Preview semifinals PDC World Darts Championship 2025: Will we get dream final between Littler and Van Gerwen?

It is already time for the semifinals of the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship. Four more players have a chance to win the world title at the Alexandra Palace. Thursday night they will compete for a spot in the coveted World Cup final.

In the semifinals, the format has again moved up slightly from the matches in the last eight. It will be played over best of 11 sets, meaning a player must win six sets to advance to the final in London.

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Chris Dobey v Michael van Gerwen

In recent matches, Michael van Gerwen has been showing more and more why he is a serious contender to win the world title. Van Gerwen is growing in the tournament, as it is nicely called. The 35-year-old Dutchman opened his World Cup campaign with a 3-0 victory over James Hurrell with an average of 95, after which he reached a moyenne of 97 in his match against Brendan Dolan at the last 32. In the eighth finals, Van Gerwen made another move. In a high-class match, he defeated Jeffrey de Graaf 4-2 thanks to an average of 102. With this form, Van Gerwen can become world champion, De Graaf also indicated after his lost match. In the quarterfinals against Callan Rydz, Van Gerwen was severely tested. Rydz fired no less than seventeen 180 scores, but the important moments were more often in favor of 'MVG' and Van Gerwen subsequently won that match 5-3.

In doing so, he avoided a battle with his close friend and fellow Geordie, Callan Rydz. Dobey kicked off his tournament with a victory over Alexander Merkx. Against Merkx, Dobey quickly gained a 2-0 lead, but as 'Hollywood' let go of the reins a bit, the Dutchman was able to grab another set. Then it was 3-1 for Dobey, who managed to win 4-2 in sets over Josh Rock at the last 32 after a tough fight. In his fourth round match against Kevin Doets, Dobey was mostly battling himself. The former Masters champion missed a truckload of doubles, but was fortunate that Doets' scoring was completely stagnant. As a result, Dobey managed to turn the 2-3 deficit into a 4-3 victory. In the quarterfinals against Gerwyn Price, 'Hollywood' trailed 0-2, but Dobey eventually won 5-2 in sets. In doing so, he put paid to his trauma from last year, when Dobey squandered a 4-0 lead against Rob Cross in the quarterfinals.

The head-to-head is well in Van Gerwen's favor, although the Dutchman does not lead as widely as it used to. Van Gerwen managed to win all of the first 11 encounters with Dobey, but in the meantime the Englishman has made the head-to-head deficit somewhat bearable to 18-6.

Michael van Gerwen will try to reach World Championship final for seventh time in his career

Stephen Bunting v Luke Littler

For the second time in his career, Stephen Bunting is in the last four at Alexandra Palace. This tournament, the darter from St. Helens is making a good impression, although his start against Kai Gotthardt was a bit stiff. Gotthardt led 1-0 and then missed three chances to put Bunting up 2-0. Bunting then won that match 3-1, after which he left Madars Razma (4-1) and Luke Woodhouse (4-0) both defenseless. In the quarterfinals, Bunting faced Peter Wright, who had earlier defeated defending champion Luke Humphries. The Englishman was soon in a seat by winning the first four sets. Wright reduced the deficit to 4-2 before Bunting decided the game in the seventh set.  

Bunting faces an uphill battle to reach the final, however, as he must first get past Luke Littler. Sloppy at times, but at the important moments, 'The Nuke' always stands his ground. He started his tournament with a 3-1 victory over Ryan Meikle, and then Ian White was defeated 4-1. That result was somewhat skewed, as White missed set darts in two of his lost sets. Ryan Joyce then made Littler's life pretty miserable at the last sixteen, but Littler came out on top and prevailed 4-3. In the quarterfinals against Nathan Aspinall, Littler was the better from the start and won 5-2. Still, "The Nuke" was once again shaky. He threw out ten legs in four innings, but his average still only finished at 101.54. If Littler takes out those volatile legs, there is a good chance he may lift the Sid Waddell Trophy on Friday night.

It will be the third time the two Englishmen have faced each other on the PDC circuit. In September, Littler won 8-7 over Bunting in the Players Championship final. At Players Championship 24, however, Bunting took revenge by beating his younger compatriot 7-6.

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TV Guide during World Darts Championship

Sky Sports are broadcasting the entire World Darts Championship in the UK with coverage throughout on a dedicated channel Sky Sports Darts.

A subscription is required to access this though which can be sought on a Sky box or through their streaming platform.

Prize money

The 96 participants at the 2025 World Darts Championship may divide as much as 2.5 million pounds between them. That amount is almost forty times higher than at the very first edition of the PDC Worlds in 1994.

The 64 participants to start in the first round of the World Darts Championship will receive £7500 in prize money anyway. The top-32 of the seeding list are guaranteed 15,000 pounds. These players enter the World Darts Championship from the second round. The amount then increases further each round. The new world champion will receive the top prize of 500,000 pounds.

Format

First round: Best of 5 sets

Second round: Best of 5 sets

Third round: Best of 7 sets

Fourth round: Best of 7 sets

Quarterfinals: Best of 9 sets

Semifinals: Best of 11 sets

Final: Best of 13 sets

In the first round, there will be no tiebreak if it is 2-2 after four legs in the fifth set. In that case, the fifth leg will be sudden-death. Starting from the second round, a tie-break rule will be applied in all matches; a deciding set must be won with a difference of two legs. If the score in the final set becomes 5-5, a sudden-death leg will still be played.

World Darts Championship 2025 Schedule

Thursday, January 2.

Evening session (from 7.30 p.m.)

Semi-final

Chris Dobey v Michael van Gerwen

Stephen Bunting v Luke Littler

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