"Obviously we got it spot on leaving him out of the Premier League" - Matt Porter on Luke Humphries recent success

This Friday at London's Alexandra Palace, the World Darts Championship gets underway. Michael Smith starts the tournament as the defending champion after beating Michael van Gerwen 7-4 in last year's final.

Just days before the start of the World Championship, PDC CEO Matt Porter is already starting to get the itch. "It's come around quick hasn't it!" Porter tells Online Darts. "I think this is probably my 20th or something like that, but there's some on the staff who have done them all. We're all growing old together," he laughs.

The past few months have been dominated by Luke Humphries and as such, the Englishman enters the World Championship as the hot favourite. "Obviously we got it spot on leaving him out of the Premier League," Porter jokes. "He's had another year and now he's absolutely ready. Three tournament wins in 49 days, he's unbelievable at the moment."

Besides Humphries, the debut of Luke Littler at the PDC World Championship is also hotly anticipated. The 16-year-old Englishman recently won the World Youth Championship by beating Gian van Veen in the final. "People aren't looking at him and saying he's a good kid, they're looking at him and saying he's a good player," Porter says of Littler. Both Littler and van Veen have plenty of potential believes Porter. "They're not being seen as little upstarts anymore, they're seen as really tough games."

Who will not be present at the PDC World Championship is Beau Greaves, as the 19-year-old Englishwoman chose to (successfully) defend her WDF world title. "I understood her decision completely," Porter insists. "I admire anyone that makes decisions that are right for them. It's not up to anybody else to say whether she's made the right or wrong decision, she plays for herself and she will be judged by herself. Her legacy will be set by herself so she has to make her own decisions."