World Darts Championship draw 2025: When is it? Dates, schedule and how to watch live on Sky Sports

21 November 2024, 11:53 | Updated: 25 November 2024, 16:30

The line-up is complete for the 2024/25 Paddy Power World Darts Championship at the Alexandra Palace, with coverage of the draw for this year’s contest live on Sky Sports.

To watch the draw from 4.30pm, simply press play on the stream at the top of this page.

Luke Humphries will return as defending champion after last year's victory over teenage sensation Luke Littler, while former world champions Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson are among the others looking to impress.

Mike De Decker and Ritchie Edhouse have both enjoyed TV victories in recent weeks and will be part of the biggest event in the darting calendar, where 96 players will battle it out for the Sid Waddell Trophy and a total £2.5m prize fund.

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The top 32 players on the PDC Order of Merit will go straight through to the second round. The first round sees 32 ProTour Order of Merit Qualifiers, who earned their spots through European Tour and Players Championship events on the PDC circuit during 2024, playing one of the International Qualifiers.

How can I watch the draw?

The draw will be made on Monday November 25 at 4.30pm from the launch event in London and will be shown live on Sky Sports News.

Coverage will also be streamed live on the Sky Sports Darts YouTube channel, along with the Sky Sports website or by downloading the Sky Sports app.

When will the World Darts Championship take place?

The tournament gets under way at the Alexandra Palace on Sunday December 15, with three first-round matches and one second-round match on the opening evening.

There will be live darts over each of the following eight days, including seven afternoon sessions, with the usual three-day break from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day before returning with the third round and a double session on December 27.

The third and fourth rounds will be completed by December 30 before a night off on New Year's Eve, with the quarter-finals held across two sessions on New Year's Day ahead of the semi-finals on January 2 and the final on Friday January 3.

The full day-by-day schedule for this year's tournament can be found here.

Who has qualified via the PDC Order of Merit?

The top 32 seeds for the World Championship were confirmed following the Players Championship in Minehead with the following players all straight through to the second round.

Luke Humphries (1), Michael Smith (2), Michael van Gerwen (3), Luke Littler (4), Rob Cross (5), Dave Chisnall (6), Jonny Clayton (7), Stephen Bunting (8), Damon Heta (9), Gerwyn Price (10), Dimitri Van den Bergh (11), Nathan Aspinall (12), Danny Noppert (13), Gary Anderson (14), Chris Dobey (15), James Wade (16), Peter Wright (17), Josh Rock (18), Ross Smith (19), Ryan Searle (20), Andrew Gilding (21), Martin Schindler (22), Joe Cullen (23), Mike De Decker (24), Dirk van Duijvenbode 25), Daryl Gurney (26), Gabriel Clemens (27), Gian van Veen (28), Ritchie Edhouse (29), Brendan Dolan (30), Krzysztof Ratajski (31), Raymond van Barneveld (32)

Who are the ProTour Order of Merit Qualifiers?

The top 32 not-yet qualified players from the Pro Tour Order of Merit go straight into the first round.

Last week it was announced that the Darts Regulation Authority has suspended Dom Taylor following the failure of a drugs test and he misses out. Robert Owen replaces him in the field.

Cameron Menzies, Wessel Nijman, Jermaine Wattimena, Ricardo Pietreczko, Luke Woodhouse, Ryan Joyce, Niels Zonneveld, Alan Soutar, Madars Razma, Callan Rydz, Wesley Plaisier, Martin Lukeman, Kevin Doets, Richard Veenstra, Scott Williams, Kim Huybrechts, William O'Connor, Karel Sedlacek, Stephen Burton, Thibault Tricole, Connor Scutt, Mensur Suljovic, Ian White, Jeffrey de Graaf, Jim Williams, Florian Hempel, Ryan Meikle, Chris Landman, Nick Kenny, James Hurrell, Mickey Mansell, Ricky Evans

Who are the international and other qualifiers?

A final International Qualifier was confirmed at the East Europe Qualifier in Slovakia on Sunday, which was won by Romeo Grbavac of Croatia, but the Winmau World Youth Championship final was won by Dutchman Gian van Veen, who had already qualified, as he edged out Jurjen van der Velde, who missed five match darts to win the trophy and book a ticket for Ally Pally.

As a result of Van Veen's triumph, the PDPA Tour Card Holder Qualifier tournament - held in Wigan on Monday - had four qualification places up for grabs.

PDC China Championship Winner - Xiaochen Zong

PDCNB ProTour Winner - Robert Owen (replaces Jeffrey de Graaf, who replaces Dom Taylor)

PDCNB ProTour Runner-Up - Darius Labanauskas

Steel Darts Japan Tour Winner - Tomoya Goto

DPA ProTour Champion - Joe Comito

CDC Main Tour Top American - Leonard Gates

CDC Main Tour Top Canadian - Jim Long

CDC Top-Ranked Non-Qualified Player - Stowe Buntz

African Darts Group Qualifier - Cameron Carolissen

PDC Asian Tour OOM 1 - Alexis Toylo

PDC Asian Tour OOM 2 - Lourence Ilagan

PDC Asian Tour OOM 3 - Paolo Nebrida

PDC Asian Tour OOM 4 - Ryusei Azemoto

DPNZ Qualifier Winner - Ben Robb

CLDC Tour OOM Winner - Rashad Sweeting

Winmau Development Tour Qualifier 1 - Niko Springer

Winmau Development Tour Qualifier 2 - Keane Barry

PDC Asian Championship Runner-Up Sandro Eric Sosing

PDC Asian Championship Qualifier - Lok Yin Lee

DPA Oceanic Masters Winner - Gordon Mathers

Women's Series Qualifier 1 - Noa-Lynn van Leuven

Women's Series Qualifier 2 - Fallon Sherrock

Indian Qualifier - Nitin Kumar

Winmau Challenge Tour Qualifier 1 - Christian Kist

Winmau Challenge Tour Qualifier 2 - Alexander Merkx

PDC Europe Super League Champion - Kai Gotthardt

West Europe Qualifier - Stefan Bellmont

World Youth Champion - Gian van Veen (already qualified)

East Europe Qualifier - Romeo Grbavac

Tour Card Holder Qualifier 1 - Jeffrey De Zwaan

Tour Card Holder Qualifier 2 - Rhys Griffin

Tour Card Holder Qualifier 3 - Dylan Slevin

Tour Card Holder Qualifier 4 - Matt Campbell

Who will win the Paddy Power World Darts Championship? Watch every match exclusively live from December 15-January 3 on Sky Sports' dedicated darts channel. Stream darts and more top sport with NOW.