2021/22 PDC World Darts Championship Preview
The 2021/22 PDC World Darts Championship is here.
In this article, we’ll tell you:
- where it’s happening
- who’s involved and how the draw works
- the prize money on offer
- who the favourites are for the title
- how to follow the event
Where will the PDC World Darts Championship take place?
For the 15th straight year, the PDC World Darts Championship will be played at the Alexandra Palace, London. It will happen from Wednesday 15 December 2021 to Monday 3 January 2022.
Tickets for most sessions have sold out. However, there are still some limited tickets left for some sessions.
You can find more information on the PDC website.
Who’s involved and how does the draw work?
The draw for the 2021/22 PDC World Darts Championship sees the top 32 players on the PDC Order of Merit qualify for round two automatically. They make up the 32 seeds for the event.
The top 32 players on the Pro Tour Order of Merit, who are not already on the main Order of Merit, qualify for round one, as do 32 international qualifiers.
The Pro Tour players and the qualifiers play each other to take on a seed in round two.
The seeded player then faces the winner of a round one game. Whoever wins that moves onto round three, where 32 players remain. If all the seeds qualify, then it would be 1 v 32, 2 v 31, and so on.
The semi finals will be the winner of section one v winner of section two. The winners of sections three and four will play in the other semi final.
The two semi final winners will play in the final, with the victor being crowned the World Darts Champion.
You can view the full draw on our website.
What’s the prize money?
The prize fund remains at £2.5 million as it did in 2020/21. It’s broken down like this:
- Winner – £500,000
- Runner up – £200,000
- Semi finalists – £100,000
- Quarter finalists – £50,000
- Fourth round losers – £35,000
- Third round losers – £25,000
- Second round losers – £15,000
- First round losers – £7,500
Peter Wright will defend £500,000 on his Order of Merit ranking, having won this title two years ago. If he does not regain his title, he could drop to third in the world.
Michael van Gerwen is defending £200,000 on his ranking, after finishing runner up. He could drop to fifth dependent on results.
You can view the live Order of Merit on the DartsRankings website.
What’s the schedule of play for the 2021/22 PDC World Darts Championship?
You can view the schedule of play on our website. We’ll also be updating the page with all the results.
Who are the favourites for the title?
Defending champion and world number one Gerwyn Price is the favourite to lift the Sid Waddell Trophy with our official betting partner BoyleSports. He is currently 7/2, just in front of fellow Welshman Jonny Clayton, who’s lifted four TV titles this year. He’s 4/1, the same odds as three time champion Michael van Gerwen.
Peter Wright, who won the final event before the Worlds in the Players Championship Finals, is next at 6/1. Then there is a big jump to the fifth placed favourite, the world number five Dimitri Van den Bergh. He’s 16/1 to win his first ever World title.
View the outright market on BoyleSports’ website.
How can I follow the 2021/22 PDC World Darts Championship?
The 2021/22 PDC World Darts Championship will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland. If you’re outside the UK or Ireland, you can watch it via the PDC broadcast partner in your country, such as RTL or DAZN.
You can also live stream the event. Find out more here.
We’ll have you covered here at Online Darts, with reaction with every winner of every game direct from Alexandra Palace. Head over to our YouTube channel and hit subscribe so you don’t miss a video.
We’ll have a live blog for you every session of the tournament, so you don’t miss a moment even if you can’t watch live.
Plus, we give regular updates on:
We’ll also produce The Fallout Bar. After play, our team will get you caught up on all the stories of the day, plus have interviews from the players throughout. It will be broadcast live on our YouTube channel after play, and then as a podcast the following morning.
Follow all the drama of the 2021/22 PDC World Darts Championship with us here at Online Darts.