Schedule World Cup of Darts 2023: Australia open up their title defence against Guyana

The PDC has announced the playing schedule for the first two match days of the World Cup of Darts. This country tournament is scheduled from 15 to 18 June.

Singles have been scrapped, so only pair matches will be played throughout the tournament. Moreover, the World Cup of Darts now consists of two stages; a group stage and a knockout stage. Top nations England (Michael Smith and Rob Cross), the Netherlands (Michael van Gerwen and Danny Noppert), Wales (Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton) and Scotland (Peter Wright and Gary Anderson) are automatically qualified for the knockout phase. Their possible opponents are also not yet known, as a new draw will take place after the group stage.

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

Belgium have to start in the first round. Belgian duo Dimitri van den Bergh and Kim Huybrechts open up their tournament against Marko Kantele and Paavo Myller from Finland. Another match against China awaits later.

A total of 12 group matches will be played on Thursday evening. On Friday afternoon, the losing country of the first group matches will play against the third country of each group. Then the final group matches will take place on Friday evening.

The 12 group winners advance to the second round, where the four top countries will also enter and the tournament will be completed through a knockout phase.

Switzerland v Italy