World Cup of Darts 2025: Free darts betting tips, preview and group predictions for the Sky Sports televised major in

Darts betting tips: World Cup of Darts

2pts England to face Wales in the final at 3/1 (Sky Bet)

2pts any nine-darter in the World Cup at 2/1 (Sky Bet)

SL ACCA: 1pt Canada, Sweden, Australia and Croatia to win their groups at 7/1 with Sky Bet

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

Everyone loves our annual dose of pairs darts and the hype this year is even bigger than ever as we prepare for the 'Dream Team' of Luke Humphries and Luke Littler to pair up for England.

It has been likened to the anticipation surrounding the USA basketball team ahead of the Barcelona Olympics (if you're old enough to !) and I doubt anyone will be surprised if it ends up being a similar kind of glorious procession.

That's meant as no disrespect to any other pairing but we're talking about the world's number one and two who have won 10 of the last 14 televised majors dating back to the 2024 World Championship final and are clearly the dominant forces in the game today.

What Littler and Humphries lack in experience as a pairing, they more than make up with the friendship and chemistry they've already displayed on the oche when competing against each other in the highest pressure situations.

This is exactly why their much publicised 'friendly rivalry' can pay off spectacularly.

Obviously pairs has thrown up many shocks in the past and the format is undeniably a bit of a leveller due to factors such as longer waits for each player between visits and if team-mates have different preferences on their finishing doubles, but Littler and Humphries are more than talented enough to deal with this.

In fact, I am sensing them to break average records during the tournament and potentially hit the first ever televised pairs nine-darter. They'll have definitely spoken about it during the build up to the tournament and it would be typical of Littler to mark his World Cup debut with another history-making achievement.

CLICK HERE to back a nine-dart finish in the tournament with Sky Bet

England's chief rivals for World Cup glory will be Wales, who find themselves in the opposite half of the knockout stage draw as the second seeds.

Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton have forged such strong friendship and partnership down the years which has helped them win two of the last five stagings of this tournament while they were also runners-up to Australia in 2022.

World Cup of Darts: Knockout stage draw bracket

Top four seeded nations avoid group stage and go straight to the knockout stages

• (1) England v Group Winner
• Group Winner v Group Winner
• (4) Northern Ireland v Group Winner
• Group Winner v Group Winner
• (2) Wales v Group Winner
• Group Winner v Group Winner
• (3) Scotland v Group Winner
• Group Winner v Group Winner

Price impressed during the Premier League campaign to finish in the top four while he's picked up three Players Championship titles this season and Clayton has triumphed on the European Tour as well as reaching the World Masters final.

The Welsh will be in the same half as Scotland but should they meet in the semi-finals then I'd much rather be on the side of Price and Clayton.

Although Gary Anderson has been averaging very highly this year and is currently third only to Littler and Humphries across all competitions, I just don't feel Peter Wright is reliable enough back-up these days.

Snakebite has shown glimpses of good form this year but he's dropping into the 80s too frequently and to win the World Cup again like they did back in 2021, it has to be a proper two-man team.

There's bound to some shocks and surprises along the way but I don't anticipate any of that to involve England or Wales, which is why I'm backing them to meet each other in the final.

CLICK HERE to back England and Wales to meet in the final with Sky Bet

Group stage verdicts

Only the group winners will England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in the knockout stages

Group A

• (5) Netherlands (Danny Noppert & Gian van Veen)
• Italy (Michele Turetta & Massimo Dalla Rosa)
• Hungary (György Jehirszki & Gergely Lakatos)

VERDICT: The NETHERLANDS pairing are 1/10 to win this group even without Michael van Gerwen and it's hard to see how either Italy or Hungary can stop them.

Gian van Veen is one of the fastest rising stars on the circuit and we all know what Danny Noppert is capable of so they've definitely got potential to get as far as the semi-finals.

Group B

• (6) Belgium (Mike De Decker & Dimitri Van den Bergh)
• Latvia (Madars Razma & Valters Melderis)
• Philippines (Lourence Ilagan & Paolo Nebrida)

VERDICT: Interestingly, of the four televised majors that Luke Littler or Luke Humphries haven't won since the 2024 World Championship, two belong to the Belgian pairing of Mike de Decker and Dimitri Van den Bergh.

