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PDC World Darts Championship 2026: Day four predictions, betting tips, acca, order of play and TV time for Sunday December 14

By Chris Hammer
Darts
Sun December 14, 2025 · 3h ago

The 2026 Paddy Power World Darts Championship continues at Alexandra Palace on Sunday so check out Chris Hammer's match-by-match predictions, best bets and a suggested acca.

PDC World Championship: Sunday's Preview & Acca

SL Acca: 1pt Wenig to win, Bunting (-1.5 sets) to win and Hurrell to win at 7/2 with Paddy Power

Scroll down for match-by-match previews, stats and scoreline predictions

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

WATCH OUR WORLD DARTS CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

Chris Hammer, Paul Nicholson and Abigail Davies join host Dom Newton to unpick the draw and predict the outcome of the PDC World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace, under way on Thursday

PREDICTING THE PDC WORLD DARTS CHAMPIONSHIP 2026!

Afternoon Session (1900 GMT)

  • TV Coverage: Sky Sports
  • Format: First round, best of five sets

Ritchie Edhouse v Jonny Tata

  • Three-dart average (2025): 91.05 - 86.02
  • 180s per leg (2025): 0.21 - 0.25

It's fair to say that Ritchie Edhouse's campaign hasn't come close to his glorious 2024 and a loss of form meant he failed to qualify for four of the big majors - including his title defence at the European Championship.

New Zealand's Jonny Tata earned his Ally Pally debut by virtue of winning the DPNZ ProTour while followers of the World Series may remember him putting up a valiant attempt in defeats to both Gerwyn Price and Luke Humphries during the summer.

Tata was also a semi-finalist in the ANZ Premier League before losing to eventual champion Simon Whitlock and those experiences will come in handy at the start of an afternoon session at the Palace before the crowd really start finding their voices.

This is Edhouse's sixth World Championship but he's only won three matches on this stage and I'd say he's in danger.

Scoreline Verdict: 1-3

Dom Taylor v Oskar Lukasiak

  • Three-dart average (2025): 94.35 - 85.67
  • 180s per leg (2025): 0.14 - 0.14

Dom Taylor is one of a number of players battling to keep his Tour Card but will be pretty happy with his draw as he bids to mark his Ally Pally debut with a victory.

Taylor has enjoyed a pretty solid year on the Pro Tour with a highly creditable season average of 94 so it'll be interesting to see how he fares on a big stage having very little experience of it.

Oskar Lukasiak is also appearing here for the first time having finished runner-up on the Nordic and Baltic Tour but in his 27 appearances on the Pro Tour, he suffered 20 first-round exits and never got past the third.

Scoreline Verdict: 3-1

Richard Veenstra v Nitin Kumar

  • Three-dart average (2025): 90.68 - 76.55
  • 180s per leg (2025): 0.15 - 0.11

SELECTION: 1pt Richard Veenstra to win 3-0 at 7/5 (Unibet)

When I asked Paul Nicholson and Abigail Davies to predict every tie in the World Championship (see video below), we did also record a separate version where they had to pick the loser of each game to go through.

ALSO WATCH: PREDICTING EVERY MATCH AT THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Predicting EVERY game in the PDC World Darts Championship!

As it turned out, Nitin Kumar reached the final before losing to David Munyua and that probably tells you all you need to know about his hopes.

The Indian qualifier has lost all four of his previous appearances here although last year he went a bit viral for his emotion to winning his first ever set at the Ally Pally.

His averages suggest he'll do very well to do the same against the seasoned Richard Veenstra and if it is a relatively quick kill, don't expect to see many 180s given their very low maximum per leg ratios.

Scoreline Verdict: 3-0

Joe Cullen v Bradley Brooks

  • Three-dart average (2025): 91.77 - 93.20
  • 180s per leg (2025): 0.31 - 0.31

SELECTION: 1pt over 10.5 180s at 5/4 (Boylesports)

You never quite know what you're going to get with Joe Cullen, who said as much after picking up his second title of the season back in September with a Players Championship final victory over Gerwyn Price.

“I’m sort of an enigma to myself at the minute. I can produce darts like today, but then you’ll watch me in a few weeks and I’ll have an 81 average."

