Christmas is fast approaching which means that the PDC World Darts Championship is about to get underway when 96 of the best darts players in the world head to the Alexandra Palace looking to be crowned world champion.
Luke Humphries had that honour a year ago and he is back to attempt to defend the title. This feels like a massively wide open event though with potentially more possible winners in the field than ever before which makes it very interesting.
Recent Winners
2024 – Luke Humphries
2023 – Michael Smith
2022 – Peter Wright
2021 – Gerwyn Price
2020 – Peter Wright
2019 – Michael van Gerwen
2018 – Rob Cross
2017 – Michael van Gerwen
2016 – Gary Anderson
2015 – Gary Anderson
The Format
There has been no change to the format for the 2025 renewal so the top 32 in the world rankings all progress through to the second round with the first round of the event seeing the 32 qualifiers from the pro tour order of merit meeting one of the international qualifiers for the right to take on a seeded player in the second stage of the event.
The first and the second round are the best of five sets. The third round and the last 16 are the best of seven sets with the quarter finals up to the best of nine. The two semi-finals are the best of 11 and the champion will be crowned on January 3 over the best of 13 sets. From the second round onwards there is a final set tiebreaker which means that a deciding set needs to be won by two clear legs unless it gets to 5-5 in which leg 11 is a sudden death as has been the case ever since the competition moved to Alexandra Palace.
Top Quarter
Each quarter has 24 players in it and the top quarter will be headed up by the defending champion and the world number one Luke Humphries who is the top seed this year. Top seeds don’t have a great recent record in this tournament so that will keep the other seven seeded players in this section interested. They are Stephen Bunting, who is seeded to be the quarter final opponent for Humphries, Damon Heta, the World Grand Prix winner Mike De Decker, Dirk van Duijvenbode, former champions Raymond van Barneveld and Peter Wright and James Wade.
That all leaves 16 qualifiers in each quarter and the key ones in this quarter are the recent European Championship finalist Jermaine Wattimena. Christian Kist has had a brilliant year on the Challenge Tour and he is here while Connor Scutt is another who has had a decent time of it on that circuit. Alan Soutar is a former quarter finalist here while the likes of Thibault Tricole, Nick Kenny, Stowe Buntz, Madars Razma and Luke Woodhouse. The Winmau World Masters winner Wesley Plaisier is here too.
Second Quarter
The second quarter of the draw in this tournament is going to have a heck of a lot of attention to it. That is because the darting sensation that is Luke Littler is the leading seed in it. The man who lost the final last year will be looking to go one better from this section and is seeded to meet Rob Cross in the quarter final this time having beaten him in the semi-final a year ago. Six other seeds will be looking to stop that clash from happening. They include the European champion Ritchie Edhouse, former UK Open winner Danny Noppert, Ryan Searle, Gian van Veen, Nathan Aspinall and Andrew Gilding.
This section is loaded with great qualifiers but the headline attraction will be Fallon Sherrock because if she beats Ryan Meikle in the opening round she will face Littler in a second round clash which will break the internet! There are some huge names in here though. The semi-finalist of a year ago, Scott Williams is here as are Ryan Joyce, Mensur Suljovic, Ian White, Ricardo Pietreczko, Cameron Menzies and the Grand Slam finalist Martin Lukeman. Leonard Gates and Matt Campbell will represent North America well while Niko Springer has a lot of people saying good things about him.
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Third Quarter
Michael Smith is under a fair bit of ranking pressure in this tournament as he is defending the half a million he won when winning this competition two years ago. He is the top seed in the third quarter which looks the most open section of the lot. A huge reason for that is the next highest seed in it is Jonny Clayton who isn’t in the best form. Another former champion is in here in Gerwyn Price while the other seeds are Krzysztof Ratajski, Chris Dobey, Josh Rock, Daryl Gurney and Joe Cullen.
In terms of the qualifiers the one with some real potential who is being touted to go well is Wessel Nijman. He produced some insane averages without winning a match at the Grand Slam. Kevin Doets is in this quarter and could meet Michael Smith for the second season in a row. Doets needs to beat Noa-Lynn van Leuven first. Others to note here are the Grand Slam semi-finalist Mickey Mansell, Kim Huybrechts, Florian Hempel, Keane Barry and Jeffrey de Zwaan.
Bottom Quarter
Michael van Gerwen is the star act in the bottom quarter of the draw. He has won this tournament in the past and will be looking to get his hands back on the trophy. If everything goes to the numbers then he is going to face off against Dave Chisnall in the quarter final but another former champion is looming large looking to stop that from happening. That is Gary Anderson. He could meet van Gerwen in a really tasty round of 16 match. Brendan Dolan, Ross Smith, Gabriel Clemens, the UK Open champion Dimitri Van den Bergh and Martin Schindler will all hope for big tournaments.
I think it is fair to say that the qualifiers in this section aren’t as strong as they are in the other quarters but Jim Williams is more than good enough to have a decent run while Ricky Evans is a tournament regular. William O’Connor, Callan Rydz, Niels Zonneveld and Jeffrey de Graaf are others who are more than capable of winning through a few rounds here while Jim Long is an overseas qualifier who is playing well enough to cause an upset or two.
Betting
This looks to be a wide open tournament and it should be a really good betting market to go at and one that I will definitely be delving into on more than one occasion as we go along because a huge chunk of the market are in the same half of the draw in Luke Humphries and Luke Littler. Only one of those can make the final at best and at worst someone in the other half is going to land an each way payout if not go on and win the title. Gary Anderson and Michael van Gerwen are the favourites there but they would meet in the last 16 and Anderson would have to win that then a best of nine and best of 11 in successive nights to make the final. That feels a stretch for someone getting no younger. There is nothing in the MVG form to suggest that he is a winner in waiting again so you’d be betting on his record here, which isn’t necessarily the wrong way to do it as this tournament is very unique with the set play and the length of the format.
There are some forgotten players in this half of the draw such as Michael Smith, Jonny Clayton, Dimitri Van den Bergh and Gerwyn Price and I’m going to take a chance on the latter here. Admittedly the crowd is a huge worry but after the Mike De Decker incidents at the Grand Slam you’d like to think referees will be as strong as they can here, but even with the crowd a concern Price has a stellar record here which in the last five years reads SF-Winner (covid year and no crowds)-QF-QF-R3. Price has had a wretched year by his standards, assisted by a falling out of love for the sport, but he has been talking much more positively in recent times and the one thing champions do is make sure they show up for the big events so I would have no question about what to expect from him here. If the crowd give him an even chance he looks a massive price to come through a wide open half of the draw that at his best he would be a short price to handle.
Tips
Back G.Price to win PDC World Darts Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Betfred (1/4 1-4)
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