World Darts Championship draw: Luke Littler to face Fallon Sherrock or Ryan Meikle at Alexandra Palace

Luke Littler faces a potential showdown against Fallon Sherrock at the Paddy Power World Darts Championship, while Luke Humphries will begin his title defence against Thibault Tricole or Joe Comito.

Humphries returns as defending champion after last year’s 7-4 victory over Littler, with the pair heading the betting for this year’s tournament which gets under way at Alexandra Palace on December 15 – live on Sky Sports.

World No 1 Humphries has already defended his Players Championship Finals title in 2024, adding to the Betfred World Matchplay success and three runner-up finishes in PDC majors this year, while Littler has won the Premier League and the Mr Vegas Grand Slam of Darts during a remarkable debut season.

They are among the 96 players who will be competing to win the iconic Sid Waddell Trophy and £500,000 top prize, with Littler – the fourth seed – and top seed Humphries in the same half of the draw and on course for a potential semi-final showdown.

The top 32 players from the PDC Order of Merit following Sunday’s Ladbrokes Players Championship Finals enter at the second-round stage, with the first round seeing 32 players from the ProTour Order of Merit Qualifiers playing one of the International Qualifiers.

Littler has been handed an intriguing draw against Suffolk’s Ryan Meikle or Sherrock, who was dubbed ‘Queen of the Palace’ during her run to the third round in 2020 and returns to make her fifth appearance in six years.

Noa-Lynn van Leuven, who will be the first trans player to appear at the World Championship, could face a last-64 meeting with 2023 world champion Michael Smith if she can get past Kevin Doets in the opening round.

Three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen will play James Hurrell or Jim Long, while another notable potential second-round match is 2018 champion Rob Cross playing either Niko Springer or last year’s semi-finalist Scott Williams.

The schedule of play is set to be confirmed later this week.

Full second-round draw

Seeds in brackets; Best-of-five sets

Opening quarter

Luke Humphries (1) vs Thibault Tricole or Joe Comito

Raymond van Barneveld (32) vs Nick Kenny or Stowe Buntz

James Wade (16) vs Jermaine Wattimena or Stefan Bellmont

Peter Wright (17) vs Wesley Plaisier or Ryusei Azemoto

Stephen Bunting (8) vs Alan Soutar or Kai Gotthardt

Dirk van Duijvenbode (25) vs Madars Razma or Christian Kist

Damon Heta (9) vs Connor Scutt or Ben Robb

Mike De Decker (24) vs Luke Woodhouse or Lourence Ilagan

Second quarter

Luke Littler (4) vs Ryan Meikle or Fallon Sherrock

Ritchie Edhouse (29) vs Ian White or Sandro Eric Sosing

Danny Noppert (13) vs Ryan Joyce or Darius Labanauskas

Ryan Searle (20) vs Mensur Suljovic or Matt Campbell

Rob Cross (5) vs Scott Williams or Niko Springer

Gian van Veen (28) vs Ricardo Pietreczko or Xiaochen Zong

Nathan Aspinall (12) vs Cameron Menzies or Leonard Gates

Andrew Gilding (21) vs Martin Lukeman or Nitin Kumar

Third quarter

Michael Smith (2) vs Kevin Doets or Noa-Lynn van Leuven

Krzysztof Ratajski (31) vs Richard Veenstra or Alexis Toylo

Chris Dobey (15) vs Stephen Burton or Alexander Merkx

Josh Rock (18) vs Karel Sedlacek or Rhys Griffin

Jonny Clayton (7) vs Mickey Mansell or Tomoya Goto

Daryl Gurney (26) vs Florian Hempel or Jeffrey de Zwaan

Gerwyn Price (10) vs Kim Huybrechts or Keane Barry

Joe Cullen (23) vs Wessel Nijman or Cameron Carolissen

Bottom quarter

Michael van Gerwen (3) vs James Hurrell or Jim Long

Brendan Dolan (30) vs Chris Landman or Lok Yin Lee

Gary Anderson (14) vs Jeffrey de Graaf or Rashad Sweeting

Ross Smith (19) vs Jim Williams or Paolo Nebrida

Dave Chisnall (6) vs Ricky Evans or Gordon Mathers

Gabriel Clemens (27) vs Niels Zonneveld or Robert Owen

Dimitri Van den Bergh (11) vs William O’Connor or Dylan Slevin

Martin Schindler (22) vs Callan Rydz or Romeo Grbavac

When will the World Darts Championship take place?

The tournament gets under way at the Alexandra Palace on Sunday December 15, with three first-round matches and one second-round match on the opening evening.

There will be live darts over each of the following eight days, including seven afternoon sessions, with the usual three-day break from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day before returning with the third round and a double session on December 27.

The third and fourth rounds will be completed by December 30 before a night off on New Year’s Eve, with the quarter-finals held across two sessions on New Year’s Day ahead of the semi-finals on January 2 and the final on Friday January 3.

The full day-by-day schedule for this year’s tournament can be found here.

Who will win the Paddy Power World Darts Championship? Watch every match exclusively live from December 15-January 3 on Sky Sports’ dedicated darts channel. Stream darts and more top sport with NOW.