Schedule Thursday night at World Cup of Darts 2023: Belgium, Germany and Australia start tournament

Thursday night marks the start of the 13th edition of the World Cup of Darts. During this session, the first 12 matches of the group phase will be played.

Top nations England, Wales, the Netherlands and Scotland are automatically qualified for the knockout phase, but outsiders such as Belgium, Germany and Australia will be in action. All matches will be played via a pairing over best of 7 legs.

Belgian duo Dimitri van den Bergh and Kim Huybrechts start their tournament against Marko Kantele and Paavo Myller from Finland. Another match against China awaits later.

Australian defending champions Damon Heta and Simon Whitlock meet Norman Madhoo and Sudesh Fitzgerald in their first game. Host country Germany, with Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler in the ranks, open against Man Lok Leung and Lok Yin Lee from Hong Kong.

Also appearing on stage in Frankfurt are Portugal (with Jose de Sousa, among others), Northern Ireland (with Daryl Gurney and Brendan Dolan), Austria (with Mensur Suljovic and Rowby-John Rodriguez).

The World Cup of Darts will be shown in full on Sky Sports in the UK as well as PDCTV as well as Viaplay and DAZN in other territories.

On Thursday 15 June and Friday 16 June, the matches from the group phase are scheduled. On Saturday 17 June, the second round is scheduled. The rest of the tournament will be completed on Sunday. In the afternoon, the quarter-finals will take place, followed by the semi-finals and the final in the evening session.

There will be £450,000 in prize money during this pairs tournament. The event has a higher prize pool than last year. A total of £100,000 has been added to the prize money to be distributed.

The 36 countries in the group stage will receive a minimum of £2,000 per player, while players from the top four seeded countries will receive at least £9,000 each. This could eventually rise to £40,000 per player on winning the World Cup of Darts.

Switzerland v Italy

Poland v Portugal

Czech Republic v Singapore

Spain v South Africa

Ireland v Thailand

Northern Ireland v France

Belgium v Finland

Canada v India

Austria v Denmark

Germany v Hong Kong

Australia v Guyana

Latvia v New Zealand