Michael Van Gerwen was born on April 25th, 1989 in Boxtel, Holland. He has the nickname Mighty Mike and made his TV debut in 2006. That year he won the World Masters coming from 2 - 5 down to defeat Martin Adams. He became the youngest player to win the title.

In 2007 he made his debut at Lakeside in the BDO World Championship. He was seeded number three and was the bookmakers favourite. However he failed to impress losing in the first round to Gary Robson. After the event he announced he was joining the PDC.