De Decker beat Humphries to win the World Grand Prix back in October while Van den Bergh also stunned Cool Hand in the 2024 UK Open final, so on that evidence alone you could make a case for them being a potential banana skin for England later down the line.

However, van den Bergh's struggles on and off the oche this season saw him step away from the sport back in April and we haven't seen him in competitive action since. Hopefully he's in the right frame of mind to give this a go, but if he's not, the dangerous PHILIPPINES pairing of Lourence Ilagan and Paolo Nebrida will fancy their chances of springing a surprise at 13/2.

At that price they're worth a small flutter.

Group C

• (7) (Martin Schindler & Ricardo Pietreczko)
• Portugal (Jose de Sousa & Bruno Nascimento)
• Singapore (Paul Lim & Phuay Wei Tan)

VERDICT: World Cup hosts will be looking well beyond the group stages after being handed a relatively soft group which they are 1/6 to win although it'll be interesting to see if there's enough chemistry between Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietreczko to trouble the big hitters later on in the tournament.

The world of darts will be hoping the ageless Paul Lim can help Singapore pick up another victory to celebrate and a very good chance of that will come against Portugal, who are captained by a very out of form Jose de Sousa.

Group D

• (8) Republic of Ireland (William O'Connor & Keane Barry)
• Gibraltar (Craig Galliano & Justin Hewitt)
• China (Xiaochen Zong & Lihao Wen)

VERDICT: Another group where the seeds are hot favourites, with the REPUBLIC OF IRELAND priced at 1/12 to advance to the knockout stages.

Keane Barry is enduring a difficult season on tour but he'll be solid enough for William O'Connor, who is by far and away the highest quality player on show in this group.

Group E

• (9) Poland (Krzysztof Ratajski & Radek Szaganski)
• South Africa (Cameron Carolissen & Devon Petersen)
• Norway (Cor Dekker & Kent Joran Sivertsen)

VERDICT: POLAND will be heavily expected to advance at 1/5 especially given that Krzysztof Ratajski has recently returned to winning ways on the Pro Tour after suffering with health problems.

However, if Cameron Carolissen can play anything like he did against Wessel Nijman in that epic World Championship match back in December and Devon Petersen can somehow summon some of his old magic, then they might give the Poles a scare.

Group F

• (10) Canada (Matt Campbell & Jim Long)
• Malaysia (Tengku Shah & Tan Jenn Ming)
• Denmark (Benjamin Reus & Andreas Hyllgaardhus)

VERDICT: If you want a favourite that isn't too short a price to include in a group acca then CANADA are an ideal choice at 4/9.

Matt Campbell has produced some decent performances this season, particularly on the European Tour where he beat James Wade and Ross Smith en route to a quarter-final earlier this month before losing a last-leg decider to Damon Heta.

He'll be backed up by the experienced Jim Long, who is averaging around 89 in all competitions for the season which is better than anyone else in this group.

Group G

• (11) Sweden (Jeffrey de Graaf & Oskar Lukasiak)
• Lithuania (Darius Labanauskas & Mindaugas Barauskas)
• (Thibault Tricole & Jacques Labre)

VERDICT: On paper this is regarded the toughest group to predict but at 6/5, SWEDEN are an extremely tempting proposition to include in our acca.

Jeffrey de Graaf has become a very credible operator on the PDC circuit over the past couple of seasons - as we saw at the World Championship when dismantling Gary Anderson en route to the last 16 - and even reached his third Players Championship final back in March only to get thumped by Martin Schindler.

Oskar Lukasiak averages around the mid-80s on the Nordic Baltic Tour or whenever he gets opportunities to compete on the Pro Tour so together they have the talent to battle through this group.

won't be short of backers due to Thibault Tricole boasting a higher seasonal average than de Graaf and also enjoying some decent results this season but Jacques Labre is posting a lot of 70s averages on the Challenge Tour.

Lithuania are the slight outsiders but I do feel they're effectively a one-man team.

Group H

• (12) Austria (Mensur Suljovic & Rusty-Jake Rodriguez)
• Spain (Daniel Zapata & Ricardo Fernandez)
• Australia (Damon Heta & Simon Whitlock)

VERDICT: Austria and AUSTRALIA have superb World Cup records in recent years and they'll be both be cursing their lack of luck in this draw.

Simon Whitlock has featured in every edition dating back to 2010 so it was obviously a highly emotional moment for him to lift this trophy back in 2022 alongside Damon Heta a decade after suffering 'that' agonising final defeat to England when partnering Paul Nicholson.

