Littler vs Van Gerwen LIVE: World Darts Championship final updates

Tonight’s final will be decided via the best of 13 sets – in other words, the first player to win seven sets wins the tie.

In the event of a 6-6 tie, then a sudden-death leg will be played. There would be no throw for the bull in any sudden-death legs.

You can watch the PDC Paddy Power World Darts Championship 2024/25 on Sky Sports’ dedicated darts channel, with a live stream on Sky Go and Now TV.

Live coverage begins at 8pm tonight.

After defeating Nathan Aspinall 5-2 in an entertaining quarter-final, Luke Littler then beat Stephen Bunting in the semi-finals on Thursday 2 in rather more routine fashion.

Littler therefore once again will be the headline attraction in the final itself, where he will face one of the icons of the game in Michael van Gerwen.

The final is tonight – Friday 3 January 2025 – and is scheduled to start at 8.00pm GMT.

Luke Littler is determined to go one better this year and win the World Darts Championship having reached the final for the second year running with a confident 6-1 victory over Stephen Bunting in the semi-finals are Alexandra Palace.

Littler, who lost the 2024 final 7-4 to Luke Humphries, has been the overwhelming favourite to lift the title this year but faces a resurgent Michael Van Gerwen in the showpiece this evening.

The 17-year-old started the tournament slowly and fought through nervous wins against Ryan Meikle, Ian White and Ryan Joyce in the early rounds before finding his form and sweeping past Nathan Aspinall and Bunting in the quarter and semi-finals respectively.

While semi-final night can often be the highlight of the entire tournament, the 2025 edition crackled at points but never truly turned into an evening of darting classics that will live long in the memory. But the reward comes in what it has set up.

The 17-year-old was ranked fourth in the world entering the championship and filled with confidence. Victories in the Grand Slam of Darts, the Premier League and World Series Finals have been some of the highlights from a glittering year as Littler mania has taken the sport by storm.

And ‘The Nuke’ survived a scare against Ryan Joyce to advance to the last eight, before producing some superb darts in his quarter-final against Nathan Aspinall, then dispatching Stephen Bunting in the semis. Here’s everything you need to know about Littler’s next – and final! – match in this year’s championship and who he meets for the biggest prize.

And there will be a new champion after holder Luke Humphries was stunned by two-time winner Peter Wright in the last 16.

The event is expected to begin around 8pm GMT.

Good afternoon and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of tonight’s World Darts Championship final at Alexandra Palace.

Luke Littler faces Michael van Gerwen for the title after both recorded 6-1 wins in their semi-final ties, with Littler now appearing in his second final in a row.

MVG last appeared in the final of this tournament in 2023, and this will be his seventh appearance overall – with three wins and three losses so far.

We’ll have all the latest build-up and updates right here.