From December 15th, 96 participants will be hunting for the Sid Waddell Trophy at the PDC Darts World Championship. Six Germans are there, as are two women. Play through the tournament until the final on January 3rd. Who will be world champion?
The 1st Advent is only on Sunday, December 1st, but for many darts fans the time of waiting and anticipation began on November 25th. With the draw of the field of participants for the Darts World Championship, which begins on December 15th in London’s Alexandra Palace, the starting signal was given for a lot of discussions and predictions about the chances of the 96 players. The two final opponents from the previous World Cup, defending champion Luke Humphries and the 17-year-old prodigy Luke Littler, are considered the big favorites, but they would already meet in the semi-finals.
The record number of participants of six also increases – at least purely mathematically – the chances of a German player staying for a long time, as Gabriel Clemens achieved two years ago. The Saarlander reached the semi-finals at the highlight of the season. This time, however, Martin Schindler is believed to have the greatest chance of a coup.
The German number one is ranked 13th in the 2024 annual ranking and could now crown her strong year with two tournament victories on the European Tour at the World Championships. If Schindler wins his opener, Dimitri van den Bergh and Dave Chisnall or friend Gabriel Clemens would probably wait for Strausberger.
The two seeded Germans in the tournament table are not in the half of the two big favorites Humphries and Littler. However, there is no shortage of strong players. There will probably be a duel with Michael van Gerwen in the quarter-finals. Or will the Dutchman, who has recently been weak, be eliminated before then?
Play through the World Cup in advance.
If Lutz Wöckener isn’t just anyone Sport in self-experimentation tried it out, he writes about darts and sports politics, but sometimes also something off-kilter like football.
Tournament tree Darts World Cup 2025
UPPER HALF
1st quarter:
Luke Humphries (ENG/1) – Thibaut Tricole (FRA)/Joe Comito (AUS)
Raymond van Barneveld (NED/32) – Nick Kenny (WAL)/Stowe Buntz (USA)
James Wade (ENG/16) – Jermaine Wattimena (NED)/Stefan Bellmont (SUI)
Peter Wright (SCO/17) – Wesley Plaisier (NED)/Ryusei Azemoto (JPN)
2nd quarter:
Stephen Bunting (ENG/8) – Alan Soutar (SCO)/Kai Gotthardt (D)
Dirk van Duijvenbode (NED/25) – Madars Razma (LAT)/Christian Kist (NED)
Damon Heta (AUS/9) – Connor Scutt (ENG)/Ben Robb (NZL)
Mike De Decker (BEL/24) – Luke Woodhouse (ENG)/Lourence Ilagan (PHI)
3rd quarter:
Luke Littler (ENG/4) – Ryan Meikle (ENG)/Fallon Sherrock (ENG)
Ritche Edhouse (ENG/29) – Ian White (ENG)/Sandro Eric Sosing (PHI)
Danny Noppert (NED/13) – Ryan Joyce (ENG)/Darius Labanauskas (LIT)
Ryan Searle (ENG/20) – Mensur Suljovic (AUT)/Matt Campbell (CAN)
4th quarter:
Rob Cross (ENG/5) – Scott Williams (ENG)/Niko Springer (D)
Gian van Veen (NED/28) – Ricardo Pietreczko (D)/Xiaochen Zong (CHN)
Nathan Aspinall (ENG/12) – Cameron Menzies (SCO)/Leonard Gates (USA)
Andrew Gilding (ENG/21) – Martin Lukeman (ENG)/Nitin Kumar (IND)
LOWER HALF
1st quarter:
Michael Smith (ENG/2) – Kevin Doets (NED)/Noa-Lynn van Leuven (NED)
Krzysztof Ratajski (POL/31) – Richard Veenstra (NED)/Alexis Toylo (PHI)
Chris Dobey (ENG/15) – Stephen Burton (ENG)/Alexander Merkx (NED)
Josh Rock (NIR/18) – Karel Sedlacek (CZE)/Rhys Griffin (WAL)
2nd quarter:
Jonny Clayton (WAL/7) – Mickey Mansell (NIR)/Tomoya Goto (JPN)
Daryl Gurney (NIR/26) – Florian Hempel (D)/Jeffrey De Zwaan (NED)
Gerwyn Price (WAL/10) – Kim Huybrechts (BEL)/Keane Barry (IRL)
Joe Cullen (ENG/23) – Wessel Nijman (NED)/Cameron Carolissen (RSA)
3rd quarter:
Michael van Gerwen (NED/3) – James Hurrell (ENG)/Jim Long (CAN)
Brendan Dolan (NIR/30) – Chris Landman (NED)/Lok Yin Lee (HKG)
Gary Anderson (SCO/14) – Jeffrey de Graaf (NED)/Rashad Sweeting (BAH)
Ross Smith (ENG/19) – Jim Williams (WAL)/Paolo Nebrida (PHI)
4th quarter:
Dave Chisnall (ENG/6) – Ricky Evans (ENG)/Gordon Mathers (AUS)
Gabriel Clemens (D/27) – Niels Zonneveld (NED)/Robert Owen (Wales)
Dimitri Van den Bergh (BEL/11) – William O‘Connor (IRL)/Dylan Slevin (IRL)
Martin Schindler (D/22) – Callan Rydz (ENG)/Romeo Grbavac (CRO)