Since then, Whitlock and Heta teamed to reach the quarter-finals in 2023, when they suffered a painful 8-7 defeat to Belgium, while they also reached the knockout stages 12 months ago only to suffer a shock defeat to Italy in round two.

Whitlock is clearly not the player he once was but he can still give Heta high quality while his wealth of experience can't be underestimated.

Mensur Suljovic has led Austria to a pair of finals back in 2021 and 2024 alongside Rowby-John Rodriguez but this time he's teaming up with the younger and less experienced Rusty-Jake.

They will both beat Spain before colliding in a winner-takes-all showdown but I'm firmly siding with the Aussies and throwing them in the acca.

Group I

• (13) USA (Danny Lauby & Jules van Dongen)
• Hong Kong (Man Lok Leung & Lok Yin Lee)
• Bahrain (Sadeq Mohamed & Hasan Bucheeri)

VERDICT: USA may well be the seeded team in this group but with Danny Lauby and Jules van Dongen struggling for any kind of form, it's Hong Kong who find themselves priced up as clear favourites.

Van Dongen was sadly averaging in the 60s repeatedly much earlier in the season before deciding to take a break from PDC action so it's unlikely he'll be able to supply Danny Lauby with the he needs to trouble the Hong Kong pairing of Man Lok Leung and Lok Yin Lee.

It's the weakest group in the tournament and I wouldn't want to be putting any nation in my acca.

Group J

• (14) Czechia (Karel Sedlacek & Petr Krivka)
• Chinese Taipei (Pupo Teng-Lieh & An-Sheng Lu)
• India (Nitin Kumar & Mohan Goel)

VERDICT: The CZECH REPUBLIC would seem a fairly safe favourite here at 1/4 due to Karel Sedlacek being by far the strongest and most experienced player in this group.

Petr Krivka's performances on the Challenge Tour suggest he'll provide pretty solid back up whereas India and Chinese Taipei are seemingly 'one-man teams' and their captains aren't anywhere near as strong as Sedlacek.

Group K

• (15) Croatia (Pero Ljubic & Boris Krcmar)
• Japan (Ryusei Azemoto & Tomoya Goto)
• Switzerland (Stefan Bellmont & Alex Fehlmann)

VERDICT: CROATIA are the marginal favourites to come through this group as the seeded team but I'm sure you'll find plenty siding with a dangerous Japanese pairing.

Ryusei Azemoto and Tomoya Goto are consistently averaging in the 80s and low 90s on the vastly improving Asian Tour while the latter has previously won hearts of the Ally Pally crowd during his World Championship appearances.

However, Pero Ljubic has made a steady start to life on the PDC Tour for the first time in his career at the age of 47 while Boris Krcmar has bounced back from the disappointment of losing his card by producing some highly impressive performances on the European Tour.

He's beaten the likes of Josh Rock, MVG, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Gian van Veen while he averaged almost 103 during a narrow defeat to Luke Humphries.

Krcmar will be fired up for this and I'm making Croatia the final team in my acca.

Group L

• (16) Finland (Teemu Harju & Marko Kantele)
• New Zealand (Haupai Puha & Mark Cleaver)
• Argentina (Jesus Salate & Victor Guillin)

VERDICT: This group feels like a coin toss between Finland and New Zealand so it's no surprise to see the bookies pricing them both at 6/5 to win it.

Teemu Harju, Marko Kantele, Haupai Puha and Mark Cleaver are all producing similar levels of performances on their different tours this season so it's really difficult to find a solid reason why to back one team over the other.

I'll end this preview with a whimper by sitting on the fence.

World Cup of Darts: Knockout stage draw bracket

Top four seeded nations went straight to the knockout stages

• (1) England v Group Winner
• Group Winner v Group Winner
• (4) Northern Ireland v Group Winner
• Group Winner v Group Winner
• (2) Wales v Group Winner
• Group Winner v Group Winner
• (3) Scotland v Group Winner
• Group Winner v Group Winner

WATCH: NEW TOURNAMENT IDEAS IN DARTS

World Cup of Darts: Knockout stage draw bracket

Top four seeded nations went straight to the knockout stages

• (1) England v Group Winner
• Group Winner v Group Winner
• (4) Northern Ireland v Group Winner
• Group Winner v Group Winner
• (2) Wales v Group Winner
• Group Winner v Group Winner
• (3) Scotland v Group Winner
• Group Winner v Group Winner

