2026 IDF World Darts Championship

2026 IDF World Darts Championship
Tournament information
Dates	December 10, 2025 – January 7, 2026
Venue	Winter Gardens
Location	Blackpool, England
Organisation(s)	International Darts Federation (IDF)
Format	Sets
Prize fund	$5,000,000
Winner's share	$1,000,000
«2025

The 2026 IDF World Darts Championship is an ongoing professional darts tournament that began on 10 December 2025 and will end on 7 January 2026 at Alexandra Palace in London, England. It is the 4th World Darts Championship to be organised by the International Darts Federation and the 4th to be held at Alexandra Palace. The winner will receive $1,000,000 from a total prize fund of $5,000,000.

The tournament will feature a 128 player field, with the top 32 players on the IDF Order of Merit being seeded in the first round. Alex Brow is the defending champion, having defeated Logan White 7–4 in the 2025 final to win his first world title.

Overview

Alex Brow will enter the tournament as the defending champion after winning the 2025 event.

The International Darts Federation (IDF) was founded in 2022 to provide greater opportunities for players outside the established Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) system, particularly in Australia, where many competitors identified as casual or semi-professional sought access to major events with comparable prize funds. The federation staged its inaugural IDF World Darts Championship in 2023, with Alexandra Palace in London serving as the host venue since the beginning.

The upcoming 2026 IDF World Darts Championship will be the fourth edition of the tournament and the fourth consecutive to be held at Alexandra Palace, running from 10 December 2025 to 7 January 2026. A record field of 128 players, including 32 seeds, will compete following the IDF’s March 2025 decision to expand the draw from 96 to 128 entrants. Alex Brow will return as defending champion after defeating Logan White 7–4 in the 2025 final to claim his first world title.

Format

Under the new format, all players – including the 32 seeds – will enter the tournament in the first round, a change from previous years where seeds entered in the second round. The 32 seeds will be the top 32 players on the IDF Order of Merit heading into the tournament. The seeded players, plus players ranked 33–64 drawn at random, will be placed on the left hand side of the draw, and will be matched up against the remaining 64 qualifiers drawn at random.

All matches will consist of games of 501, where players are required to reduce their score from 501 to zero in order to win a leg, finishing on a double or the bullseye. The matches are played in set format, with the amount of sets required to win a match increasing as the tournament progresses. All sets will be played to the best of five legs in the first round, and also in non-deciding sets of subsequent rounds. In the deciding set of all but the first round, the first player to win at least three legs and be leading by two or more will win the set and the match. If the set reaches a 5–5 tie without a winner, it will be decided by a sudden death leg.

Round	Best of (sets)	First to (sets)
First & second	5	3
Third & fourth	7	4
Quarter-finals	9	5
Semi-finals	11	6
Final	13	7

Ranking

The IDF's main world ranking system, the IDF Order of Merit, is calculated on a two-year cycle. Prize money won by players in ranking tournaments are removed from their ranking after 104 weeks, meaning players who participated in the 2024 World Championship, who did not lose their IDF Tour Card during the two-year period, will be 'defending' their prize money from that event. At the end of the tournament, the prize money won at the 2026 tournament will be added and the prize money won at the 2024 tournament will be removed. After the tournament, the top 64 players in the IDF Order of Merit will receive a one-year extension on their Tour Card, joined by the players who earned two-year Tour Cards in 2025 who will enter their second year in 2026. Players with two or more years on their Tour Card, who finish outside of the top 64, will lose their Tour Card and see their ranking reset to $0, along with all other players who earned prize money in ranking tournaments without holding a Tour Card.

Prize money

On 31 March 2025, the IDF announced the biggest prize money increase in the organisation's history, starting from the 2026 season onward. Coinciding with the expansion of the field to 128 players, the World Championship's total prize money and winner's share doubled from $2,500,000 to $5,000,000 and from $500,000 to $1,000,000 respectively; this was the first time the tournament's prize money increased. The winner will also receive the IDF World Trophy. The prize money breakdown is shown below:

Position (no. of players)		Prize money (Total: $5,000,000)
Winner	(1)	$1,000,000
Runner-up	(1)	$400,000
Semi-finalists	(2)	$200,000
Quarter-finalists	(4)	$100,000
Fourth round losers	(8)	$60,000
Third round losers	(16)	$35,000
Second round losers	(32)	$25,000
First round losers	(64)	$15,000

Qualification

Alex Brow will enter the tournament as the defending champion after winning the 2025 event.