About two days later he actually managed less than an 81 average at the World Series of Darts Finals and then he went as low as 68 in a World Grand Prix defeat to Gary Anderson having previously played well to beat James Wade.

Bradley Brooks has been much more consistent, particularly in recent months when winning his maiden Pro Tour title against Gerwyn Price as well as reaching the latter stages of several other tournaments.

Brooks is making his first appearance on the Ally Pally stage since being shell-shocked by 'that' nine-darter from Willie Borland in the 2022 edition and I fancy this one to be another first-round belter.

Both are prolific on the 180s front, with Brooks actually as high as 0.36 per leg since the start of October so expect plenty of them to round off the afternoon session.

Scoreline Verdict: 2-3

Evening Session (1900 GMT)

  • TV Coverage: Sky Sports
  • Format: First round, best of five sets

Lukas Wenig v Wesley Plaisier

  • Three-dart average (2025): 91.60 - 92.44
  • 180s per leg (2025): 0.25 - 0.19

Lukas Wenig may not be the best dart player in the tournament, but he's certainly the strongest, especially since Gerwyn Price cut down his muscle mass.

The German powerlifter, whose Instagram showcases his incredible second talent, is making his Ally Pally debut so he'll also need to hope his mental strength holds up in what feels a 50-50 battle with Wesley Plaisier.

Wenig did recently admit that he struggles with nerves on stage but his fine run to the Grand Slam of Darts quarter-finals will have done his confidence the world of good and I fancy him to sneak through.

Scoreline Verdict: 3-2

Dimitri Van den Bergh v Darren Beveridge

  • Three-dart average (2025): 88.69 - 90.46
  • 180s per leg (2025): 0.24 - 0.21

Dimitri Van den Bergh may not be everyone's cup of tea, especially when he gets hold of the mic on stage during post-match interviews, but nobody wants to see him suffer this kind of slump in form.

Despite reaching the World Masters semi-finals and the sixth round of the UK Open much earlier this year, the Belgian hasn't qualified for any of the majors since while he's suffered a host of early exits on the Pro Tour except for one Players Championship quarter-final.

Darren Beveridge is making his World Championship debut and will need a bit of a miracle run to retain his Tour Card having had very little to shout about over the past two years.

This is not an easy one to call at all so I'll stay clear.

Scoreline Verdict: 3-2

Stephen Bunting v Sebastian Bialecki

  • Three-dart average (2025): 98.08 - 88.55
  • 180s per leg (2025): 0.36 - 0.14

Stephen Bunting has enjoyed a superb season when it comes to a total title count of six split equally across the Pro Tour, European Tour and World Series Tour, while his 2025 average of 98 is among the best on the planet.

However, since reaching the World Championship semi-finals, the Bullet has struggled to find his best form on the major stages and will be looking to make an early statement of intent against Polish youngster Sebastian Bialecki.

Although Bialecki has plenty of potential, there's a big gulf in ability levels and experience, so I'd expect a whitewash victory for Bunting.

Scoreline Verdict: 3-0

James Hurrell v Stowe Buntz

  • Three-dart average (2025): 92.02 - 82.95
  • 180s per leg (2025): 0.26 - 0.11

Many years ago Terry Jenkins informed a work colleague of mine - Matt Brocklebank (for those of you who read our horse racing section) - that James Hurrell was destined for great things and must back him to win the 2017 Lakeside title.

Unfortunately, Matt told me this piece of advice and we all lost a bit of money that year as he crashed out in round one to Mark McGeeney.

Although Hurrell hasn't since fulfilled Bully's prophecy, he's currently battling hard to keep his Tour Card and a victory over Stowe Buntz will be massive to those hopes.

He defeated Jim Long for the loss of just one leg on his Ally Pally debut 12 months ago before losing to Michael van Gerwen in straight sets, and he'll know a clash with veteran American, who has averaged in the high 80s in both of his Ally Pally defeats and also memorably reached the Grand Slam quarter-finals a few seasons ago, will be a hard-fought affair if he's not on his game.

This could go either way and I expect all five sets.

Scoreline Verdict: 3-2

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