Preview Sunday night at European Championship: Who will win the craziest major tournament in darting history?

The European Darts Championship will go down in history as the major-tournament with the most surprising semifinal lineup ever. We can make that claim, with Luke Woodhouse, Ritchie Edhouse, Jermaine Wattimena and Danny Noppert as finalists. But who gets to lift the trophy at the end of the night?

It will be the seventeenth time the European Darts Championship has been held. Peter Wright crowned himself European champion for the second time in 2023 by defeating James Wade in the final. Van Gerwen and Phil Taylor are the record champions at the European Darts Championship with both winning four titles.

At least we know for sure that a new name will be added to the honor roll of the European Championship. Three of the four semifinalists have never won a PDC title at all. Danny Noppert is the only exception, with five Players Championship titles and, of course, his 2022 UK Open title. 'The Freeze' can therefore take his second major title Sunday night in Dortmund.

It was a very surprising afternoon in Dortmund, after big names like Michael Smith, Michael van Gerwen and Luke Littler were eliminated earlier in the tournament. In the first three quarter-finals, it was also the outsider who managed to win from the favorite. Luke Woodhouse beat Dirk van Duijvenbode, while Ritchie Edhouse caused a surprise against Gary Anderson. The biggest stunt, however, came from Wattimena, who beat reigning world champion Luke Humphries;

Had Pietreczko won against Noppert, four players from outside the top-32 in the world rankings would have been in the semifinals of this major. However, Noppert put a stop to that by winning over 'Pikachu' after a leg-decider. As a result, we get an English semifinal and a Dutch semifinal.

First, Woodhouse and Edhouse will battle for a spot in the final match. Woodhouse made his way to the final four by beating Ross Smith (6-1), Ryan Searle (10-8) and Dirk van Duijvenbode (10-4). Edhouse started his tournament with an impressive win over Gian van Veen (6-1) with an average of 109 and was then also the better against Michael Smith (10-9) and Gary Anderson (10-5).

It is the seventh time the two Englishmen will face each other. Both players have already won three times against each other, with five of the six matches not decided until a deciding leg.

Where many expected in advance a clash between Luke Humphries and Luke Littler in the bottom half of the schedule, things turned out differently. Wattimena eliminated Peter Wright (6-0), James Wade (10-9) and Luke Humphries (10-4). Noppert dealt with Joe Cullen (6-2), Mike de Decker (10-6) and Ricardo Pietreczko (10-9). Littler had lost to Andrew Gilding in the first round, while Gilding in turn went down against Pietreczko at the last 16.

The head-to-head between the two Dutchmen is in favor of Noppert, who won four of the previous six encounters with Wattimena. In fact, Wattimena's last win over Noppert dates back to 2019.

For the two finalists there is a nice extra in store, because they can prepare for participation in the Grand Slam of Darts in November. But for now, that is just a side note; because the big question is who will get to put this prestigious tournament on his resume.

The tournament will be broadcast fully live on ITV. The daily evening sessions are at 7 p.m., while the afternoon sessions start at 11:45am. on Saturday and Sunday.

The first round will be completed on Thursday, Oct. 24, and Friday, Oct. 25. The 16 winners of the first round will compete for a spot among the final eight on Saturday, Oct. 26. The quarterfinals will be on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 27, followed by the semifinals and finals in the evening.

Compared to 2023, the prize pool has been increased by £100,000. The amount for the winner and runner-up has remained the same, so the extra money flows to the players who do not make it to the final.

All 32 participants are guaranteed a starting premium of 7,500 pounds, which is 25 percent more than last year. This amount eventually rises to a sum of 120,000 for the winner of the 2024 European Darts Championship.

First round - Best of 11 legs

Second round - Best of 19 legs

Quarterfinals - Best of 19 legs

Semifinals - Best of 21 legs

Final - Best of 21 legs

Dirk van Duijvenbode (88.91) 4-10 (92.50) Luke Woodhouse

Ritchie Edhouse (103.91) 10-5 (100.90) Gary Anderson

Luke Humphries (96.32) 4-10 (100.40) Jermaine Wattimena

Ricardo Pietreczko (99.27) 9-10 (102.41) Danny Noppert

Luke Woodhouse v Ritchie Edhouse

Jermaine Wattimena v Danny Noppert

Woodhouse/Edhouse v Wattimena/Noppert