PDC World Darts Championship 2026 – Semi-Finals Tips and Betting Preview

It is semi-final night at the PDC World Darts Championship on Friday as four men return to Alexandra Palace looking to book their spot in the final of the competition and bank the £400,000 that comes with doing so.

The final four includes the defending champion, a former winner of the tournament, a man who many believe if a winner of it in waiting and an outsider who could be very dangerous on a going day so it should all make up for a belting evening of arrers.

Luke Littler vs Ryan Searle

We open up the night with the defending champion Luke Littler, who is looking to make it into the final for a third successive year, when he goes up against a man enjoying his best Alexandra Palace run in the form of Ryan Searle.

Both these men have cruised through to this semi-final with just one player of the five they have faced taking a set from them. It was Rob Cross who snatched a couple from Littler in the round of 16 while Jonny Clayton had a brace off Searle in the quarter final. Around that there has been a barrel load of 180s, big finishes and ton plus averages from both men and if they are at their best here this should be a belting semi-final. Those who have followed us throughout the event will be hoping that Searle pulls off the big shock and sets us up for a super Saturday and given that he has already funded the remainder of the tournament I’ll sit and hope Searle does win this but he will need to overturn a 5-0 head-to-head career record against the world number one. Searle does play well against Littler though. In their recent meeting he averaged 104.22 and his other two stage averages against him in 2025 were 98.63 and 95.48. Searle has spoken about how he is much more confident with his new equipment in this tournament and has registered averages of 98.57, 102.29, 100.57 and 91.32 since the first round. I’ll let Searle off with the last one as he was a favourite in a huge match and went 3-0 up and was cruising, circumstances which aren’t going to be the case here. I’ve mentioned in the past that the Littler opponent often has an inflated average because they don’t see as many darts at a double and that benefits us here when considering over 96.5 on the three dart Searle average. So far the Littler opponents have averaged 95.25, 95.53, 96.21, 98.92 and 96.74 and I expect to see a decent Searle here who averages much closer to a ton than 95 in what I hope will be a Searle win although realistically Littler is a genuinely warm favourite.

Special Offer

OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH 888SPORT AND BET £10 TO GET £30 IN FREE BETS PLUS A £10 CASINO BONUS! PERFECT OFFER TO USE ON THIS TOURNAMENT! CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO JOIN. USE CODE 30F. NEW ACCOUNTS ONLY. 18+ T&Cs apply (See image for significant terms). Gamble Aware.

Gian van Veen vs Gary Anderson

The second semi-final certainly looks like it offers the potential to be the closer of the two on paper when the European champion Gian van Veen continues his quest to win the World Championship a few weeks on from banking the World Youth Championship. A former winner in Gary Anderson stands in his way of a place in the final.

Everything suggests that this should be a belting contest and the mindset and approach of van Veen interests me here. I say that because he had a blinding head-to-head record against Luke Humphries ahead of their quarter final and he was the outsider in that match. He is the favourite for this one, and a pretty strong one at that, even though he has a 4-1 deficit in career meetings with the Scot. Anderson has largely floated under the radar in this tournament but that ended when he took care of Michael van Gerwen. He was a favourite against Justin Hood in the quarter final and showed exactly why that was the case with a comfortable 5-2 win but the Scot will need to find a bit if van Veen plays like he did in a 5-1 thumping of Humphries, although missed doubles from Humphries played a part in that score. There were plenty of dynamics to explain why Anderson wasn’t quite as good against Hood as he had been prior to that, he was favourite, it was an afternoon session and he was playing someone local to him. None of those factors are in play here. Instead it is van Veen in unknown territory. This match is expected to have towards 40 legs in it and only twice in his career has he played a best of 31 and lost both of those. His quarter final was expected to be another but it only had 27 legs in it so the longer this goes the more Anderson might be likely to win, as their Grand Slam quarter final in 2014 proved when van Veen threw everything at the Scot and Anderson won 16-14 while similar happened in a 16-13 defeat to James Wade in the World Matchplay in 2025. I still think van Veen is a favourite based on his last two showings here but Anderson is a much bigger danger than a 13/8 shot with all the mental factors in his favour. I’ll take a largely free wheeling Scot with little to lose to move to a sixth world final.

Tips

Back R.Searle – Over 96.5 3 dart average for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill

Back him here:

Back G.Anderson to beat G.van Veen for a 3/10 stake at 2.63 with Betway