World Cup of Darts group results & standings

Seedings in brackets
Click here for Sky Bet odds
Scroll down for schedule, results & team line-ups

Group stage

Top team in each group progress to the second round

Group A
(5) Netherlands
Italy
Hungary

Group B
(6) Belgium
Latvia
Philippines

Group C
(7)
Portugal
Singapore

Group D
(8) Republic of Ireland
Gibraltar
China

Group E
(9) Poland
South Africa
Norway

Group F
(10) Canada
Malaysia
Denmark

Group G
(11) Sweden
Lithuania

Group H
(12) Austria
Spain
Australia

Group I
(13) USA
Hong Kong
Bahrain

Group J
(14) Czechia
Chinese Taipei
India

Group K
(15) Croatia
Japan
Switzerland

Group L
(16) Finland
New Zealand
Argentina

World Cup of Darts: Daily Schedule & Results

Thursday June 12 (1900 local time, 1800 BST)
Group Stage – First Matches (Best of seven legs)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports

• Sweden v Lithuania (G)
• Czechia v Chinese Taipei (J)
• Croatia v Japan (K)
• Republic of Ireland v Gibraltar (D)
• Canada v Malaysia (F)
• USA v Hong Kong (I)
• Poland v South Africa (E)
• Belgium v Latvia (B)
• Netherlands v Italy (A)
• v Portugal (C)
• Austria v Spain (H)
• Finland v New Zealand (L)

Friday June 13
Afternoon Session (1200 local time, 1100 BST)
Group Stage – Second Matches (Best of seven legs)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports

• Thursday's Losing Team v Nation 3

Evening Session (1900 local time, 1800 BST)
Group Stage – Final Matches (Best of seven legs)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports

• Thursday's Winning Team v Nation 3

Saturday June 14
Afternoon Session (1300 local time, 1200 BST)
Second Round (Best of 15 legs)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports

• Four Matches

Evening Session (1900 local time, 1800 BST)
Second Round (Best of 15 legs)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports

• Four Matches

Sunday June 30
Afternoon Session (1300 local time, 1200 BST)
Quarter-Finals (Best of 15 legs)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports

• Four Matches

Evening Session (1900 local time, 1800 BST)
Semi-Finals (Best of 15 legs)
TV Coverage: Sky Sport

• Two Matches

Final (Best of 19 legs)

• Winner SF 1 v Winner SF 2

World Cup of Darts: Competing nations and team line-ups

• (1) England - Luke Humphries & Luke Littler
• (2) Wales - Jonny Clayton & Gerwyn Price
• (3) Scotland - Gary Anderson & Peter Wright
• (4) Northern Ireland - Josh Rock & Daryl Gurney
• Argentina - Jesus Salate & Victor Guillin
• Australia - Damon Heta & Simon Whitlock
• Austria - Mensur Suljovic & Rusty-Jake Rodriguez
• Bahrain - Sadeq Mohamed & Hasan Bucheeri
• Belgium - Mike De Decker & Dimitri Van den Bergh
• Canada - Matt Campbell & Jim Long
• China - Xiaochen Zong & Lihao Wen
• Chinese Taipei - Pupo Teng-Lieh & An-Sheng Lu
• Croatia - Pero Ljubic & Boris Krcmar
• Czechia - Karel Sedlacek & Petr Krivka
• Denmark - Benjamin Reus & Andreas Hyllgaardhus
• Finland - Teemu Harju & Marko Kantele
• - Thibault Tricole & Jacques Labre
• - Martin Schindler & Ricardo Pietreczko
• Gibraltar - Craig Galliano & Justin Hewitt
• Hong Kong - Man Lok Leung & Lok Yin Lee
• Hungary - György Jehirszki & Gergely Lakatos
• India - Nitin Kumar & Mohan Goel
• Italy - Michele Turetta & Massimo Dalla Rosa
• Japan - Ryusei Azemoto & Tomoya Goto
• Latvia - Madars Razma & Valters Melderis
• Lithuania - Darius Labanauskas & Mindaugas Barauskas
• Malaysia - Tengku Shah & Tan Jenn Ming
• Netherlands - Danny Noppert & Gian van Veen
• New Zealand - Haupai Puha & Mark Cleaver
• Norway - Cor Dekker & Kent Joran Sivertsen
• Philippines - Lourence Ilagan & Paolo Nebrida
• Poland - Krzysztof Ratajski & Radek Szaganski
• Portugal - Jose de Sousa & Bruno Nascimento
• Republic of Ireland - William O'Connor & Keane Barry
• Singapore - Paul Lim & Phuay Wei Tan
• South Africa - Cameron Carolissen & Devon Petersen
• Spain - Daniel Zapata & Ricardo Fernandez
• Sweden - Jeffrey de Graaf & Oskar Lukasiak
• Switzerland - Stefan Bellmont & Alex Fehlmann
• USA - Danny Lauby & Jules van Dongen

