The nights are drawing in and Christmas decorations are about to go up — that only means one thing: the World Darts Championship is back.
This year’s tournament is the biggest yet, with an expanded 128-player field competing for a share of the £5 million prize fund which contains an eye-popping £1 million cheque for the winner.
Seeded players need to play an extra match to reach the final year — they are joining from the first round — and there are five women set to stand behind the oche at Alexandra Palace for the first time.
Fresh from becoming the new world No. 1, defending champion Luke Littler heads to Alexandra Palace as the bookies’ favourite, but Luke Humphries has proclaimed that he will secure his second title.
– Luke Littler darts titles, prize money, career history, more
– Stephen Bunting darts titles, prize money, career history, more
– Who is Beau Greaves? Darts titles, prize money, career history
World Darts Championship draw in full
Top half
Luke Littler (1) vs. Darius Labanauskas
Mario Vandenbogaerde vs. David Davies
Joe Cullen (32) vs. Bradley Brooks
Mensur Suljovic vs. David Cameron
Damon Heta (16) vs. Steve Lennon
Raymond van Berneveld vs. Stefan Bellmont
Rob Cross (17) vs. Cor Dekker
Ian White vs. Mervyn King
Chris Dobey (8) vs. Xiaochen Zong
Andrew Gilding vs. Cam Crabtree
Luke Woodhouse (25) vs. Boris Krcmar
Martin Lukeman vs. Max Hopp
Gerwyn Price (9) vs. Adam Gawlas
Lukas Wenig vs. Wesley Plaisier
Ryan Joyce (24) vs. Owen Bates
Krzysztof Ratajski vs. Alexis Toylo
Stephen Bunting (4) vs. Sebastian Bialecki
Richard Veenstra vs. Nitin Kumar
Dirk van Duijvenbode (29) vs. Andy Baetens
James Hurrell vs. Stowe Buntz
Martin Schindler (13) vs. Stephen Burton
Keane Barry vs. Tim Pusey
Ryan Searle (20) vs. Chris Landman
Brendan Dolan vs. Travis Dudeney
Jonny Clayton (5) vs. Adam Lipscombe
Dom Taylor vs. Oskar Lukasiak
Michael Smith (28) vs. Lisa Ashton
Niels Zonneveld vs. Haupai Puha
Ross Smith (12) vs. Andreas Harrysson
Thibault Tricole vs. Motomu Sakai
Dave Chisnall (21) vs. Fallon Sherrock
Ricardo Pietreczko vs. Jose De Sousa
Luke Littler won his first world championship thanks to his 7-3 victory over Michael van Gerwen in last year’s final. James Fearn/Getty Images
Bottom half
Luke Humphries (2) vs. Ted Evetts
Jeffrey de Graaf vs. Paul Lim
Wessel Nijman (31) vs. Karel Sedlacek
Gabriel Clemens vs. Alex Spellman
Nathan Aspinall (15) vs. Lourence Ilagan
Mickey Mansell vs. Leonard Gates
Mike De Decker (18) vs. David Munyua
Kevin Doets vs. Matthew Dennant
James Wade (7) vs. Ryusei Azemoto
Rickey Evans vs. Man Lok Leung
Cameron Menzies (26) vs. Charlie Manby
Matt Campbell vs. Adam Sevada
Gian van Veen (10) vs. Cristo Reyes
Alan Soutar vs. Teemu Harju
Dimitri Van den Bergh (23) vs Darren Beveridge
Madars Razma vs. Jamai van den Herik
Michael van Gerwen (3) vs. Mitsuhiko Tatsunami
William O’Connor vs. Krzysztof Kciuk
Peter Wright (30) vs. Noa-Lynn van Leuven
Kim Huybrechts vs. Arno Merk
Gary Anderson (14) vs. Adam Hunt
Connor Scutt vs. Simon Whitlock
Jermaine Wattimena (19) vs. Dominik Gruellich
Scott Williams vs. Paolo Nebrida
Danny Noppert (6) vs. Jurjen van der Velde
Nick Kenny vs. Justin Hood
Ritchie Edhouse (27) vs. Jonny Tata
Ryan Meikle vs. Jesus Salate
Josh Rock (11) vs. Gemma Hayter
Niko Springer vs. Joe Comito
Daryl Gurney (22) vs. Beau Greaves
Callan Rydz vs. Patrik Kovacs
Luke Humphries begins his world championship campaign against Ted Evetts. Ryan Hiscott/Getty Images
World Darts Championship schedule
Round One (best of 5 sets)
Thursday Dec. 11 from 7 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Friday Dec. 12 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Friday Dec. 12 from 7 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Saturday Dec. 13 from 12.30 GMT
Four matches
Saturday Dec. 13 from 7p.m.GMT
Four matches
Sunday Dec. 14 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Sunday Dec. 14 from 7 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Monday Dec. 15 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Monday Dec. 15 from 7 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Tuesday Dec. 16 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Tuesday Dec. 16 from 7 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Wednesday Dec. 17 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Wednesday Dec. 17 from 7 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Thursday Dec. 18 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Thursday Dec. 18 from 7 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Friday Dec. 19 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Friday Dec. 19 from 7 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Round Two (best of 5 sets)
