LUKE LITTLER and Beau Greaves have learnt their fate for the PDC World Darts Championship.
The ultimate festival of festive sport gets underway at Alexandra Palace on December 11.
The winner will be crowned on January 3, lifting the famous Sid Waddell Trophy in front of a packed crowd.
And with just over two weeks to go until the first arrow is thrown, the players now know their routes to darting glory.
There is also some big changes to be aware of for the 2026 tournament.
Firstly, the prize pot for the champion is a bumper £1million for the first time – double the £500,000 Littler banked in January.
And it is a 128-player draw, rather than 96.
That means the 32 seeded players enter the tournament from the first round – just like Wimbledon – and there will be no byes for the top stars.
Littler, 18, will head to North London as the new darts world No1 and hoping to head back to Warrington still in possession of the trophy – after beating Michael van Gerwen in January’s final.
And he begins his campaign next month by facing Darius Labanauskus in round one.
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Assuming he comes through the 49-year-old Lithuanian, Littler will then take on Mario Vandenbogaerde or David Davies – with the No1 seed scheduled to play No32 seed Joe Cullen in round three.
Elsewhere, Greaves, 21, is preparing for her second appearance at the Worlds – after making her debut in the 2023 edition.
Beau’n’Arrow – who lost the World Youth Championship final on Sunday – has been drawn against No22 seed Daryl Gurney.
More to follow…
List of all-time Darts World Champions
BELOW is a list of darts world champions by year.
The list does not include winners from the pre-Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) era or BDO world champions.
That means Raymond van Barneveld, for example, is only listed once – Barney also won four BDO titles – and none of Eric Bristow’s five BDO titles are included.
- 1994 – Dennis Priestley
- 1995 – Phil Taylor
- 1996 – Phil Taylor (2)
- 1997 – Phil Taylor (3)
- 1998 – Phil Taylor (4)
- 1999 – Phil Taylor (5)
- 2000 – Phil Taylor (6)
- 2001 – Phil Taylor (7)
- 2002 – Phil Taylor (8)
- 2003 – John Part
- 2004 – Phil Taylor (9)
- 2005 – Phil Taylor (10)
- 2006 – Phil Taylor (11)
- 2007 – Raymond van Barneveld
- 2008 – John Part (2)
- 2009 – Phil Taylor (12)
- 2010 – Phil Taylor (13)
- 2011 – Adrian Lewis
- 2012 – Adrian Lewis (2)
- 2013 – Phil Taylor (14)
- 2014 – Michael van Gerwen
- 2015 – Gary Anderson
- 2016 – Gary Anderson (2)
- 2017 – Michael van Gerwen (2)
- 2018 – Rob Cross
- 2019 – Michael van Gerwen (3)
- 2020 – Peter Wright
- 2021 – Gerwyn Price
- 2022 – Peter Wright (2)
- 2023 – Michael Smith
- 2024 – Luke Humphries
- 2025 – Luke Littler
Most World Titles
- 14 – Phil Taylor
- 3 – Michael van Gerwen
- 2 – John Part, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson, Peter Wright
- 1 – Dennis Priestley, Raymond van Barneveld, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Luke Humphries, Luke Littler
