Thursday, December 11, 2025
Column CM151
World Championships – Part 2
Even before this year’s PDC World Championship begins, a few things are already clear. It will be the last PDC World Championship held in the relatively small venue (starting next year, it will take place in the Great Hall at Alexandra Palace) and with more participants than ever before (128) and it will also last longer than ever before – from December 11th to January 3rd, 2026.
And something else has fundamentally changed – unlike in the WDF World Championships or the former BDO World Championships or the former PDC World Championships even seeded players will start the tournament in the first round.
Furthermore, the winner will receive the highest prize money ever awarded at a tournament – one million British pounds. Whether this is such a good idea remains to be seen – the gap between the World Championship winner and all other players will certainly increase significantly, and with the current system, it’s unlikely that other tournament victories will close the gap in the following two years.
And should players fail to defend the title after two years, they could face a very steep fall. Similarly, should a player dominate for an extended period (Luke Littler is certainly who comes to mind), the impact will be even more pronounced and other players might despair. Looking at Littler’s talent, more intensive practice probably wouldn’t help – his talent is exceptional, while for example Phil Taylor had to work hard for everything he achieved.
But back to this year’s World Championship with its 128 players.
The field is composed in the following way: the top 40 in the PDC World Rankings, from which the top 32 are seeded; the top 40 in the Pro Tour Order of Merit who have not qualified through other means; and 48 international qualifiers. A player ranked in the top 32 cannot be drawn against another player ranked in the top 32 in the first round.
This year’s World Championship field includes numerous debutants, twelve (if I counted right) are Tour Card holders. Lukas Wenig, Matthew Dennant, Dom Taylor, and Darren Beveridge have held Tour Cards since 2024, while Cam Crabtree, Justin Hood, Adam Lipscombe, Cor Dekker, Tavis Dudeney, and Dominik Gruellich only received theirs this year. Wenig and Dudeney qualified by the Tour Card Holders Qualifier. Oskar Lukasiak also only received his Tour Card this year and qualified by the Nordic and Baltic Order of Merit. Andy Baetens, a former WDF World Champion, who has held a Tour Card since 2024, qualified via the Netherlands and Belgium Qualifier. The other Tour Card holders all qualified by the Pro Tour Order of Merit, with Cor Dekker not only being the first ever Norwegian to secure a Tour Card but also the first Norwegian ever to participate in a PDC World Championship.
Three debutants qualified through the Development Tour Order of Merit: Jamai van den Herik, Jurjen van der Velde, and Charlie Manby, another promising young English player.
Of the five women participating, only Gemma Hayter is making her World Championship debut; the other four – Lisa Ashton, Noa-Lynn van Leuven, Beau Greaves, and Fallon Sherrock – have all competed there before.
In addition, there are a number of international debutants: Teemu Harju and Andreas Harrysson from the Nordic/Baltic region; the Japanese players Mitsuhiko Tatsunami and Motumo Sakai via the PDC Asian tournaments; Tim Pusey and Jonny Tata, already familiar from the PDC World Series tournaments in Australia; the Hungarian Patrik Kovacs, who has participated in several European Tour events as an East Europe Qualifier; Arno Merk, this year’s PDC Europe Super League winner; and David Davies, who qualified via the newly introduced UK and Ireland Qualifier, but is no stranger to PDC tournament as a Challenge Tour player and as a reserve at Pro Tour events.
Besides Cor Dekker, who will be the first Norwegian at the PDC World Championship, and Patrik Kovac, the first Hungarian player at the Ally Pally, we have two “real” exotics – the Argentinian Jesus Salate (via CDLC qualification) and the Kenyan David Munyua, who qualified by the African Qualifier.
For the first time in PDC history, no player from South Africa will be representing the African continent. And while we can roughly assess all the other debutants – Salate looked good in the PDC World Cup, the Kenyan is a true “black horse” – it will be exciting to see what kind of game he actually puts on the stage of the Alexandra Palace. Munyua will face Mike de Decker in the afternoon session on December 18.
