Pieter Gerard "Gian" van Veen (; born 23 April 2002) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is ranked world number three. He won the European Championship in 2025. He is also the reigning back-to-back World Youth champion.
Van Veen won the 2024 and 2025 PDC World Youth Championships, as well as nine PDC Development Tours, which includes six titles in 2023 to top the 2023 Development Tour rankings. His first deep run at a major tournament came at the 2023 European Championship, where he reached the semi-finals. In 2025, he won his first PDC ranking title at Players Championship 6 and won his first PDC major title at the 2025 European Championship, defeating Luke Humphries in the final on both occasions. Van Veen reached the final of the 2026 PDC World Championship.
Van Veen attended 2022 PDC Pro Tour Qualifying School. He reached the final stage but lost his opening games on the first two days, losing 6âÂÂ3 to Mario Vandenbogaerde in the last 16 in event three and to Ricardo Pietreczko 6âÂÂ4 in the last 32 in event four. This meant he failed to gain a PDC Tour Card but gained access to the secondary tour, the 2022 Challenge Tour.
On 15 July 2022, Van Veen won his only PDC Challenge Tour (CT) title to-date at CT12, defeating David Pallett 5âÂÂ4 in a deciding leg in the final.
While participating in the Challenge Tour, Van Veen suffered with dartitis, a neurological condition which makes it difficult to release a dart. Van Veen has spoken out about it, stating that dartitis actually made him play better, and that an opponent had accused him of cheating while he suffered with it.
On 4 November 2022, Van Veen reached the final of the Players Championship 29 event, losing 4âÂÂ8 to Gerwyn Price in the final.
In January 2023, he attended 2023 PDC Pro Tour Qualifying School (QâÂÂSchool) and won a PDC Tour Card by finishing ninth on the European QâÂÂSchool Order of Merit.
On 27 August, he reached his second Pro Tour final. He finished as the runner-up at Players Championship 18, being defeated by Gerwyn Price 8âÂÂ1 in the final.
He qualified for the 2023 European Championship, held in late-October, and reached his first PDC major semi-final. He achieved victories against Damon Heta, Daryl Gurney and Michael van Gerwen. He lost to James Wade 11âÂÂ9 in the semi-finals.
Van Veen won 6 titles and topped the 2023 Development Tour Order of Merit, ahead of Luke Littler. On 26 November, Littler beat Van Veen 6âÂÂ4 in the 2023 PDC World Youth Championship final.
Van Veen made his PDC World Championship debut in the 2024 edition. He was eliminated in the first round by Hong Kong qualifier Man Lok Leung, who overturned a 2âÂÂ0 deficit to defeat Van Veen 3âÂÂ2 in a major upset.
Van Veen won two 2024 Development Tour (DT) titles: DT5 on 25 February, with a 5âÂÂ0 whitewash of Dylan Slevin in the final; and DT7 on 3 May, with a 5âÂÂ1 win against Nathan Rafferty.
On 22 September 2024, he reached his third Pro Tour final at the Hungarian Darts Trophy. In his first PDC European Tour final, he finished as runner-up after missing a match dart at the bullseye. He was defeated by Michael van Gerwen 8âÂÂ7. In November, he reached his second PDC major quarter-final at the Grand Slam. He was defeated by Gary Anderson 16âÂÂ14. Having been defeated by Luke Littler in the previous year's final, Van Veen defeated fellow Dutchman Jurjen van der Velde 6âÂÂ5 to win the 2024 World Youth Championship.
Van Veen entered the second round of the 2025 World Championship as the 28th seed, but lost 3âÂÂ1 to Ricardo Pietreczko. Van Veen made his third UK Open appearance at the 2025 event. He reached the quarter-finals for the first time, before losing there to world champion Luke Littler 10âÂÂ4. He reached the final of Players Championship 5 by defeating Luke Littler 7âÂÂ6 in the semi-finals â ending Littler's 19-match winning streak. In the final, he led 7âÂÂ4 against Joe Cullen but missed six match darts on his way to an 8âÂÂ7 loss. The following day, he won his first ranking PDC title by winning Players Championship 6, defeating world number one Luke Humphries 8âÂÂ3 in the final. He reached a second European Tour final at the German Darts Grand Prix, where he lost 8âÂÂ5 to Michael van Gerwen.
Van Veen represented the Netherlands at the World Cup of Darts for the first time, teaming with Danny Noppert. The pair reached the semi-finals, where they were defeated 8âÂÂ5 by runners-up Wales. Following Players Championship 30, he entered the top 16 in the world on the PDC Order of Merit for the first time. At the European Championship, Van Veen defeated Michael van Gerwen 11âÂÂ9 to progress to his first PDC major final against Luke Humphries. The match went to a deciding leg, where Humphries missed a match dart and Van Veen completed a 100 checkout to win 11âÂÂ10 and capture his first PDC major title, resulting in him rising to world number seven.
Van Veen faced Humphries in a rematch in the first round of the Players Championship Finals, where Van Veen was once again victorious in a deciding leg. He was eliminated by Krzysztof Ratajski in the second round. On 23 November, Van Veen won his second World Youth Championship by defeating Beau Greaves 6âÂÂ3 in the final, becoming the second player to defend the title.
At the 2026 World Championship, Van Veen achieved his first win at the event by beating Cristo Reyes 3âÂÂ1 in the first round. He followed this with wins over Alan Soutar, Madars Razma, Charlie Manby, Luke Humphries and Gary Anderson to reach the final for the first time in his career, before losing 7âÂÂ1 to Luke Littler. Van Veen's success at the tournament saw him rise to a career-high third in the world and replace Michael van Gerwen as the Dutch number one. His rise in the world rankings also saw him qualify for the Premier League for the first time in his career.
Van Veen reached his maiden World Series final at the Bahrain Darts Masters, where he lost 8âÂÂ6 to Michael van Gerwen. He faced Luke Littler in a World Championship rematch at the inaugural Poland Darts Open, where he hit a nine-dart finish but was beaten 8âÂÂ4 in the final.
Van Veen was born Pieter Gerard van Veen on 23 April 2002 in Poederoijen, a small village in the small Dutch province of Gelderland. His parents gave him the name "Gian" in honour of a young boy from their neighbourhood named Gian who had died.
He studied aerospace engineering and earned a bachelor's degree in aviation in 2023. He worked a part-time office job near Amsterdam Airport Schiphol before pursuing darts full-time. He is colourblind. He is a supporter of the Dutch football club FC Den Bosch.
PDC European Tour
PDC Players Championships
PDC Development Tour