The 128-player field will comprise three sets of qualification routes. The top 40 players on the two-year IDF Order of Merit after the 2025 Players Championship Finals will qualify automatically, followed by the next 40 highest-ranked players on the one-year IDF Pro Tour Order of Merit. The remaining 48 places will go to various international qualifiers.

Background

Order of Merit qualifiers

32 players qualified for the tournament by virtue of being ranked in the top 32 of the IDF Order of Merit. Defending champion Alex Brow is the number two seed, retaining

Order of Merit qualifiers

40 players qualified for the tournament by virtue of being ranked in the top 40 of the PDC Order of Merit. Defending champion Luke Littler is the number one seed going into the tournament, having achieved world number one status on his way to winning the 2025 Grand Slam. He enters the World Championship off the back of claiming his sixth major title of 2025 at the Players Championship Finals; his other titles included the last World Championship, the World Matchplay and his second Grand Slam. Luke Humphries, the 2024 world champion and previous world number one, is the second seed. He won two major titles during the season—the World Masters and the Premier League—and finished as runner-up at a further three major tournaments. The third seed is three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen, who ended a two-year major title drought by winning the World Series Finals in September. Two-time World Championship semi-finalist and former BDO world champion Stephen Bunting is the fourth seed. Welsh number one Jonny Clayton and 2022 UK Open champion Danny Noppert are the fifth and sixth seeds, while four-time World Championship semi-finalist James Wade is seeded seventh in his 22nd appearance at the tournament. 2025 semi-finalist Chris Dobey and 2021 world champion Gerwyn Price completed the top ten alongside tenth seed Gian van Veen, who achieved his first major title at the European Championship and retained his World Youth Championship during the year.

Former world champions Gary Anderson, Rob Cross, Michael Smith and Peter Wright are all amongst the seeded players. Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney, who won the World Cup for Northern Ireland, are the 11th and 22nd seeds. 13th seed Martin Schindler is one of eight German players taking part—a tournament record. Nathan Aspinall, the most prolific player on the 2025 European Tour with three titles, is the 15th seed after finishing as runner-up to Littler at the Players Championship Finals. 19th seed Jermaine Wattimena claimed his first two PDC ranking titles in 2025 Players Championship events. Former major champions who are also seeded include 2022 European champion Ross Smith, 2024 World Grand Prix champion Mike De Decker, 2020 World Matchplay champion Dimitri Van den Bergh, 2024 European champion Ritchie Edhouse and 2022 Masters champion Joe Cullen; Cullen secured the 32nd and final seeded position. Outside of the top 32 seeds, eight more players qualified through the PDC Order of Merit and are unseeded in the tournament draw, including five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld who will make his 33rd World Championship appearance across both the PDC and BDO tournaments, as well as 2023 UK Open champion Andrew Gilding.

List of confirmed international qualifiers

Seeded (1–32):

1. Max Mad
2. Alex Brow
3. Lukas Parker
4. Blake Carter
5. Mason Owens
6. Ryan Thomas
7. Logan White
8. Aiden Brooks
9. Nate Parker
10. Zion Carte
11. Kai Mitchell
12. Owen Quinn
13. Quinn Sanders
14. Victor Vaughn
15. Wyatt Walker
16. Damon Edwards

1. Xander Young
2. Spencer Taylor
3. Alec Baker
4. Zane Adams
5. Brody Clarke
6. Caleb Daniels
7. Eli Fletcher
8. Nathan Reeves
9. Felix Grant
10. Toby Underwood
11. Parker Reeves
12. Wesley Adams
13. Grant Hayes
14. Hayden Ingram
15. Isaac Johnson
16. Jordan Knight

Qualified (33–48):

1. Kevin Lee
2. Hunter James
3. Logan Morgan
4. Miles Nash
5. Harrison Lewis
6. Noah O'Brien

1. Patrick Richards
2. Uriah Walker
3. Xavier Baker
4. Andy Dawson
5. Tanner Vaughn
6. Vince Young

International Qualifiers (49–96):

