Luke Littler discovers fate as World Darts Championship draw revealed

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2. Darts

Littler will begin his World Darts Championship defence against Lithuania’s Darius Labanaus

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Luke Littler will play Darius Labanauskas to open his World Darts Championship defence at Alexandra Palace.

Littler become the youngest world champion ever when he defeated Michael van Gerwen to win last year’s final and the 18-year-old returns at the World No 1 having passed rival Luke Humphris at the top of the standings.

Gary Anderson was the last player to win back-to-back titles at Alexander Palace in 2015 and 2016 and Littler is aware of the size of the challenge ahead.

"Defending is different,” he said on Monday. “I have won the last few majors and now the big one is around the corner.

"Gary Anderson was the last person to go back-to-back and that was 10 years ago. I'll try to go back-to-back.

"Only three people have ever done it, the last time was 10 years ago. So I want to go back-to-back.

"I am very happy with the draw, he's not the quickest player in the world, but it's all about getting past the first round.”

The full Championship draw is below

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World Darts Championship draw

Top half

Luke Littler (1) vs Darius Labanauskas

Mario Vandenbogaerde vs David Davies

Joe Cullen (32) vs Bradley Brooks

Mensur Suljovic vs David Cameron

Damon Heta (16) vs Steve Lennon

Raymond van Berneveld vs Stefan Bellmont

Rob Cross (17) vs Cor Dekker

Ian White vs Mervyn King

Chris Dobey (8) vs Xiaochen Zong

Andrew Gilding vs Cam Crabtree

Luke Woodhouse (25) vs Boris Krcmar

Martin Lukeman vs Max Hopp

Gerwyn Price (9) vs Adam Gawlas

Lukas Wenig vs Wesley Plaisier

Ryan Joyce (24) vs Owen Bates

Krzysztof Ratajski vs Alexis Toylo

Stephen Bunting (4) vs Sebastian Bialecki

Richard Veenstra vs Nitin Kumar

Dirk van Duijvenbode (29) vs Andy Baetens

James Hurrell vs Stowe Buntz

Martin Schindler (13) vs Stephen Burton

Keane Barry vs Tim Pusey

Ryan Searle (20) vs Chris Landman

Brendan Dolan vs Travis Dudeney

Jonny Clayton (5) vs Adam Lipscombe

Dom Taylor vs Oskar Lukasiak

Michael Smith (28) vs Lisa Ashton

Niels Zonneveld vs Haupai Puha

Ross Smith (12) vs Andreas Harrysson

Thibault Tricole vs Motomu Sakai

Dave Chisnall (21) vs Fallon Sherrock

Ricardo Pietreczko vs Jose De Sousa

Bottom half

Luke Humphries (2) vs Ted Evetts

Jeffrey de Graaf vs Paul Lim

Wessel Nijman (31) vs Karel Sedlacek

Gabriel Clemens vs Alex Spellman

Nathan Aspinall (15) vs Lourence Ilagan

Mickey Mansell vs Leonard Gates

Mike De Decker (18) vs David Munyua

Kevin Doets vs Matthew Dennant

James Wade (7) vs Ryusei Azemoto

Rickey Evans vs Man Lok Leung

Cameron Menzies (26) vs Charlie Manby

Matt Campbell vs Adam Sevada

Gian van Veen (10) vs Cristo Reyes

Alan Soutar vs Teemu Harju

Dimitri Van den Bergh (23) vs Darren Beveridge

Madars Razma vs Jamai van den Herik

Michael van Gerwen (3) vs Mitsuhiko Tatsunami

William O'Connor vs Krzysztof Kciuk

Peter Wright (30) vs Noa-Lynn van Leuven

Kim Huybrechts vs Arno Merk

Gary Anderson (14) vs Adam Hunt

Connor Scutt vs Simon Whitlock

Jermaine Wattimena (19) vs Dominik Gruellich

Scott Williams vs Paolo Nebrida

Danny Noppert (6) vs Jurjen van der Velde

Nick Kenny vs Justin Hood

Ritchie Edhouse (27) vs Jonny Tata

Ryan Meikle vs Jesus Salate

Josh Rock (11) vs Gemma Hayter

Niko Springer vs Joe Comito

Daryl Gurney (22) vs Beau Greaves

Callan Rydz vs Patrik Kovacs

When is the 2026 World Darts Championship?

The tournament begins at Alexandra Palace on Thursday, 11 December, with four first-round matches on the opening evening.

That is the first of 13 consecutive days of darts, with afternoon and evening sessions taking place everyday until 23 December, when the competition pauses over Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day. It resumes on 27 December, pausing again on New Year’s Eve.

The quarter-finals are scheduled take place on New Year’s Day, with the semi-finals the following day and the final on 3 January.

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