Preview World Darts Championship 2024: Will top favourite Luke Humphries be able to carry top form to first world title?

The 2024 World Darts Championship is about to begin. From Friday, December 15, 2023 to Wednesday, January 3, 2024, 96 players will compete for the world title at the World Darts Championship. Read our preview of the upcoming edition in this article.

The Alexandra Palace, affectionately known as Ally Pally in London, has been the home of darts showpiece event since 2008. The venue seats 3,200 fans, who will hopefully once again create a wonderful atmosphere with festive attire and singing.

The World Darts Championship has been dominated by one man in the past. After Dennis Priestley won the first edition in 1994, Phil Taylor managed to take the world title no less than fourteen times between 1995 and 2013. The crumbs left by 'The Power' were picked up by John Part (2003 and 2008), Raymond van Barneveld (2007) and Adrian Lewis (2011 and 2012).

In 2013, Taylor won the World Darts Championship for the last time. After that came as many as six new world champions. Michael van Gerwen took his first of three world titles in 2014. Also in 2017 and 2019, "Mighty Mike" was the world's best. Gary Anderson captured the world title in 2015 and 2016, while Rob Cross got to lift the Sid Waddell Trophy in 2018. Peter Wright became world champion in 2020 and 2022, and in between, Gerwyn Price managed to win the corona edition.

Finally, we come to defending champion Michael Smith, who dealt with Van Gerwen after a spectacular World Championship final. This historic final featured the best leg of all time. In the third leg of the second set, both players had the chance for a nine darter. Van Gerwen was first up and after eight perfect arrows, he missed the double 12 for a perfect leg. After Smith gave his Dutch rival a hand for his attempt, "Bullyboy" managed to throw a nine darter. Images of this leg went all over the world. The clip of the PDC showing this leg was viewed over 25 million times on X, the former Twitter, alone.

Michael Smith's nine-darter just mentioned was the fourteenth perfect leg in the tournament's history. In 2009, Raymond van Barneveld was the first player to throw a nine-darter at Alexandra Palace. A year later, 'Barney' also took the second perfect leg. Adrian Lewis managed to add lustre to his world title during the 2011 edition by producing a nine darter in the World Championship final.

The 2013 edition featured two nine-darters for the first time. Dean Winstanley and Michael van Gerwen recorded a perfect leg. Almost even a third nine-darter followed. After Van Gerwen threw his perfect leg, he missed the double in the following leg for two nine darters in a row.

Fans who had tickets for the afternoon session on Dec. 14, 2013, also experienced a historic afternoon. They saw nine darters from Terry Jenkins and Kyle Anderson in one session. In subsequent years, Adrian Lewis (2015) and Gary Anderson (2016) threw a perfect leg.

After that, as many as four World Championship editions followed without a nine-darter. James Wade ended this streak with a nine-darter during the 2021 edition. Then William Borland, Darius Labanauskas and Gerwyn Price managed to pull off this feat during the 2022 World Darts Championship. So the latest in line is Smith, with his historic perfect leg during the 2023 World Championship final.

We seemed to be heading for the most open edition of the World Darts Championship ever with no outright favourite. However, Luke Humphries recently pushed forward as the top favourite with three major titles in 49 days over the past few events. 'Cool Hand Luke' managed to win the World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship Finals in recent months.

Michael van Gerwen won the Premier League Darts in 2023, but otherwise had a disappointing season at the major tournaments. At the Players Championship Finals, however, 'Mighty Mike' showed that his top form is starting to get there again. Gerwyn Price is another player who was very good in the beginning of the year, but fell a bit silent in the second half of the season. However, 'The Iceman' can be expected to be on top-form once again during the World Darts Championship.

Defending champion Michael Smith is not among the favourites this year, but can't be ruled out despite his lacklustre year. With one World Series title, one Pro Tour title and one Euro Tour title, 2023 was a lean year for a reigning world champion, who himself has stated several times that he tried to enjoy his year as reigning world champion this year. He has since turned the knob and Smith is fully motivated to extend his world title.

A year ago, Gary Anderson was written off by many people, but after a successful season, "The Flying Scotsman" is simply put back on the list of favourites. The Scot won three Pro Tour titles this year and, of all the players on the PDC Tour, threw the highest annual average at ranking tournaments. The big question is how Anderson's compatriot Peter Wright will fare at the start of the World Darts Championship. 'Snakebite' had a barren season until, out of nowhere, he recently captured the European Championship title. It turned out to be an outlier, as at the Grand Slam of Darts Wright was eliminated in the group stage and for the Players Championship Finals Wright did not even manage to qualify.

Finally, Rob Cross, Nathan Aspinall and James Wade may be counted among the outsiders. Cross has shown good form in the fall, including a run to the final at the Grand Slam of Darts. Aspinall won the World Matchplay in July, and with his fighting spirit and perseverance is a tough opponent for any world number one. The latter also applies to James Wade, who managed to achieve excellent results in recent months. 'The Machine' reached the final of the European Championship, was in the semifinals at the Grand Slam of Darts and reached the quarterfinals at the Players Championship Finals. In all cases, Wade lost to the eventual winner.

**** Luke Humphries

*** Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price

** Michael Smith, Gary Anderson, Peter Wright

* Rob Cross, Nathan Aspinall, James Wade

The darts spectacle at Alexandra Palace can be seen live in the UK on Sky Sports. Sky Sports Arena will broadcast the tournament in full, whilst occasional session will also be featured on Sky Sports Main Event.

The first broadcast during the 2024 World Darts Championship will be on Friday, Dec. 15, at 7 p.m. Almost all days of play also have an afternoon session. This will start at 12:30 p.m. each time. Most evening sessions start at 20:00, only the last two playing days have a later start time.

The prize pool for the 2024 World Darts Championship includes a whopping 2.5 million in prize money. That amount is nearly forty times higher than the prize pool at the very first edition of the PDC World Championship in 1994.

Then the prize pool consisted of 64,000 pounds and the winner went home with 16,000 pounds. Meanwhile, the winner of the World Darts Championship collects £500,000 for winning the world title.