World Darts Championship final LIVE!
Teenager star Luke Littler takes on three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen in tonight’s showpiece at Ally Pally as the apprentice takes on the master’s record on the biggest stage. Both Littler and Van Gerwen sailed through their semi-finals with 6-1 wins, beating Stephen Bunting and Chris Dobey, respectively, to set up a dream final for the Sid Waddell Trophy.
For 17-year-old Littler, it is his second successive world final, in just his second tournament, having lost to world no1 Luke Humphries last year. For Van Gerwen it is his seventh, having won three and lost three to date, and most recently came second best to Michael Smith in 2023. The Dutchman became the youngest-ever world champion, at 24, when he beat Peter Wright in 2014, a record Littler can shatter tonight.
A fascinating face-off tonight caps a remarkable 12 months for Littler, who went from relative unknown to finishing second in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year and being the most Googled UK sportsperson of 2024. Before his emergence, Van Gerwen was the biggest name in darts and his run to the final has somewhat gone under the radar. Tonight is the 13th meeting between the pair, who boast six wins apiece. Follow Luke Littler vs Michael van Gerwen LIVE below with Standard Sport’s dedicated blog.
Start time: 8pm GMT, Alexandra Palace
How to watch: Sky Sports
How much prize money will they win?
Littler route to final
Van Gerwen route to final
Prediction
19:57 , Alex Young
Right, for the uninitiated, here’s what you need to know ahead of the final.
It’s a best-of-13 game, which basically means the first person to win seven sets.
To win a set, they must win three legs.
To win a leg, it’s the first player to clear 501 and finish on a double.
Littler has been clearing 501 with 12 darts or fewer throughout the tournament.
Clear(ish)?
19:51 , Alex Young
We’re about 10 minutes away from the walk-ons.
Ally Pally is already going off.
19:44 , Alex Young
Huw Ware tonight makes history as the first openly gay referee for a PDC World Darts Championship final.
“Kirk Bevins will be refereeing the first half of the final and I will be refereeing the second half,” Ware wrote on his blog yesterday.
“To be honest tomorrow will be the biggest day of my life. I’ve been with the PDC for eight years now and it will be one of the biggest honours of my life to take charge of the second half and call in the champion.”
He added to OutSports: “It’s difficult to put into words … I take this as confirmation that it’s all been worthwhile and that they have every confidence in what I do.”
19:38 , Alex Young
Not long now.
19:31 , Alex Young
Luke Littler’s power scoring has helped him through to the final.
The 64 180s he has thrown is a tournament high, while also boasting the highest three-dart average with 102.13.
Life might have been even more comfortable for him had he been clinical on the doubles, as he currently has a 41 per cent checkout rate, though he has taken out the ‘big fish’ 170.
Van Gerwen is second in the race for the Ballon d’Art, having thrown 43 maximums so far. His average is slightly below Littler’s on 99.75 but he has a better checkout rate at 44 per cent.
In any other year, these numbers would make him the standout player in the tournament, but not now Littler is in town.
19:23 , Alex Young
“It has been an amazing tournament so far. I have just beaten what’s in front of me and I am glad to get through [to the final].
“I have won plenty of titles leading up to this, that is what we do, we lead up to the big one, I can’t wait.
“If we both turn up like we did [in the semi-finals] it’s going to be really good. We all know he is hunting another title, but I’m hunting for my first.”
19:16 , Alex Young
“I’m in the final, I’ve won f*** all yet, I need to make sure I do it in the final.
“I am here with a mission, with a target, you are always going to have ups and downs, [against Dobey] I showed maturity, even when I wasn’t at my best I produced some good stuff at the right moments and that gives me confidence.
“To win in the semi-final means a lot to me. What do I always say, we are not even close yet, we are still so far away.
“The title is still far away, that is what I have to tell myself, I don’t want to make mistakes, I want to keep battling.”
19:08 , Alex Young
The Sid Waddell Trophy is why we are all here, named after the ‘Voice of Darts’ due to his status as the iconic commentator for the sport for around 40 years until his death in 2012.
