How to watch 2025 PDC World Darts Championship: UK TV coverage & more

Jonathan Victoria • 11 Dec 2024 Guides

Darts fever will well and truly return this Christmas…

How to watch 2025 PDC World Darts Championship: UK TV coverage & more

The biggest occasion on the PDC calendar is here as the World Darts Championship arrives to captivate the nation once again.

If you’re wanting to know some of the key information for the tournament, including how to watch, then keep reading to find out!

How to watch the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship

The PDC World Darts Championship is shown exclusively on Sky Sports, as it has been since the inaugural PDC World Championship back in 1993.

Sky has been a big part of the growth of the PDC and darts as a whole, offering more viewership and adding more money to the prize funds.

However, Sky may not hold the rights for much longer as their deal is set to expire next year and PDC head Barry Hearn has already spoken about a deal that will allow for higher prize funds will be the one he fancies for the leading darts organisation.

PDC World Darts Championship on Sky Sports

Twitter Embed: https://twitter.com/SkySportsDarts/status/1860262143116874138

For this year, Sky Sports will still be the home for the tournament, so if you’re interested in watching this year, be sure to get yourself a valid Sky Sports subscription.

If you’re not already a Sky customer, you can find a range of Sky Sports package deals available on Digital TV. Whether you just need to get Sky Sports with TV or you’re in need of broadband as well, Sky has a deal that can suit your needs.

For existing Sky TV customers, you can add Sky Sports to your package if you don’t have it already by amending your existing package and adding it on. It will come as a 31-day rolling contract so you can cancel anytime.

You can also find Sky Sports in certain Virgin Media and BT packages, or if you’re already a customer of either, you can add Sky Sports to your existing package again on a 31-day rolling contract.

History of the PDC World Darts Championship

The origins of the World Darts Championship as we know it now stems from the breakaway organisation that many top players, including all previous winners of the British Drats Organisation (BDO) World Darts Championship, created back in 1992. It was known as the World Darts Council (WDC), but has now been renamed to the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).

The first edition of the PDC World Championship was held in 1994 and won by Dennis Priestley, his only PDC premier event victory.

Back then, the prize money was actually lower than the BDO World Championship’s, the organisation that the players had defected from. It took until 2002 for the PDC’s prize fund to overtake that of the BDO’s, which was the significant indicator of which of the two organisations hosted the premier talent.

In 2010, the PDC World Championship prize fund £1 million for the first time, the winner receiving the largest portion with £200k of that. It has now increased to the point where the prize pot is £2.5 million, with £500k going to the winner, which has been the way since it was set in 2019.

The BDO went into liquidation in 2020, leaving the PDC as briefly the only recognised world darts organisation until the World Darts Federation came into operation in 2022.

PDC World Darts Championship venues

Twitter Embed: https://twitter.com/SkySportsDarts/status/1866502789683163645

The PDC World Championship has only had two homes since its inception in 1994, originally being housed at the Circus Tavern in Essex, England.

The Circus Tavern hosted the championship from 1994 until 2007, witnessing 14 finals in that time - all of which had darts legend Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor competing. He really did compete in all 14 World Championship finals played at the Circus Tavern, and one 11 of them.

Circus Tavern’s final championship marked a fitting end to its tenure at the venue; a heavyweight clash between Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld, the 2007 World Championship final is recognised as one of the greatest matches of all time, with Barney coming back from 0-3 down in sets to win 7-6, a feat which seemed impossible at the time against a prime Phil Taylor.

It was not known at the time that that would be the final championship held at the Circus Tavern. Three months after the final in April 2007, Barry Hearn announced that it would be moving to Alexandra Palace from 2008, where it has been hosted ever since.

The very first edition of the World Championship in Alexandra Palace’s West Hall showed the big change that was made; not only was the venue almost three times the capacity, but the 2008 final was the first time to not feature The Power.

PDC World Darts Championship: Format

The current rules of play for the championship sees the length of games expand as the tournament goes on.

In the first and second round, it’s best of five sets, so first to three sets. Then it goes up to best of seven for rounds three and four (first to four), then best of nine for the quarter-finals (first to five).

The semi-finals is a best of 11, which is first to six, then the final is the longest match played, being a best of 13, or first to seven sets.

Matches are straight in, double out, starting from 501, which means the players can go anywhere on the board to start but their final dart must be a double or bullseye. The first player to check out 501 wins the leg.

A set is made up of legs, and the first player to win three legs wins the set. In the event of a tied final set, a player can only win the set by two clear legs. If the set score goes to 5-5, a sudden-death leg is played.

2025 PDC World Darts Championship: Schedule

If you’re confused about it being named the 2025 World Championship when we’re in 2024, let’s clear that up real quick; the final will take place in January 2025, so the competition is known as the 2025 edition.

You may see it written as 2024/25, but for simplicity, most just go with the latter number as that is when the final will be.

This year's competition will start on the 15th December, with the first round and select sound round matches taking place over the first five days.

There will be play every day from the 15th until the final, except for the usual three-day break for Christmas Eve, day and Boxing Day, plus a night off for New Year’s Eve.

Each day will consist of the afternoon sessions, starting from 12:30pm, and evening sessions, starting at 7pm.

Here is every day of the tournament up until the quarter-finals:

Sunday 15th December