The 2026 World Cup of Darts begins on Thursday, 11 June, running for four days in Frankfurt, Germany. Northern Ireland are the defending champions after Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney defeated Wales' Jonny Clayton and Gerwyn Price 10-9 in a thrilling final 12 months ago. For the second consecutive year, England's team consists of Luke Littler and Luke Humphries, the top two ranked players in the world.
Each nation is represented by its two best-ranked players based on the Professional Darts Corporation's Order of Merit as of 11 May. The four top-ranked nations — England, Netherlands, Northern Ireland and Scotland — receive a bye into the second round. The remaining 12 second-round spots are determined via a group stage featuring 36 teams split into 12 round-robin groups of three, with group winners advancing. Wales, originally seeded, lost their seeding after Gerwyn Price withdrew from the competition.
A total of 40 nations and 80 players are competing. The seeded groups are: Group A (5. Germany, Philippines, New Zealand), Group B (6. Belgium, Hong Kong, Slovenia), Group C (7. Wales, Lithuania, Thailand), Group D (8. Republic of Ireland, Singapore, Uganda), Group E (9. Poland, Portugal, Switzerland), Group F (10. Sweden, South Africa, Mongolia), Group G (11. Australia, United States, Canada), Group H (12. Czech Republic, India, Denmark), Group I (13. Austria, China, France), Group J (14. Latvia, Italy, Trinidad and Tobago), Group K (15. Croatia, Japan, Spain), Group L (16. Finland, Norway, Hungary).
All matches are one-off doubles. Group stage matches are best-of-seven legs; second round, quarter-finals and semi-finals are best-of-15 legs; the final is best-of-19 legs. The 36 group matches take place on Thursday and Friday, with sessions at 18:00 BST on Thursday, and 11:00 BST and 18:00 BST on Friday. The 12 second-round matches are on Saturday, with quarter-finals, semi-finals and final on Sunday, both days having sessions at 12:00 BST and 18:00 BST.
The total prize fund is £500,000, an increase of £50,000 from last year. The winning team earns £100,000, runners-up £48,000, losing semi-finalists £30,000, losing quarter-finalists £20,000, losing second-round teams £10,000, second-place in group £6,000, and third-place in group £5,000. The first World Cup of Darts was in 2010, becoming annual from 2012. Six different nations have won, with nine different winning pairs. Only defending champions Northern Ireland have a full team of previous winners among the 2026 pairs.