19:00 , Alex Young
These two really couldn’t be much closer.
18:52 , Alex Young
So, what do we think will happen tonight?
Having canvassed opinion, it seems Littler is the confident pick in what may not be too close an affair at Ally Pally.
I think ‘The Nuke’ will win his first world title tonight, but Van Gerwen will push him all the way.
Littler to win, 7-5.
18:45 , Alex Young
The bookies have ‘Wonder Boy’ Luke Littler as the odds-on favourite to make history tonight.
Van Gerwen, into a seventh showpiece event at Ally Pally, with only the great Phil Taylor making more, is bigger than 2/1 in places.
Luke Littler: 4/9
Michael van Gerwen: 9/5
(Odds via William Hill, subject to change.)
18:39 , Alex Young
It’s been more straightforward for Michael van Gerwen on his way to the final.
An easy 3-0 win over James Hurrell kicked things off in the second round, before Brendan Dolan and Jeffrey de Graaf were both dispatched 4-2 in the third and then fourth round.
A quarter-final with Callan Rydz was a barnstormer, however. Rydz won more legs, hit more 180s, had a better checkout percentage and had higher average score across the eight-set thriller, which Van Gerwen won 5-3.
When someone told Van Gerwen of those stats after the match, he simply held up three fingers on one hand and five on the other.
And it didn’t faze him last night in the semi-finals when he hit a 180 with his first three throws of the dart on his way to a 6-1 thrashing of Chris Dobey.
18:28 , Alex Young
Littler entered the tournament as favourite, but has not had it all his own way during the last two weeks.
Sluggish starts against both Ryan Meikle (beat 3-1) and Ian White (beat 4-3) raised initial doubts over the teenager, before Ryan Joyce gave him a scare in a 4-3 win to reach the quarter-finals.
Littler looked back to his confident best in a 5-2 win over Nathan Aspinal on Monday and simply blew Stephen Bunting away 6-1 in last night’s semis.
18:20 , Alex Young
The total prize money on offer at the 2025 World Darts Championship is £2.5million.
As has been the case since 2019, the winner will take home £500,000. For the runner-up, it is a consolation prize of £200,000, as Littler found out last year.
Should either player make a nine-darter tonight, Paddy Power will provide a £60,000 bonus, with the same amount also going to Prostate Cancer UK and a random member of the Ally Pally crowd.
Winner: £500,000
Runner-Up: £200,000
Semi-Finalists: £100,000
Quarter-Finalists: £50,000
Fourth round: £35,000
Third Round: £25,000
Second Round: £15,000
First Round: £7,500
18:12 , Alex Young
Littler is through to his second successive final, after the 17-year-old hammered Stephen Bunting 6-1 in an emphatic last-four victory on Thursday night.
Littler has been the favourite throughout the tournament and after a slow start he looks to be finding his best form at the right time.
The way he demolished the former BDO world champion Bunting showed exactly why he has taken the world of darts by storm as he averaged over 105, threw 13 180s and took out three ton-plus finishes, including a ‘big fish’ 170.
Van Gerwen was also in ruthless mood, dropping only one set himself as he eased past Chris Dobey with a masterful 6-1 win of his own to book his place in the final of this tournament for the seventh time.
After a wretched 2024, where he failed to win a televised major tournament and slipped behind Littler and Luke Humphries in the reckoning, Van Gerwen is now one victory away from re-establishing himself at the top of the sport.
18:05 , Alex Young
TV channel: The final will be available to watch on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Darts. Coverage begins at 7:30pm.
Live stream: Sky Sports subscribers will also be able to watch the action live online through the Sky Go app.
17:58 , Alex Young
Well, this is it, 20 days on from the first round of matches, we now have just two players remaining in the world final most wanted to see.
It’s almost the master vs the apprentice, and certainly the biggest name in the sport taking on the new biggest name in the sport as Michael van Gerwen looks to stop teenager Luke Littler’s meteoric rise, both in darts and across the sports sphere.
The final of the World Darts Championship is scheduled to begin around 8pm GMT at the iconic Alexandra Place. Stick us with.
