After a year like no other, it’s time for the biggest event in the sport. Can Peter Wright defend his title that he won 12 months ago, or will someone else take the crown?
The event will see fans attend on the opening night. However, due to London moving into tier three restrictions on Wednesday 16 December, no fans will be allowed in from that date until Wednesday 23 December.
There is hope that fans can still attend the post Christmas dates.
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.
What’s the prize money and what are players defending?
Michael van Gerwen won his third World Championship back in 2019. The PDC’s ranking system sees the money a player has won come off their Order of Merit winnings, so the Green Machine will be defending £500,000 on his ranking.
Michael Smith came runner up in that event, and will be defending £200,000. The two semi finalists from two years ago, Gary Anderson and Nathan Aspinall, will defend £100,000 respectively.
In addition, if either:
Michael van Gerwen
Peter Wright or
Gerwyn Price
Win the World Darts Championship, they will be the world number one on Monday 4 January 2021.
The prize money will remain the same as the last two World Championships. It’s broken down like this:
He’s currently 9/4 to lift his fourth Sid Waddell Trophy with our official betting partner BoyleSports. Gerwyn Price is next at 9/2, while defending champion Peter Wright is 11/2.
Runner up from two years ago Michael Smith will be looking for his first major televised title. He’s fourth favourite at 14/1, with Grand Slam of Darts winner Jose De Sousa at 16/1.
World Matchplay champion, and former World Championship quarter finalist Dimitri Van den Bergh, is 22/1, as is Nathan Aspinall. Three time BDO World Champion Glen Durrant is 25/1.
The World Darts Championship will be live on Sky Sports in the UK. You can also watch it outside the UK via the PDC’s broadcast partners, such as RTL or DAZN.
We’ll have you covered here at Online Darts, with reaction with every winner of every game direct from Coventry. Head over to our YouTube channel and hit subscribe so you don’t miss a video. You can watch our preview show now below:
We’ll have a live blog for you every session of the tournament, so you do not miss a moment if you cannot watch it live.
We’ll also produce the World Championship Daily. This round up show will feature reaction, news and debate from every day of the event. It will be available across our podcast channels the morning after each day’s play.