Where can I watch the World Cup of Darts on TV?

The 2025 BetVictor World Cup of Darts will be broadcast on Sky Sports for viewers in the UK & Ireland, through the PDC's international broadcast partners, including DAZN, Viaplay and VTM, and on PDCTV for Rest of the World Subscribers.

World Cup of Darts: Sky Bet Odds

Click here for Sky Bet's darts page

Prize Fund (Per two-player team)

• Winners - £80,000
• Runners-Up - £50,000
• Semi-Final Losers - £30,000
• Quarter-Final Losers - £20,000
• Last 16 Losers - £9,000
• Second in Group - £5,000
• Third in Group - £4,000
• Total - £450,000

World Cup of Darts: Past Finals

• 2010 - Netherlands (Stompe & van Barneveld) 4-2 Wales (Webster & Bates)
• 2012 - England (Taylor & Lewis) 4-3 Australia (Whitlock & Nicholson)
• 2013 - England (Taylor & Lewis) 3-1 Belgium (Huybrechts & Huybrechts)
• 2014 - Netherlands (van Gerwen & van Barneveld) 3-0 England (Taylor & Lewis)
• 2015 - England (Taylor & Lewis) 3-2 Scotland (Anderson & Wright)
• 2016 - England (Taylor & Lewis) 3-2 Netherlands (MVG & Barney)
• 2017 - Netherlands (MVG & Barney) 3-1 Wales (Price/Webster)
• 2018 - Netherlands (MVG & Barney) 3-1 Scotland (Anderson/Wright)
• 2019 - Scotland (Anderson/Wright) 3-1 Republic of Ireland (O'Connor/Lennon)
• 2020 - Wales (Price/Clayton) 3-0 England (Cross/Smith)
• 2021 - Scotland (Wright/Henderson) 3-1 Austria (Suljovic/Rodriguez)
• 2022 - Australia (Whitlock/Heta) 3-1 Wales (Price/Clayton)
• 2023 - Wales (Price/Clayton) 10-2 Scotland (Anderson/Wright)
• 2024 - England (Humphries/Smith) 10-6 Austria (Suljovic/Rodriguez)

Darts: Related content

• 2025 Premier League Season
• 2025 PDC Darts Calendar
• How Littler won £1million in one season
• What's easier, a nine-darter or a 147?
• Watch: Ranking the major winners in history
• Watch: Royal Rumble and other new tournament ideas
• Watch: How much do darts players earn?
• Watch: Is Luke Littler the next Phil Taylor?
• Watch: Building the perfect darts player
• Watch: How to become a darts professional
• How legends would fare today
• Troubles and triumphs
• Tournament ideas for darts
• 'What If' moments in darts
• Agony of missed match darts
• Good, Bad, Ugly: Nicholson on darts shirts
• Referees in darts
• Calling the shots in darts
• Weird actions in darts
• Hidden talents in darts
• Superstitions in darts
• Routes to glory
• Paul Nicholson's five darts drills
• Paul Nicholson's five mental tips
• Paul Nicholson's five practice games
• Worst losers in darts
• World number ones in darts
• Best players never to be number one
• Five characters in darts
• Do averages lie?
• Greatest Tournaments Ever
• Paul Nicholson's Ally Pally tales
• Watch all the Ally Pally nine-darters
• Players everyone hates to face
• Players everyone loves to face
• How to make it as a pro?
• How much money do players earn?
• Greatest darts rivalries
• Rivalries to cherish
• Be canny with counting
• Phil Taylor's greatest display
• Greatest World Championship displays
• World Cup of Great Darts performances
• Sky Bet's darts odds