Schedule PDC World Darts Championship 2025 on Saturday afternoon: Ryan Searle, Scott Williams and Nathan Aspinall make return

Feel free to turn on the television again Saturday afternoon as three spectacular matches are once again scheduled at the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship. Crowd favorite Nathan Aspinall makes his appearance, as do Showman Scott Williams and cult hero Andrew Gilding.

During the third round of the PDC World Darts Championship, players need four sets won to qualify for the last sixteen of the World Darts Championship. The fourth round will take place on Dec. 29 and 30.

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

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Ryan Joyce v Ryan Searle

In the first two rounds, Ryan Joyce demonstrated once again why players see him as an underrated player and a tricky customer. 'Relentless' is not the best player scoring, but regularly camouflages that with his excellent finishes. Joyce won 3-1 in sets over Darius Labanauskas in the first round, and then triumphed by the same figures against Danny Noppert. It is the first time since his debut at the 2019 World Darts Championship that Joyce has made it to the third round. Back then, the Newcastle-based darter surprisingly made it to the quarter-finals.

Ryan Searle maintained a remarkable run with a convincing 3-0 victory over Matt Campbell. Searle never lost a World Championship match before Christmas, even though 'Heavy Metal' is already competing in the World Darts Championship for the seventh time. However, Searle has not yet managed to really advance far. In his six previous participations, he reached the last sixteen three times and the last 32 three times. 

The duo have met six times on the PDC circuit. Four of the previous six encounters were won by Joyce. Searle can draw hope, however, from the fact that he managed to win the only previous clash on television. At the 2021 Players Championship Finals, Searle won 6-5 over his compatriot. That was also the tournament where Searle surprisingly managed to reach the final.

Scott Williams v Ricardo Pietreczko

A duel between two unseeded players at the last 32. Both men managed to send home a seeded player in the second round. Scott Williams has already had two tough matches at Alexandra Palace. Last year's World Championship semifinalist began his tournament with a hard-fought 3-1 victory over Niko Springer, before knocking out his good friend Rob Cross 3-1 in sets. Williams is somewhat seen as darts' new badboy these days. 'Shaggy' does like to put on a show, and pairs his appearance with a good stage presence. He will no doubt try to quickly get into the head of his mentally unstable opponent.

In fact, Ricardo Pietreczko has shown on a few occasions that he cannot handle things that don't make sense to him on stage. Just think of his match at the Grand Slam of Darts against Beau Greaves in 2023, when "Pikachu" was booed heavily by the crowd. Another example is the match against Luke Littler in the semifinals of the Belgian Darts Open early this year, when Littler was "showboating" in Pietreczko's eyes. Nevertheless, Pietreczko has already recorded two wins at this tournament. The last remaining German at this World Darts Championship picked up an easy win against Xiaochen Zong (3-0) in the first round, after which he beat Gian van Veen 3-1 in sets. Last year, Pietreczko also reached the third round in London. Then he was leading 3-1 against title favorite Luke Humphries, but lost 3-4 to the man who would eventually become world champion.

Williams and Pietreczko only met once in an official match. That was at a Euro Tour qualifying tournament in 2023. Then it was Pietreczko who prevailed 6-2.

Can Ricardo Pietreczko keep his cool against 'badboy' Scott Williams?

Nathan Aspinall v Andrew Gilding

Nathan Aspinall is well up for a good result at the World Championships. 'The Asp' made it to the semifinals on each of his first appearances in 2019 and 2020, but then never made it past the third round. He can change that on Saturday afternoon. 'The Asp' won 3-1 over Leonard Gates in his first match. Very convincing that performance was not, but the two-time major winner later revealed he was sick.

Andrew Gilding also had to concede a set in his first match. The former UK Open champion had a difficult draw with Martin Lukeman as his opponent, but this potential banana skin was defeated 3-1. For 'Goldfinger' it is the first time in his career that he has reached the last 32 at Alexandra Palace.

It will be the eleventh meeting between these two Englishmen. 'The Asp' has a 7-3 lead over his compatriot, and managed to win all of the last three clashes between them. However, it will be the first TV clash between these two players.

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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 Worlds 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.

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 playing schedule

Saturday, December 28

Afternoon session (from 1:30 p.m.)

Ryan Joyce v Ryan Searle

Scott Williams v Ricardo Pietreczko

Nathan Aspinall v Andrew Gilding

Andrew Gilding is in the last 32 at the World Darts Championship for the first time in his career

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