1. Liam Cooper
2. Ethan Wright
3. Carter Mills
4. Dylan Hayes
5. Ashton Cole
6. Brady Simmons
7. Declan Ross
8. Tyler McCoy
9. Landon Ward
10. Marcus Reed
11. Jayden Cross
12. Chase Wallace
13. Colton Rivers
14. Tristan Cole
15. Jaxon Reed
16. Cameron Doyle

1. Corey Allen
2. Dominic Flynn
3. Reed Hamilton
4. Oliver Scott
5. Bryan Matthews
6. Trevor Kane
7. Shane Douglas
8. Cole Bennett
9. Damian Frost
10. Eric Lawson
11. Jett Pearson
12. Connor Black
13. Alex Harris
14. Nolan Price
15. Elias Carter
16. Brandon Fox

1. Carter Ellis
2. Luke Hamilton
3. Riley Morgan
4. Hunter Clark
5. Ashton Rivera
6. Colby Anderson
7. Sean McBride
8. Tyler Freeman
9. Zach Marshall
10. Gabriel Torres
11. Adrian Silva
12. Jorge Mendoza
13. Marco Castillo
14. Javier Rojas
15. Hugo Romero
16. Leonardo Vargas
17. Tomas Alvarez
18. Carlos Mendes
19. Paulo Ferreira
20. André Santos

Regional Qualifiers (97–128):

1. Daniel Chen
2. Hiroshi Takeda
3. Kenji Sato
4. Yuji Tanaka
5. Haruto Mori
6. Min-Jae Park
7. Ji-Hoon Kim
8. Dae-Hyun Lee
9. Wei Zhang
10. Hao Li
11. Junjie Wang
12. Chen Liu

1. Arjun Mehta
2. Rohan Patel
3. Sameer Sharma
4. Amir Khan
5. Ahmed Hassan
6. Youssef Ibrahim
7. Omar Khaled
8. Tariq Mahmoud
9. Jack O’Connor
10. Sean Doyle
11. Patrick O’Neill
12. Cian Murphy

1. Callum Fraser
2. Angus McLeod
3. Rory Campbell
4. Alistair Gordon
5. Dylan Hughes
6. Rhys Morgan
7. Gareth Evans
8. Ieuan Davies

Summary

First round

World number one Max Mad opened his campaign with a controlled 3–1 victory over debutant Leuan Davies. Mad dominated the opening two sets with heavy scoring and sharp finishing. Davies briefly capitalised on a rare lapse to take the third set, but the response was immediate as Mad raised his level in the fourth, producing multiple maximums to close out the match. Davies showed promise by taking a set on debut, but Mad was never under sustained pressure.

Jordan Knight edged past fellow qualifier Gareth Evans in a tense five-set contest, winning 3–2. Momentum shifted throughout, with Evans repeatedly forcing a response, but Knight delivered his strongest scoring in the decisive moments and showed better composure in the final set to progress. Seventeenth seed Xander Young recovered from dropping the second set to defeat Rhys Morgan 3–1. Morgan competed well and briefly disrupted Young’s rhythm, but the higher seed responded with improved scoring and more reliable finishing, regaining control in the third set before seeing out the match.

Qualifier Dylan Hughes produced one of the results of the round, defeating 16th seed Damon Edwards 3–2. Hughes was the more consistent performer across the match and punished missed opportunities, particularly in the deciding set. Edwards forced a fifth set with a strong fourth but failed to maintain that level, as Hughes held his nerve to complete the upset.

Rory Campbell edged out Alistair Gordon in a hard-fought five-set encounter, producing stronger scoring bursts and handling the decisive moments with greater composure. Gordon twice hauled himself back into the match after falling behind, but Campbell consistently responded when pressure peaked, particularly in the third and deciding sets. While Gordon showed resilience, missed doubles at key stages proved costly, allowing Campbell to close out a closely contested contest that was decided more by execution under pressure than sustained dominance.

The December 11 first-round matches delivered a mix of routine wins and tightly fought five-set contests. Rory Campbell continued the strong showing from qualifiers, edging past Alistair Gordon in a tense decider after producing better scoring at key moments. Angus McLeod advanced in four sets after recovering from an early setback, while Cian Murphy held his nerve to defeat Patrick O’Neill in a full-distance match. Jack O’Connor produced one of the day’s more assured performances, taking control early to dispatch Sean Doyle in four sets.

