The provisional field for the PDC World Darts Championship is taking shape, with Luke Littler leading the way as he looks to win a third World title on the spin. Littler is joined by Gian van Veen and Luke Humphries as the top seeds at Ally Pally from 11 December 2026 to 3 January 2027.
Also in the main Order of Merit are the likes of Gerwyn Price, Jonny Clayton, Ross Smith, James Wade, Josh Rock, Nathan Aspinall and Michael van Gerwen. Price and Van Gerwen are of course former World Champions. Gary Anderson, Michael Smith and Peter Wright are also part of this Main Order of Merit, albeit for the latter few the pressure will be firmly on next year in order to try and even remain on the tour due to their fall from grace after ascending to the top of the sport.
Those to miss out from the main Order of Merit and as a result need to go to the Qualifier include Ricky Evans, Dimitri van den Bergh, Nick Kenny, Cam Crabtree, Martin Lukeman and Thibault Tricole who will need to continue their bid after the end of the respective ProTour season.
In the main ProTour Order of Merit, it is led by Cristo Reyes for the reason that it is every player who doesn't qualify through the Main Order of Merit so it is in fact the Spaniard far and away as opposed to previous leaders including Wessel Nijman and Luke Woodhouse who get in through the front door. Reyes has had an excellent debut season back on the tour and the same can be said for the fourth placed player in Beau Greaves who will make her return to Ally Pally not through the Women's Series or Women's World Matchplay. As ever, Greaves qualifies through these routes multiple times, but she first gets a spot through the ProTour.
The same can be said for non Tour Card holders though with Tommy Morris, Joe Hunt and Henry Coates sealing spots not through the respective secondary tours but through the ProTour Order of Merit. Others through the ProTour system include Charlie Manby, Max Hopp, Gabriel Clemens, James Hurrell, Alan Soutar, Scott Williams, Jimmy van Schie will make his Ally Pally debut despite quite a poor first year while Raymond van Barneveld after for a long time him looking like he couldn't make it will do so.
Among those to have qualified through the International route include Cam Crabtree, Jamai van den Herik and Jack Drayton from the Development Tour. Derek Coulson, Daniel Klose and Archie Self seal it through the Challenge Tour. Lisa Ashton, Fallon Sherrock, Gemma Hayter and Vicky Pruim play through the Women's Series. While among the leading lights from Asia are fan favourites Motomu Sakai and Nitin Kumar as well as Paola Nebrida, Christian Perez and Haruki Muramatsu.
Among those still to qualify include the Netherlands and Belgium qualifier, South-East Europe, Czechia, Polish, Super League and CDC Continental Cup with Adam Sevada, David Cameron, Fred Krueger and Brayden Hall already in the event. Raymond Smith, Brody Klinge, Ben Robb and Daniel Larsson are among those to seal returns or in Klinge's case a debut. While David Munyua one of the stories of last year also returns. Rudie van Staden makes his debut from the South Africa qualifier. We will also get four more qualifiers on November 30 from the PDC Last Gasp Tour Card Holder qualifier before the draw is held on the same night.