Paddy Power World Darts Championship PDC Guide

The PDC Paddy Power World Darts Championship kicks off this week at the Alexandra Palace in London! This tournament runs from December 11th through January 3rd. The first round will run from December 11th to December 19th. They are currently in the west hall, which fits around 2,500 people, but starting next year, they will be upgrading to the grand hall. This hall can fit up to 10,250 people, so they will be upgrading their event by a massive amount. 

This event features over 128 competitors, and they are fighting for $5 million in prizes, with the winner receiving $1,000,000. For just competing at this tournament, you will get $15,000 if you lose in the first round and $25,000 if you lose in the second round. There is a large incentive to compete, and it brings out the best in competitors. This tournament is broken out into 36 sessions spread throughout the roughly 20 days of the tournament. These feature 4 matches within those periods (for the first round). On some days, you will see morning and afternoon sessions, which are needed with the large number of players!

Check out the draw list of players and matchups for the first round, according to Paddy Power News:

Top Half Matchups (numbers represent national ranking)

• Luke Littler (1) v Darius Labanauskas

• Mario Vandenbogaerde v David Davies

• Joe Cullen (32) v Bradley Brooks

• Mensur Suljovic v David Cameron

• Damon Heta (16) v Steve Lennon

• Raymond van Berneveld v Stefan Bellmont

• Rob Cross (17) v Cor Dekker

• Ian White v Mervyn King

• Chris Dobey (8) v Xiaochen Zong

• Andrew Gilding v Cam Crabtree

• Luke Woodhouse (25) v Boris Krcmar

• Martin Lukeman v Max Hopp

• Gerwyn Price (9) v Adam Gawlas

• Lukas Wenig v Wesley Plaisier

• Ryan Joyce (24) v Owen Bates

• Krzysztof Ratajski v Alexis Toylo

• Stephen Bunting (4) v Sebastian Bialecki

• Richard Veenstra v Nitin Kumar

• Dirk van Duijvenbode (29) v Andy Baetens

• James Hurrell v Stowe Buntz

• Martin Schindler (13) v Stephen Burton

• Keane Barry v Tim Pusey

• Ryan Searle (20) v Chris Landman

• Brendan Dolan v Travis Dudeney

• Jonny Clayton (5) v Adam Lipscombe

• Dom Taylor v Oskar Lukasiak

• Michael Smith (28) v Lisa Ashton

• Niels Zonneveld v Haupai Puha

• Ross Smith (12) v Andreas Harrysson

• Thibault Tricole v Motomu Sakai

• Dave Chisnall (21) v Fallon Sherrock

• Ricardo Pietreczko v Jose De Sousa

Bottom Half Matchups (numbers represent national ranking)

• Luke Humphries (2) v Ted Evetts

• Jeffrey de Graaf v Paul Lim

• Wessel Nijman (31) v Karel Sedlacek

• Gabriel Clemens v Alex Spellman

• Nathan Aspinall (15) v Lourence Ilagan

• Mickey Mansell v Leonard Gates

• Mike De Decker (18) v David Munyua

• Kevin Doets v Matthew Dennant

• James Wade (7) v Ryusei Azemoto

• Rickey Evans v Man Lok Leung

• Cameron Menzies (26) v Charlie Manby

• Matt Campbell v Adam Sevada

• Gian van Veen (10) v Cristo Reyes

• Alan Soutar v Teemu Harju

• Dimitri Van den Bergh (23) v Darren Beveridge

• Madars Razma v Jamai van den Herik

• Michael van Gerwen (3) v Mitsuhiko Tatsunami

• William O’Connor v Krzysztof Kciuk

• Peter Wright (30) v Noa-Lynn van Leuven

• Kim Huybrechts v Arno Merk

• Gary Anderson (14) v Adam Hunt

• Connor Scutt v Simon Whitlock

• Jermaine Wattimena (19) v Dominik Gruellich

• Scott Williams v Paolo Nebrida

• Danny Noppert (6) v Jurjen van der Velde

• Nick Kenny v Justin Hood

• Ritchie Edhouse (27) v Jonny Tata

• Ryan Meikle v Jesus Salate

• Josh Rock (11) v Gemma Hayter

• Niko Springer v Joe Comito

• Daryl Gurney (22) v Beau Greaves

• Callan Rydz v Patrik Kovacs

Provided by PDC Darts

In this tournament, each round will feature a different number of sets that the players will face. The goal is to score 501 in each set, and whoever gets that number first wins the set. Learn more about darts from my previous article about what the PDC features.

Check out the round-by-round breakdown of sets featured per round:

First & Second Rounds: Best of 5 sets

Third & Fourth Rounds: Best of 7 sets

Quarter-Finals: Best of 9 sets

Semi-Finals: Best of 11 sets

Final: Best of 13 sets (first to 7 sets) 

Check out some of the betting favorites and the current odds (the odds are subject to change and do fluctuate). 

• Luke Littler: -110

• Luke Humphries: +450

• Gerwyn Price: +1600

• Josh Rock: +1600

• Michael van Gerwen: +2000

• Stephen Bunting: +4000

We are right around the corner from this amazing event, and it will be a wonderful 20 days. This tournament is difficult to follow if you are getting involved in the sport, but it is fun and has the athletes at the top of their game.