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Luke Littler
Luke Littler

PDC World Darts Championship 2026: Quarter-final predictions, betting tips, acca, order of play and TV time for Thursday January 1

By Chris Hammer
Darts
Wed December 31, 2025 · 3h ago

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

PDC World Championship: Quarter-Final Preview

SL Quarter-Final Acca: 1pt Clayton (+1.5 sets), Hood (+1.5 sets), Littler (-3.5 sets) & Van Veen all to win at 11/1 with Paddy Power

SL Evening Acca: 1pt Littler (-7.5 180s) to hit most 180s & Van Veen to win at 4/1 with Paddy Power

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

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

Afternoon Session (1245 GMT)

  • TV Coverage: Sky Sports
  • Format: Quarter-Finals, best of nine sets

Ryan Searle (8/11) v Jonny Clayton (11/10)

  • Three-dart average (World Champ): 98.88 - 94.74
  • 180s per leg (World Champ): 0.28 - 0.27
  • Checkout Percentage (World Champ): 52.94% - 41.67%

SELECTION: 1pt 20+ 180s & 6+ 100+ Checkouts in the Match at 5/1 (Sky Bet, Paddy Power)

Jonny Clayton is one win away from achieving one of his two big targets but he'll have to become the first player to take a set off Ryan Searle to stand a chance of doing it.

The Ferret admitted that getting himself back into the Premier League is pretty much as important as the World Championship, and should he get past Heavy Metal then his place in the top four would be guaranteed.

At the moment he stands fourth - which would be enough for selection - but defeat would mean the likes of Gian van Veen, Gary Anderson and Searle himself would still have a chance to overtake him by the end of the tournament.

Clayton, who came into the event with question marks over his form, has statistically been the weakest player out of the remaining eight and had to work really hard to see off Andreas Harrysson in the previous round with an average of 92.79.

Searle on the other hand has been unstoppable with four successive whitewash wins, with a pair of 100+ averages in the last two rounds against Martin Schindler and James Hurrell.

Heavy Metal may well "care less about darts than everyone else apart from Anderson and Ryan Joyce" but he's always managed to focus at this time of year having always gone beyond the Christmas break in all his seven previous appearances.

This, however, is his best run to date and it's no surprise to see him priced up as the favourite despite Clayton's reputation.

I do however feel Clayton is being underestimated and once Searle starts dropping sets in this longer format, we'll really start to see what he's made of.

Searle's ridiculous checkout percentage of 52.94% is realistically not sustainable for too much longer and the Ferret will need to use his experience and ability to pounce when given the chance.

It'll go to the wire this one, and I'm siding with Clayton to sneak through.

If it's as close as I think, we'll see at least 30 legs - possibly closer to the 40 mark - which opens the door for around 20+ 180s and plenty of 100+ checkouts.

Scoreline prediction: 4-5

Gary Anderson (4/9) v Justin Hood (7/4)

  • Three-dart average (World Champ): 100.34 - 99.77
  • 180s per leg (World Champ): 0.42 - 0.39
  • Checkout Percentage (World Champ): 37.5% - 43.75%

SELECTION: 1pt 22+ 180s in the match at 11/4 (Sky Bet, Paddy Power)

Tell me another sport where a World Championship can be dominated by headlines over a debutant's dream of earning enough money to buy a Chinese restaurant?

Just one of the many reasons why we love darts.

And although Justin Hood has now reached his goal of £100,000 by reaching the quarter-finals, the storyline will refuse to go away now that poor old Luke Humphries has been roped into it!

We're going to have stories about what they're going to call it, where it's going to be, what the menu is going to be, while Paddy Power have already priced up lots of markets about it, including 200/1 that it earns a Michelin Star!

There's a choice of possible names including "Oche to the Wokky" at 10/3, "Happy Feet" at 7/2 and "Egg Fried Price" at 9/2!

Sadly, I have to move on and talk about the actual darts now and whether Hood can continue this fairytale run when facing Gary Anderson, who has been rolling back the years to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since the 2022 edition.

Happy Feet, who won his first PDC Tour card back in January, may well have come into this event with very little experience of the big stage but he's taken to it like a penguin to water with some truly world-class performances.

The way he beat Danny Noppert in an all-timer will go down in Ally Pally folklore and so will the manner he thrashed Josh Rock 4-0 thanks to a ridiculous run of 11/11 on his doubles.

Obviously we can't expect such insane levels of ruthlessness again but he's been clinical throughout while his rate at hitting 180s (0.39 per leg) is third only to Luke Littler (0.55) and Gary Anderson (0.42) and level with Humphries.

