Saturday night will see the final four duels of the second round of the 2024 World Cup of Darts as England and Netherlands begin their quests in Frankfurt.
As one of the top four countries, the Netherlands was directly admitted to the knockout phase. Belgium did have to start in the group stage. Dimitri van den Bergh and Kim Huybrechts were successful in their matches against Singapore (4-2) and the Philippines (4-0). Last year the two countries also met in the last sixteen. Then Van den Bergh and Huybrechts won 8-7 after a titanic battle against the Netherlands, who then played with Noppert and Dirk van Duijvenbode.
Host nation Germany opens the evening session with a showdown against Northern Ireland. Martin Schindler and Gabriel Clemens crawled through the eye of the needle in their opening match against New Zealand (4-3), but then won easily over Finland (4-1). Josh Rock and Brendan Dolan defeated South Africa (4-1) and Switzerland (4-3) in their pool.
For top favorite England, the World Cup of Darts will also begin Saturday night. Top duo Luke Humphries and Michael Smith will then take on Thibault Tricole and Jacques Labre. The French survived the group stage by defeating Latvia (4-1) and Denmark (4-3), but a stunt of stature will be needed to reach the quarter-finals at this tournament, just like last year.
Defending champion Wales also makes its first appearance. Jonny Clayton is back at it again this year, but he saw his leading man Gerwyn Price drop out last week due to health problems. 'The Ferret' now teams up with Jim Williams, who is making his debut at the World Cup of Darts. The two darters from Wales will take on Boris Krcmar and Romeo Grbavac from Croatia. The Croatian duo made it to the last sixteen by beating Malaysia (4-0) and Canada (4-2) in the pool.
The revamped format, which was successfully introduced last year, will return in 2024. The tournament will begin with a group stage before moving into a knockout phase. In addition, all matches will consist of pairings.
All group matches will be played on Thursday, June 27, and Friday, June 28. The group winner of each pool advances to the last sixteen. The second round, with the last remaining sixteen countries, compete on Saturday, June 29, for a spot in the quarterfinals. These will take place on Sunday afternoon, June 30. The semifinals and finals are scheduled for Sunday evening.
The tournament was won in 2023 for the second time by Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton. However, due to health reasons, Price cannot participate in the upcoming edition of the World Cup of Darts. His place will be taken by Jim Williams. Four-time champion England will be represented by world champion Luke Humphries - making his debut at the World Cup - and world number three Michael Smith. Peter Wright and Gary Anderson make up the Scottish team. On behalf of the Netherlands, Michael van Gerwen and Danny Noppert will play at the World Cup of Darts.
The tournament will be broadcast in the UK by Sky Sports. On Friday afternoon at 12:00 the second series of group matches will already begin. The evening session will then start again at 18:00, when the final matches of the group stage will be played.
The 12 group stage winners will advance to the last sixteen. Then the four top nations also advance into the tournament. The first four duels of the second round will be played from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 29. Consequently, the format has gone up considerably. From best of 7 legs in the group stage to best of 15 legs in the knockout stage.
On Saturday night, June 29, from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., the last four matches of the second round will be played. After that, it will be known which eight countries will advance to the final day of the World Cup of Darts. The quarter-finals will take place on Sunday, June 30, from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. The semifinals and final of the World Cup of Darts are scheduled on Sunday evening from 6 p.m.
A total of 450,000 pounds of prize money will be distributed at the World Cup of Darts. All participants in the pool phase will receive at least 2,000 pounds per person. The players from the top four countries will receive £9,000 per person anyway.
Only after that does it get really lucrative. The quarter-finalists each receive £10,000 credited to their bank accounts. The semi-finalists each receive 15,000 pounds for their performance. The losing finalists both receive £25,000 in prize money, while the winners go home with £40,000 each. The prize money won does not count toward the world rankings, by the way.
Saturday, June 29
Evening session (from 6 p.m.)
Second round
Northern Ireland v Germany
England v France
Wales v Croatia
Netherlands v Belgium