The 2025 PDC World Darts Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2024/25 Paddy Power World Darts Championship) is a professional darts event that will take place at Alexandra Palace in London, England, from 15 December 2024 to 3 January 2025. It will be the 32nd World Darts Championship to be organised by the Professional Darts Corporation.
Defending champion Luke Humphries will be number one seed going into the 2025 tournament.Luke Littler was runner-up at the 2024 event.
Overview
The 2025 PDC World Darts Championship is the 32nd World Darts Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation, and the 18th to be held at Alexandra Palace, London. It will take place from 15 December 2024 to 3 January 2025 as the culminating event of the 2024 Professional Darts Corporation season. The championship will feature 96 players, with the top 32 highest ranked players on the PDC Order of Merit seeded through to the second round. The 32 qualifiers from the ProTour Order of Merit and the 32 other players from various qualifiers start in the first round.
BookmakerPaddy Power will continue their sponsorship of the event, having agreed a three-year contract with the PDC ahead of the 2024 edition.[2]
All matches will be played as straight in, double out, requiring the players to score 501 points to win a leg, finishing on a double. The matches were played in the set format, with a minimum of three sets required to win a match. The following rules were observed:
All sets will be played to the best of five legs in the first round, and also in non-deciding sets of subsequent rounds.
In the deciding set of all but the first round, the first player to win at least three legs and be leading by two or more wins the set and the match. If the set reaches a 5–5 tie without a winner, it will be decided by a sudden-death leg with no throw for the bull.
Round
Best of (sets)
First to (sets)
First & Second
5
3
Third & Fourth
7
4
Quarter-finals
9
5
Semi-finals
11
6
Final
13
7
Ranking
The rankings on the PDC Order of Merit are calculated on a two-year basis. Players who participated in the 2023 PDC World Darts Championship are defending their prize money from that event on their ranking. At the end of the tournament, the PDC Order of Merit prize money from that event will be deleted from their ranking. After the tournament, the top 64 in the PDC Order of Merit will receive a one-year extension on their tour card. Players in the final year of their tour card, or that do not hold a tour card for the 2024 season, who finish the tournament outside the top 64 lose their tour card, unless players inside the top 64 resign their tour card, which Steve Beaton is expected to do.[10]
Prize money
The total prize pool for the tournament is expected to remain at £2.5 million in total for the seventh year in a row.
The top 32 of the Order of Merit will qualify, and will be seeded. They will be joined by the top 32 not yet qualified players of the Pro Tour Order of Merit. The Main Order of Merit and ProTour Order of Merit qualifiers are correct as of the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts. The cut-off date is 25 November 2024.[11][12]
2024 World Championship semi-finalist, the 2022 Challenge Tour Order of Merit winner and 2022 ProTour event winner Scott Williams also qualified alongside Connor Scutt, the 2024 Challenge Tour Order of Merit winner, and a Pro Tour event runner-up in both the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Scutt and Plaisier also qualified for the 2024 WDF World Championship but withdrew in order to play at the Alexandra Palace.[14]
Jeffrey de Graaf, a 2024 Pro Tour event runner-up, qualified via both the 2024 ProTour and the PDC Nordic and Baltic circuit but was drawn as a Pro Tour qualifier.[12]
Fallon Sherrock, the only woman to have previously won a match at the PDC World Darts Championship, and Noa-Lynn van Leuven qualified from the 2024 PDC Women's Series, with Van Leuven set to be the first transgender competitor in PDC history. As with the previous edition, no player will be eligible to compete in the 2025 PDC World Championship had they played at the 2024 WDF World Darts Championship which will conclude a week earlier. Beau Greaves, the winner of the 2024 Women's World Matchplay, qualified but opted to play the WDF at Lakeside.[15][16]
The final places were awarded by a qualifier for non-qualified PDC Tour Card holders, with Rhys Griffin, Jeffrey de Zwaan, Dylan Slevin and Matt Campbell progressing through the qualifier.[17][18]
Rashad Sweeting will become the first player from the Bahamas to play at the PDC World Championship after sealing his qualification through the Championship Darts Latin America and Caribbean Order of Merit, while Stefan Bellmont will become the first Swiss player to play at the PDC World Championship.[19]
^Dom Taylor, who was originally 17th on the Pro Tour list, was suspended by the PDC, following the failure of a drugs test.[20] Robert Owen was his replacement as the highest ranked Pro Tour player not yet qualified. He will be treated as an International qualifier in the draw due to Jeffrey de Graaf's Pro Tour ranking.[12]
^De Graaf was ranked in the top 32 on the Pro Tour list, so will be treated as a ProTour qualifier in the draw.[12]
^Greaves chose to play the 2024 WDF World Darts Championship[28] following a ruling by the PDC which did not allow players to compete in both World Championships in the same year.[29]
The draw took on 25 November 2024, live on Sky Sports News, and was conducted by Sky Sports presenter, Emma Paton, and former semi-finalists Wayne Mardle and Mark Webster.[41][42][43]
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