Paddy Power World Darts Championship predictions: Can anyone stop Luke Littler?

Paddy Power World Darts Championship 2026, start time & TV info 

Date Thursday, December 11, 2025, to Saturday, January 3, 2026
Starts 7pm Thursday
Venue Alexandra Palace, London
Competition PDC Tour
TV Sky Sports

Paddy Power World Darts Championship 2026 betting tips & predictions

Best Bets

Gian van Veen
2pts each-way 16-1 Coral, Ladbrokes

Michael van Gerwen
1pt each-way 20-1 general

Wessel Nijman to reach the quarter-finals
1pt 11-1 Paddy Power

Dirk van Duijvenbode to reach the quarter-finals
1pt 6-1 Paddy Power

Ricardo Pietreczko to reach the quarter-finals
1pt 8-1 Paddy Power

Paddy Power World Darts Championship 2026 preview

Luke Littler kicked off 2025 by being crowned world champion and will quite probably begin 2026 by retaining his title to cap one of the most dominant darting years since Phil Taylor was in his pomp.

The Nuke doesn't just head to Alexandra Palace as the man to beat - look at his Power-esque outright price of 10-11 for confirmation of that - but is playing at a consistently higher level than anyone else.

It isn't just that he has spent the last 12 months hoovering up titles - six majors, two World Series qualifiers, two European Tour qualifiers, half a dozen Premier League mini-leagues and a solitary floor title - it's the way he is breezing through the events, ton-plus average after ton-plus average, with a swagger that is off the scale that sets him apart.

The PDC has never been this deep, this talented and there will be plenty of support for world-class operators such as Luke Humphries, Gerwyn Price and Michael van Gerwen, plus a gaggle of dangers of the calibre of Gian van Veen, Wessel Nijman and Josh Rock.

And all are unplayable at their very best - just not as unplayable as teenage icon Littler is, and that is the key difference.

Littler's draw is so kind that it is hard to see him playing anyone in sufficient form to pose a question of him until the quarter-finals. And while memories of his close call against Ryan Joyce in round four last year might have his layers suggesting otherwise, Littler is a different beast now and the longer the format, the better he is.

Dutch duo to deliver bottom-half statements

It's a 128-player field this year, the biggest there has been, with the biggest prize fund, with more matches, more drama and more names to announce themselves on the biggest stage of all.

And in that field a couple of Dutch major winners look as if they can have big says in the bottom half, the opposite half from Littler.

The first is Gian van Veen, who is taken to emerge from the third quarter, the steamiest of the four where Humphries, Nijman, Nathan Aspinall and James Wade are bracket bedfellows.

Humphries may well have to play Nijman in round three and Aspinall in round four while Van Veen has, theoretically, a softer path into the last eight.

Cool Hand, deposed as world number one despite having added another couple of majors to his CV, absolutely merits favouritism in the section but Van Veen can eclipse him and the rest.

The young Dutchman has soared into the world's top ten, landed his first major - the European Championship - in October and his stats are almost up there with Littler's.

It's played two, lost two at Ally Pally for Van Veen but again, like Littler, he is a different proposition 12 months on from his last setback.

And three-time winner and four-time runner-up Michael van Gerwen has had a tumultuous year on and off the oche yet can still raise his game to sky-high levels, such as when he won the World Series, beating Littler in the final, in September.

Consistency is lacking, although that can be said about 95 per cent of the field, and he can still at times appear formidable when others definitely cannot.

Former champion Luke Humphries can be taken on this yearCredit: Tom Dulat

Nothing empty about Wessel's claims

In the third quarter another Dutchman catches the eye - Wessel Nijman.

Humphries can definitely be taken on in his section of the draw, where Nijman looks a huge price at 11-1 to reach the last eight.

Nijman had a tough start to the year having gone to the Palace last year with plenty of dark-horse money riding on him and arriving under the radar will probably do him a favour.

He also arrives having hit some real form towards the end of 2025 with a couple of Players Championship victories to follow a pair of European Tour semis.

Nijman, like Van Veen, is the face of the future of darts in the Netherlands and after the odd mis-step and well-publicised mishap, he can go from strength to strength, starting over the next few weeks at the Palace.

Dutch destroyer Dirk van DuijvenbodeCredit: Luke Walker

Dive into Dirk to be another quarter master

There is one more Dutch name to add into the mix and that's Dirk van Duijvenbode, another model of inconsistency.

He is in the wide-open second quarter, and in particular the top half of it, where Stephen Bunting is the top seed and shortest price.

Van Duijvenbode is a major semi-finalist who happily mixes wheat with the chaff but when he's good - such as reaching the Grand Prix quarters this year as well as the final of October's German Darts Championship - it is a surprise he doesn't contend more often.

Anyway, he is a nice price in an open section while Ricardo Pietrezcko can also deliver in the other half of that section against Jonny Clayton, Ross Smith, Michael Smith and Dave Chisnall, none of whom look as if they can be trusted.

Paddy Power World Darts Championship 2026 betting odds

Here are Paddy Power's latest odds for the Paddy Power World Darts Championship 2026

Odds correct at time of publishing

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Paddy Power World Darts Championship 2026 FAQs

When is the Paddy Power World Darts Championship 2026?

The Paddy Power World Darts Championship 2026 will take place from Thursday December 11, 2025, to Saturday, January 3, 2026.

Where is the Paddy Power World Darts Championship 2026 being held?

The event will be held at Alexandra Palace in London.

Who is the favourite to win the Paddy Power World Darts Championship 2026?

2025 champion Luke Littler is the 10-11 favourite to retain his title.

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