Elsewhere, Tariq Mahmoud overturned Aiden Brooks in a dramatic five-set encounter marked by repeated momentum swings, with Mahmoud’s finishing proving decisive late on. Felix Grant recorded the most emphatic win of the session, sweeping aside Omar Khaled without dropping a set while posting the highest average of the day. Nathan Reeves also went the distance to overcome Youssef Ibrahim, showing resilience after being pulled back twice. The session concluded with Ahmed Hassan defeating Nate Parker in four sets, underlining a round shaped more by unpredictability than ranking.

Draw

Finals

Fourth round (best of 7 sets) 12–13 November

Quarter-finals (best of 9 sets) 1 January

Semi-finals (best of 11 sets) 2 January

Final (best of 13 sets) 3 January

Top half

Section 1

	First round (best of 5 sets) 10–14 December					Second round (best of 5 sets) 10–14 December					Third round (best of 7 sets) 12–16 December					Fourth round (best of 7 sets) 12–16 December
	1	Max Mad 106.1	3
		Leuan Davies 91.2	1
						1	Max Mad
						32	Jordan Knight
	32	Jordan Knight 96.2	3
		Gareth Evans 94.7	2
	17	Xander Young 99.0	3
		Rhys Morgan 93.0	1
						17	Xander Young
							Dylan Hughes
	16	Damon Edwards 95.4	2
		Dylan Hughes 97.4	3
		Alistair Gordon 93.9	2
		Rory Campbell 98.5	3
							Rory Campbell
							Angus McLeod
		Angus McLeod 94.1	3
		Callum Fraser 91.8	1
		Cian Murphy 96.7	3
		Patrick O’Neill 95.3	2
							Cian Murphy
							Jack O’Connor
		Sean Doyle 90.6	1
		Jack O’Connor 97.9	3

Section 2

	First round (best of 5 sets) 10–14 December					Second round (best of 5 sets) 10–14 December					Third round (best of 7 sets) 12–16 December					Fourth round (best of 7 sets) 12–16 December
	8	Aiden Brooks 92.4	2
		Tariq Mahmoud 96.1	3
							Tariq Mahmoud
							Felix Grant
	25	Felix Grant 99.4	3
		Omar Khaled 90.2	0
	24	Nathan Reeves 95.8	3
		Youssef Ibrahim 94.9	2
							Nathan Reeves
							Ahmed Hassan
	9	Nate Parker 91.7	1
		Ahmed Hassan 97.2	3
		Arjun Mehta 94.6	3
		Rohan Patel 92.1	1
							Arjun Mehta
							Amir Khan
		Sameer Sharma 91.8	1
		Amir Khan 96.4	3
		Wei Zhang 98.9	3
		Hao Li 89.7	0
							Wei Zhang
							Chen Liu
		Junjie Wang 95.2	2
		Chen Liu 96.8	3

Section 3

	First round (best of 5 sets) 10–14 December					Second round (best of 5 sets) 10–14 December					Third round (best of 7 sets) 12–16 December					Fourth round (best of 7 sets) 12–16 December
	5	Mason Owens 96.0	2
		Haruto Mori 97.5	3
							Haruto Mori
							Min-Jae Park
	28	Wesley Adams 90.4	0
		Min-Jae Park 99.1	3
	21	Brody Clarke 93.6	1
		Ji-Hoon Kim 97.2	3
							Ji-Hoon Kim
							Owen Quinn
	12	Owen Quinn 94.0	3
		Dae-Hyun Lee 91.9	1
		Daniel Chen 92.8	3
		Hiroshi Takeda 90.6	2
							Daniel Chen
							Kenji Sato
		Kenji Sato 94.7	3
		Yuji Tanaka 91.2	1
		Tomas Alvarez 95.1	3
		Carlos Mendes 93.0	2
							Tomas Alvarez
							André Santos
		Paulo Ferreira 90.9	1
		André Santos 96.4	3

