with three in a row, and the match went all the way. At that point, Hofkens closed it out with a 14-dart break of throw.
His route gives the result more weight. Hofkens opened against Angelo Balsamo, the Event 18 runner-up, before beating Tim Hoffmann and James Buckby by the same 4-1 scoreline. He then came from 3-1 down against Danio Aalders, before defeating Cody Crabtree, Jenson Walker and Cam Crabtree. This was not just a title pinched in the final: it was a full day built through a dense draw.
Van den Herik had already set the tone on Saturday
Before Hofkens, Van den Herik won Event 18 by beating Angelo Balsamo 5-3 in the final. His route was solid too. The Dutchman survived a last-leg decider against Finlay Cleave in his opener, then defeated Archie Self, Dominik Gruellich, Owen Bates and Mylo Michiels before finishing the job.
The important detail is how he did it. Van den Herik beat Bates 5-4 in the quarter-finals, with the Englishman coming off his Event 16 title. He then won another last-leg match against Michiels in the semi-finals. On this circuit, those sequences matter: the formats are short, the margins close quickly, and handling the final legs becomes almost as important as the raw average.
Bialecki still leads by a distance, but the race behind him moves
The PDC notes that Van den Herik’s win moves him up to seventh on the Development Tour rankings, while Hofkens climbs to fourteenth. Sebastian Bialecki still holds a huge lead at the top, sitting £10,050 clear despite missing this block.
Behind him, Jack Drayton, Cam Crabtree and Leon Weber all remain above £11,000. Put another way: first place looks very firmly held, but the battle for the spots that matter is still alive. Van den Herik and Hofkens have not simply added two lines to the roll of honour, they have put their names back into a conversation that can still change before the final weekend.
Event 20: final Hildesheim test before Wigan
The Hildesheim weekend continues on Sunday August 2 with Event 20. The 2026 Development Tour will then return in Wigan on October 3-4 for the final four events, before the World Youth Championship on October 5.
For the newsroom, the follow-up angle is simple: the Development Tour is no longer just a run of youth results. At this stage of the season, every title matters in the race for Tour Cards and Alexandra Palace places. Hofkens has just entered that story, Van den Herik is firmly back in it, and Sunday can still shift the order again.
