2025 PDC World Darts Championship Preview, Picks, and Best Bets

The Paddy Power World Darts Championship starts this Sunday, December 15th! It is a three week tournament, leading up to the final on January 3rd, 2025. This is the 32nd World Darts Championship and the 18th to be held at Alexandra Place in London, England. In total, 96 players will square up to try and get to the final. The top 32-ranked players even get a first-round bye. The good news on this event? You can place wagers on it! Let’s take a look at the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship preview, picks, and best bets!

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2025 PDC World Darts Championship Preview, Picks, and Best Bets

How The Matches Are Played

Before we get into giving out the best picks for the 2025 World Darts Championship, let’s take a look at how the matches will be played. In each match 501 points are needed to win. The first to get 501 wins that set. You’re also required to have your last shot be a double. In the first two rounds of the tournament the first to win three sets advances.

In the third and fourth rounds, you’ll need to win four sets to advance. The quarterfinals require five sets, the semi-finals require six, and the Championship round it’s the best of 13 sets, meaning you’ll need to win seven of those to become the Champion. The winner doesn’t just get bragging rights, but also 500,000 euros. On top of that, the winner has a very good shot at getting the number one seed.

That’s where Luke Humphries sits right now. He is the number one seed, with everyone looking to take him down. He will defend last year’s championship, but given that he is the top seed and in the top-32, he gets a first-round bye and won’t be playing this weekend. The order is determined by the last two seasons’ results and he sits at the top of them, having earned 1,804,250 pounds, or around $2.3 million.

Now that we know how the matches are played and how many sets are needed to be won, let’s take a look at some of my favorite 2025 PDC World Darts Championship picks. Side note, as you read this you’ll realize that if you name your kid Luke or Michael, they have a good chance at being good at darts.

2025 PDC World Darts Championship Winner Picks

We’ll start by looking at the futures portion of the bets and start at the very top, the winner. When I’m looking at the Word Darts Championship picks and deciding who to pick as the winner, it’s hard not to start with the guy who won last year. Luke Humphries isn’t the current favorite. Instead, he’s the second favorite at +300.

The argument to take Humphries is easy. He’s the returning champ and has done it before, why not again? While Humphries has had a really good year he’ll have a tough go. He’s in the same half of the bracket as Luke Littler, this year’s favorite at +185. These two feel destined to meet in the semi-finals, but only one can advance.

Littler is a seventeen-year-old who made the finals last year but lost to Humphries. He’s been on a warpath this year, winning the darts’ Grand Slam, World Series of Darts finals, premier league, along with several others.  The argument for Humphries is that he’s more experienced and has already beat Littler on a big stage. The argument for Littler is a look at his 2024 season and to reflect that since 2016, there hasn’t been a repeat Darts Champion .

My PDC World Darts Championship picks for winner: Experience wins, Luke Humphries +300

‘To Reach The Final’ World Darts Championship Picks

Another creative way to get in some World Darts Championship picks is to bet on who will make the final. If you truly believe it will come down to Littler (+125 to make the final) or Humphries (+175) to make the final you can still profit since they’re both plus money. However, given that I’ve already dabbled in taking Humphries to win it all and they can’t both make the final, I’m going to look elsewhere.

For picking who we think will make the final the best option is to look at the bracket on the opposite side of where the Luke’s will inevitably meet up. There are two darts players that stick out to me when doing that. Those two are Michael Van Gerwen (+350 to make the final) and Michael Smith (+900 to make the final).

Van Gerwen was the number one-ranked darts player from 2014 to 2021. He has won the championship three different times in 2014, 2017, and 2019. Sure, some of his competition is younger and fresher. However, this is darts. Age doesn’t come in to play like it would for a sport like rugby. Van Gerwen made the quarter-finals in the 2024 Premiere League Darts competition to Michael Smith. He has unfinished business and will want to prove he can still perform at a high-level, looking to win his fourth championship.

Speaking of Michael Smith, he’s the other one I like to make the final. It’s very possible he and Van Gerwen end up facing each other in the semi-finals. Smith was the number one ranked player last year after winning the 2022-2023 World Darts Championship. This year he slipped to number two behind Humphries. Just two years removed from a championship, Smith is a top-competitor with a great shot at making another deep run.

My PDC World Darts Championship picks ‘To Reach The Final’: Sprinkle some on Michael Smith (+900) and Michael Van Gerwen (+350).

WCD Round 1 Picks

Maybe you don’t want to wait until the semi-finals or the Championship round to see if your bets pay off. I don’t blame you. The good news is, you don’t have to wait. You can get down on the action right away with Sunday, December 15th’s first round of action. Let’s take a look at some of my favorite picks in the first round of the World Championship Darts.

Ryan Joyce (-1.5) Vs Darius Labanauskas

I won’t dive all the way in to the different ways to bet each match. However, maybe with nerves starting the tournament, you like betting First Dartof the Match to be ‘Any Score Other Than 20’ at +450. The other two options are a ‘Single 20’ (-125) or a ‘Treble 20′ (+160). You can bet the first set of darts to be ’89 or Less’ (+160), ‘101 Or More’ (+160), or ’90-100′ (+190).

Instead, let’s just bet the straight odds. Ryan Joyce is the 33rd-ranked Darts player, meaning he just missed the cut for a first-round bye. This means he’s one of the best players playing in the opening round and that’s the exact reason we’re targeting his matchup. He reached the semi-finals just two years ago and will look to bounce back. In the 2024 PDC Pro Tour, Joyce lost to the previously mentioned Michael Smith in the final by 8-6 in a highly competitive match.

He’ll face off against Darius Labanauskas. Labanauskas didn’t make the tournament last year, after having lost in the second round back in the 2022-2023 World Darts Championship. While Labanauskas will be happy to have made it back into the tournament, Ryan Joyce is a much better player.

Top World Darts Championship Opening Round Pick: Ryan Joyce -1.5 (-135 on DraftKings), Match Correct Score: Ryan Joyce 3:0 (+200 on DraftKings)

Alan Soutar (-1.5) vs. Kai Gotthardt

For the next Sunday match, we’re targeting Alan Soutar against Kai Gotthardt. Soutar is a 1.5 set favorite but the odds on that are +100. Soutar made it all the way to the fourth round in the 2022-2023 Championship but ended up missing the cut for last year’s tournament. He’s battled back in a big way, finding himself ranked 50th. He won his first PDC title this year at the PC11 tournament.

He’ll face off against Kai Gotthardt. While Soutar’s average score is around 103, Gotthardt’s is around 96.85. Gotthardt has lost four of his last five matches, including two to the previously mentioned Darius Labanauskas, who is one of the lower ranked darts players in the tournament.

Kai should be happy he made the tournament. However, Alan Soutar should be looking to bounce back to his 2022-2023 form where he made it through several rounds.

World Darts Championship Opening Round Pick: Alan Soutar -1.5 (+100 on DraftKings), Match Correct Score: Alan Soutar 3:0 (+310 on DraftKings)