Saturday Dec. 20 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Saturday Dec. 20 from 7 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Sunday Dec. 21 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Sunday Dec. 21 from 7 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Monday Dec. 22 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Monday Dec. 22 from 7 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Tuesday Dec. 23 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Tuesday Dec. 23 from 7 p.m. GMT
Four matches
Round Three (best of 7 sets)
Saturday Dec. 27 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Three matches
Saturday Dec. 27 from 7 p.m. GMT
Three matches
Sunday Dec. 28 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Three matches
Sunday Dec. 28 from 7 p.m. GMT
Three matches
Monday Dec. 29 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Three matches
Monday Dec. 29 from 7 p.m. GMT
One match
Round Four (best of 7 sets)
Monday Dec. 29 from 7 p.m. GMT
Two matches
Tuesday Dec. 30 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Three matches
Tuesday Dec. 30 from 7 p.m. GMT
Three matches
Quarterfinals (best of 9 sets)
Thursday Jan. 1 from 12.30 p.m. GMT
Two matches
Thursday Jan. 1 from 7 p.m. GMT
Two matches
Semifinals (best of 11 sets)
Friday Jan. 2 from 7. 30 p.m. GMT
Two matches
Final (best of 13 sets)
Saturday Jan. 3 at 8 p.m. GMT
One match
What is the prize money?
The 128-player field is competing for a share of the £5 million total prize fund, with the winner taking home a staggering £1 million — double the amount won by Littler last year.
Round-by-round breakdown:
Bonus prize money available:
– World Darts Championship prize money: All-time stats
How to watch?
The World Darts Championship will be shown exclusively live on Sky Sports in the UK.
What is the format?
Matches at the World Darts Championship are decided by legs and sets. As with all PDC tournaments, the games are played in the 501 format, where players look to reduce their score from 501 to zero as efficiently as possible, finishing with a double.
The highest-score available in a single visit is 180 (three darts in the triple 20), while the fastest way to finish a game is with a nine-dart leg. Each successful finish counts as one leg, and the first player to win three legs secures a set.
The number of sets required to win varies by round. In the first and second rounds, matches are played in a best-of-five sets format. In the third round and the Round of 16, matches are played to the best of seven sets.
In the quarterfinals, the winner is determined in a best-of-nine-sets format, while the semifinals are played in a best-of-11-sets match. The final follows a best-of-13-sets format, where the first player to win seven sets is crowned the world champion. — Keith Jenkins
Has there been a nine-darter?
If this year’s event is anything like the last one, we may not have to wait long to see nine perfect darts.
Christian Kist threw one in the opening set of his first-round match 12 months ago. In doing so, the Dutchman picked up a £60,000 bonus.
His feat was matched by Damon Heta in the third round. The nine-darters weren’t enough to take either player through, though, with Kist losing to Madars Razma and Heta succumbing to Luke Woodhouse.
As if going into the darts history books wasn’t enough, tournament sponsors Paddy Power have confirmed that they are repeating last year’s initiative of giving £60,000 each to any player who hits a nine-darter and an additional £60,000 to both a randomly-selected member of the crowd and Prostate Cancer UK.
Damon Heta hit a nine-darter in his third-round match against Luke Woodhouse last year. James Fearn/Getty Images
Who are the previous winners?
Luke Littler won the world championship last year, beating three-time champion Michael van Gerwen (2014, 2017, 2019) to do so.
Littler has a long road ahead to even get close to the 16 managed by the legendary Phil Taylor before his retirement from PDC events in 2018.
John Part (2003, 2008), Adrian Lewis (2011, 2012), Gary Anderson (2015, 2016) and Peter Wright (2020, 2022) have won two world championships each.
Dennis Priestley (1994), Raymond van Barneveld (2007), Rob Cross (2018), Gerwyn Price (2021), Michael Smith (2023) and Luke Humphries (2024) have each won one title.
ESPN’s darts page will have all the latest breaking news, features and reaction to the big moments during this year’s PDC World Darts Championship.