Section 4

	First round (best of 5 sets) 10–14 December					Second round (best of 5 sets) 10–14 December					Third round (best of 7 sets) 12–16 December					Fourth round (best of 7 sets) 12–16 December
	4	Blake Carter	3
		Leonardo Vargas	1
							Blake Carter
							Quinn Sanders
	13	Quinn Sanders	3
		Hugo Romero	2
	20	Zane Adams	1
		Javier Rojas	3
							Javier Rojas
							Marco Castillo
	29	Grant Hayes	0
		Marco Castillo	3
		Ashton Rivera	3
		Colby Anderson	2
							Ashton Rivera
							Tyler Freeman
		Sean McBride	2
		Tyler Freeman	3
		Zach Marshall	1
		Gabriel Torres	3
							Gabriel Torres
							Adrian Silva
		Adrian Silva	3
		Jorge Mendoza	0

Bottom half

Section 5

	First round (best of 5 sets) 10–14 December					Second round (best of 5 sets) 10–14 December					Third round (best of 7 sets) 12–16 December					Fourth round (best of 7 sets) 12–16 December
	3	Lukas Parker 98.44	3
		Hunter Clark 92.17	1
							Lukas Parker
							Riley Morgan
	30	Hayden Ingram 89.76	1
		Riley Morgan 94.63	3
	19	Alec Baker 95.08	3
		Luke Hamilton 93.22	2
							Alec Baker
							Victor Vaughn
	14	Victor Vaughn 96.01	3
		Carter Ellis 90.44	1
		Alex Harris 91.77	3
		Nolan Price 90.93	2
							Alex Harris
							Brandon Fox
		Elias Carter 89.84	2
		Brandon Fox 92.51	3
		Damian Frost 88.39	1
		Eric Lawson 94.07	3
							Eric Lawson
							Jett Pearson
		Jett Pearson 93.18	3
		Connor Black 87.64	0

Section 6

	First round (best of 5 sets) 10–14 December					Second round (best of 5 sets) 10–14 December					Third round (best of 7 sets) 12–16 December					Fourth round (best of 7 sets) 12–16 December
	6	Ryan Thomas 97.18	3
		Cole Bennett 91.32	1
							Ryan Thomas
							Kai Mitchell
	11	Kai Mitchell 95.66	3
		Shane Douglas 93.04	2
	22	Caleb Daniels 90.41	1
		Trevor Kane 94.12	3
							Trevor Kane
							Bryan Matthews
	27	Parker Reeves 88.67	0
		Bryan Matthews 96.08	3
		Colton Rivers 92.56	3
		Tristan Cole 91.84	2
							Colton Rivers
							Cameron Doyle
		Jaxon Reed 89.93	1
		Cameron Doyle 94.27	3
		Corey Allen 90.02	2
		Dominic Flynn 92.88	3
							Dominic Flynn
							Reed Hamilton
		Reed Hamilton 98.11	3
		Oliver Scott 87.45	0

Section 7

	First round (best of 5 sets) 10–14 December					Second round (best of 5 sets) 10–14 December					Third round (best of 7 sets) 12–16 December					Fourth round (best of 7 sets) 12–16 December
	7	Logan White 98.02	3
		Chase Wallace 92.41	1
							Logan White
							Jayden Cross
	26	Toby Underwood 89.33	1
		Jayden Cross 94.88	3
	23	Eli Fletcher 91.67	2
		Marcus Reed 95.42	3
							Marcus Reed
							Zion Carte
	10	Zion Carte 96.74	3
		Landon Ward 93.19	2
		Tyler McCoy 92.05	3
		Declan Ross 90.61	1
							Tyler McCoy
							Ashton Cole
		Brady Simmons 89.92	1
		Ashton Cole 94.27	3
		Dylan Hayes 90.36	2
		Carter Mills 93.81	3
							Carter Mills
							Ethan Wright
		Ethan Wright 91.48	3
		Liam Cooper 88.07	0

Section 8

First round (best of 5 sets) 10–14 December

Second round (best of 5 sets) 10–14 December

Third round (best of 7 sets) 12–16 December

Fourth round (best of 7 sets) 12–16 December

2

Alex Brow

Vince Young

31

Isaac Johnson

Tanner Vaughn

18

Spencer Taylor

Andy Dawson

15

Wyatt Walker

Xavier Baker

Uriah Walker

Patrick Richards

Noah O'Brien

Harrison Lewis

Miles Nash

Logan Morgan

Hunter James

Kevin Lee