The reason he's given for not playing to these levels on tour during a season which he's averaged in the low 90s is laziness, but he's vowed to put that right in 2026 even if the Chinese restaurant distracts him.

Anderson's well-known lack of practice hasn't hampered his overall longevity in this sport but this is the first time he's looked like a genuine major winner since his run to the semi-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts in 2024 where he really pushed Littler to the limit.

The Flying Scotsman has averaged over 100 twice in this tournament, including a high of 105 against Connor Scutt, while the fact that he wasn't impressed with the 99 he managed in a 4-1 over Michael van Gerwen is pretty ominous.

He's also leading the Ballon d'Art standings with 40 maximums compared to Littler's 37 although 180 per leg rate of 0.42 is significantly less than the Nuke's 0.55.

If this was a first-round game then Anderson would be a very well backed favourite due to Hood's "lazy" and quiet season but we can't ignore what we've seen so far on this stage and it could be yet another Ally Pally epic.

Ahead of this tournament I expressed concerns whether Anderson is running out of steam at this stage in his career, especially in the longer formats, and although he's proved me wrong so far, this could be where the dream of a third world title ends.

If it is, he'll go down fighting in a clash which certainly promises an abundance of maximums.

Scoreline Prediction: 4-5

Evening Session (1915 GMT)

  • TV Coverage: Sky Sports
  • Format: Quarter-finals, best of nine sets

Luke Littler (1/33) v Krzyztof Ratajski (10/1)

  • Three-dart average (World Champ): 103.69 - 96.93
  • 180s per leg (World Champ): 0.55 - 0.21
  • Checkout Percentage (World Champ): 52.94% - 44.76%

SELECTION: 1pt Luke Littler to win and throw 16+ 180s at 9/2 (Sky Bet)

Luke Littler's heel turn took social media by storm like John Cena did earlier in the year and he'll now be bracing himself for more hostile treatment from the Ally Pally crowd on New Year's Day.

It'll be fascinating to see just how much of an impact his outburst will have in the long term as the British sporting public don't have a history of being too forgiving and, just like the media, don't need much of an excuse to try and bring a top star down.

Littler pulled out of many tournaments in Germany due to the stick their fans were giving him so it must bother him to some degree, although his electric performance against Cross in which he averaged 106 and threw 17 180s proves he can handle it a lot better than most could.

The atmosphere - from his perspective - would potentially be worse on New Year's Day if facing fellow Englishman Luke Woodhouse but Krzysztof Ratajski is very likeable and will get plenty of support.

All this said, I doubt we'll see anything other than a resounding Littler victory with another stack of maximums. He's just in a league of his own and the gulf between him and Ratajski is too big for the crowd to do anything about over such a long format.

Scoreline prediction: 5-1

Luke Humphries (8/13) v Gian van Veen (5/4)

  • Three-dart average (World Champ): 100.08 - 100.47
  • 180s per leg (World Champ): 0.39 - 0.38
  • Checkout Percentage (World Champ): 45.1% - 48.39%

SELECTION: 1pt 24+ 180s & 6+ 100+ Checkouts in the Match at 10/3 (Sky Bet, Paddy Power)

Gian van Veen was only 10 years old when his idol Michael van Gerwen became Dutch number one back in 2012 and he's now one win away from taking that spot away from him.

This would be a tremendous honour for any Dutch player considering how MVG's status as top dog in his homeland hasn't ever been threatened once he'd leapfrogged Raymond van Barneveld en route to being the most dominant player in the whole sport for a decade.

Van Veen, who I backed to reach the final before a dart was thrown due to his tremendous season in which he became a major winner at the European Championship, could almost confirm his Premier League selection by winning if other results go his way as he'd climb into the world's top four ahead of the semi-finals.

The two-time world youth champion has breezed into the quarter-finals with a very healthy average of 100.47 - helped by a tournament best of 108 against Alan Soutar - and knows he'll need to be at his best to overcome Luke Humphries.

Van Veen has won their last four meetings, including the European Championship final that went all the way to a deciding leg and also a first-round encounter at the World Matchplay, so he certainly has the ability and talent in those mid-range formats of best of 21 legs.

This will be their first battle over a marathon format and obviously we can't deny that Humphries has far more experience of these, and has proven he can hold his game together for extremely long periods.

He also brushed off any concerns over their head-to-head record, claiming that he'd happily accept defeat in all of those if it meant winning on the Ally Pally stage.

I'm going to stick to my guns and side with van Veen to come through a clash which promises a stack of 180s due to their prolific maximum per leg rates, while if we see at least seven or eight sets, there'll be plenty of chances for a lot of 100+ checkouts.

Scoreline prediction: 3-5

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