2025 Darts World Championships!!!!

Still 3 weeks away from the action starting, but today saw the final qualifying session and the draw for the main tournament!
As has been the case for a few years, the top 32 in the Order of Merit start in round 2. The top 32 in the pro tour (minus the aforementioned OoM 32) are seeded in the first round and they will play qualifiers.

The Draw:

Top Quarter
World number 1 and holder, Luke Humphries begins his defence of the title against the winner of Thibault Tricole and Joe Comito. In his sights for a potential third round meeting is former champion Raymond van Barneveld. Barney will have to beat the winner of Nick Kenny and Stowe Buntz.
Jermaine Wattimena starts in the first round, but a win pits him against James Wade is one of the potential ties of round 2.
If you are looking for a seed to go out in round two, Peter Wright could be high on the list, not least because he potentially faces Wesley Plaisier. The talented Dutchman needs to beat Ryusei Azemoto first though.

The top quarter doesn't get easier in the bottom half, with Stephen Bunting, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Damon Heta and Mike de Decker all in this section.
Bunting faces the winner of Alan Soutar and Kai Gotthardt, while Players Championship semi-finalist DvD has either Madars Razma or Christian Kist. Connor Scutt had a good run last week and is Heta's potential opponent if he can beat Ben Robb. Luke Woodhouse and Lourence Ilagan play-off to face de Decker.


Second Quarter
The two biggest stories of recent World Championships have been the runs of Luke Littler and Fallon Sherrock. The two headline grabbers will meet in round 2 if Sherrock can beat the talented Ryan Meikle. Who will the crowd cheer and boo with Littler vs Sherrock??
Littler beat Ritchie Edhouse quite comfortably last week, and the two could meet in the third round at Ally Pally. Edhouse has a potentially tough job of beating Ian White, if White can beat Sandro Eric Sosing.
Danny Noppert will be cursing the draw - he faces the winner of Ryan Joyce and Darius Labanauskas in round 2 with Ryan Searle, Mensur Suljovic or Matt Campbell in round 3 before a potential meeting with Littler. A very tough little section.

The top half simply doesn't get any easier, with Rob Cross drawing the winner of last years semi-finalist Scott Williams or young German star Niko Springer. Also in this little section is Gian van Veen the World Youth Champion. He also has a tricky tie, with Ricardo Pietreczko likely in round 2 if the German beats Zong Xiao Chen.
Nathan Aspinall vs Cameron Menzies is another great looking 2nd round match, although Leonard Gates may have something to say about that in his round 1 meeting with Menzies.
To complete the 2nd quarter we have recent Grand Slam finalist Martin Lukeman facing Nitin Kumar in round 1, with the winner playing former Grand Slam winner Andrew Gilding


3rd Quarter
Michael Smith headlines this section and could face controversial Noa Lynn van Leuven in round 2 if they beat Kevin Doets/
The winner of that will meet Krzysztof Ratajski or the winner of Richard Veenstra and Alexis Toylo.
Chris Dobey and Josh Rock are on 3rd round collision course, with Dobey playing the winner of Stephen Burton and Alexander Merkx, while Josh Rock has Karel Sedlacek or Rhys Griffin.

In the bottom of this quarter, Jonny Clayton will play the winner of Mickey Mansell and Tomoya Goto, while Daryl Gurney has a tough looking match whoever wins round 1 between Florian Hempel and Jeffrey de Zwaan.
Down to number 10 in the World, Gerwyn Price will face Kim Huybrechts or Keane Barry. Joe Cullen is another with a big task in the form of Wessel Nijman - if Nijman can beat Cameron Carolissen.

4th Quarter
Number 3 seed Michael van Gerwen will play either James Hurrell or Jim Long. The winner meets Brendan Dolan or either Chris Landman or Lok Yin Lee.
Gary Anderson will have noted the performances of Jeffrey de Graaf last week, and they will meet if the latter beats Bahamas star Rashad Sweeting. We could see Anderson vs Ross Smith in round 3 if the PC semi finalist can beat the winner of Jim Williams and Paolo Nebrida.

Fans favourites Dave Chisnall and Ricky Evans have been drawn against each other - if Rapid Ricky can beat Gordon Mathers. Gabriel Clemens has the winner of Niels Zonneveld and Robert Owen, with Niels impressing last week.
Irish duo William O'Connor and Dylan Slevin face off in round 1, with Dimitri van den Bergh waiting the winner. Martin Schindler will expect Callan Rydz in round 2, but Romeo Grbavac could surprise the Englishman.



It is an exciting looking draw. The top half seems especially stacked, so Luke Humphries will have a tough task to get to the semi-final where he is expected to meet Luke Littler.

The bottom half has a lot of very good players, but very good players who haven't been in the best of form. Lower seeds like Anderson, Gurney and Ross Smith will fancy their chances of the semi, and even a few first rounders will look at a favourable draw.



The action kicks off on Sunday 15th December, headlined by Luke Humphries second round game. His match will be preceded by 3 first round games - which is the format for all sessions in the first week.