Schedule Thursday night at 2025 PDC World Darts Championship as Michael Smith, Scott Williams & Mensur Suljovic open Ally Pally campaigns

This Thursday night, we have a very nice program lined up at the 2025 World Darts Championship. A number of tough to call matches, while Michael Smith begins his latest Alexandra Palace quest.

The first three matches of the evening involve duels from the first round. The evening session will conclude with a match from the second round. The winner of that match may return for the third round of the World Darts Championship after the Christmas break.

Follow the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship via our LIVE SCORE!

Read also

Everything about the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship: Schedule, results, TV guide and prize money

Nick Kenny v Stowe Buntz (R1)

A duel that is important for Raymond van Barneveld, as his first opponent comes from this match. Nick Kenny qualified as number 28 on the Pro Tour for the World Darts Championship, the tournament he has competed in twice before and last three years ago. His highlights of the season were a quarterfinal on the Euro Tour and one quarterfinal on the Players Championship circuit. Also playing in the background is the Tour Card race. Kenny must reach the third round of the World Darts Championship to keep a chance of saving his Tour Card.

Stowe Buntz will be there for the second time at Alexandra Palace. Last year, the American played in the opening match of the World Darts Championship against Kevin Doets, but lost 3-0 in sets. That same year, Buntz did show well at the Grand Slam of Darts with surprising wins over Peter Wright and Stephen Bunting. 'Neon Nightmare' forced a spot at this world championship by finishing third on the CDC Tour, the circuit for North American darters.

Mensur Suljovic v Matt Campbell (R1)

After a year's absence, Mensur Suljovic is back at the World Darts Championship. From 2008 to 2023, he played as many as 15 World Championships, with reaching the last 32 five times as his best result. At times on the Pro Tour, we are seeing more and more of the old Suljovic back. 'The Gentle' struggled with health problems due to the after-effects of a vaccination. Thanks to two quarterfinals on the floor tournaments, he concluded the Pro Tour qualifying ranking as number 22.

Matt Campbell appeared to miss the World Darts Championship for the first time since his debut at the 2020 edition, but through the final qualifying tournament for Tour Card holders, 'The Ninja' still secured a spot. So it will be his fifth participation at Alexandra Palace. The first four times he was eliminated in the first round, but last year Campbell made it to the third round and lost to Luke Littler.

It is the fourth time these two players will play against each other at a PDC tournament. Suljovic won the first two clashes in 2021 and 2022, before Campbell won the last encounter in 2024.

Mensur Suljovic enters the PDC's World Darts Championship for the 16th time in his career

Read also

"Erm..": Croatian darter uses Raymond van Barneveld's famous walk-on song as legendary darter reacts

Scott Williams v Niko Springer (R1)

This may be one of the most interesting duels of the entire first round. Scott Williams, last year's semifinalist and a born entertainer on stage. 'Shaggy' does like to put on a show, and pairs his appearance with a good stage presence. After the World Darts Championship, his season on the Pro Tour was nothing special, but in late November, Williams showed well again with a quarterfinal at the Players Championship Finals.

Although Germany already has three top darters with Martin Schindler, Gabriel Clemens and Ricardo Pietreczko, Niko Springer is tipped by many as Germany's most talented darter. In recent years, however, Springer did not yet want a Tour Card so he could focus on his studies. Meanwhile, Springer has both a degree and a Tour Card secured, and may begin his first year as a Tour Card holder in 2025. Springer qualified for his debut appearance at the World Darts Championship via the Development Tour. In recent years, we have also seen him regularly on the Euro Tours.

Michael Smith v Kevin Doets (R2)

We have seen this before. Last year, Michael Smith and Kevin Doets faced each other on the opening night of the World Darts Championship. Doets had then first won over Stowe Buntz and was on his way to an upset against Smith, who was then the defending champion. However, Doets could not capitalize on a 2-1 lead and still lost 3-2 in sets.

Doets already has another match under his belt, with 'Hawk Eye' winning 3-1 in sets over Noa-Lynn van Leuven in the opening round, while Smith, ranked number two in the world, is straight into the second round. It is an important tournament for Smith, who must defend his prize money won two years ago. So then the Englishman became world champion, which earned him £500,000 in prize money at the time. Because Smith has shown little special at the ranking majors since then, the darter from St Helens could fall out of the top-16 of the world rankings if he loses to Doets.

Read also

TV Guide World Darts Championship 2025: Here's how to watch every dart thrown live at Ally Pally on Sky Sports

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 World Championship 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 placement 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.

Read also

Here's how much players can earn in Prize Money at 2025 PDC World Darts Championship

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, December 19

Evening session (from 7 p.m.)

Nick Kenny v Stowe Buntz (R1)

Mensur Suljovic v Matt Campbell (R1)

Scott Williams v Niko Springer (R1)

Michael Smith v Kevin Doets (R2)

Michael Smith has to defend as much as £500,000 in prize money at this Worlds