Luke Littler, Luke Humphries and the five to watch at the World Darts Championship

Ninety-six players will battle it out over seven rounds before - a cynic might claim - someone named Luke lifts the Sid Waddell Trophy on January 3.

It has been a year of shocks in darts, but Lukes Littler and Humphries are undoubtedly the two to beat.

Intriguingly though, they are in the same half of the draw so a repeat of last year’s final isn’t on the cards.

Here’s five players to watch out for.

Luke Humphries.

To non-darts fans, Humphries, from Newbury in Berkshire, is probably the lesser-known of the two Lukes who go into the tournament as hot favourites.

But Humphries, 29, is the defending champion, having beaten Luke Littler in last year’s decider and he repeated that in the decider at the recent Players Championship finals in Minehead.

Littler is arguably in better form overall at the moment, but Humphries is ranked number one in the world, he’s nicknamed ‘Cool Hand’ for a reason and knows what it takes to win the biggest prize in the sport.

He and Littler could dominate the sport for years to come.

Luke Littler.

Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler has taken darts to new heights this year, on and off the oche.

Shortlisted for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award, he climbed from nowhere to fourth in the world rankings and travels to Alexandra Palace as a narrow favourite ahead of defending champion Luke Humphries.

Since his shock march to the 2024-25 final, as a 16-year-old, the Warrington native has won 10 senior tournaments, including the Premier League - a weekly slog over 17 events, involving the sport’s eight best players - and Grand Slam.

It all comes so easy to him, The number of world titles he could win in his career is frightening.

Gary Anderson.

At 53, Anderson is older than Lukes Humphries and Littler combined, but his status as one of the sport’s all-time greats is already assured.

A back-to-back world champion in 2015-16, the Flying Scotsman is only 14th on the sport’s global rankings, but is in outstanding form and his experience of winning on the Ally Pally stage could prove invaluable.

Realistically, Anderson, who goes into the tournament as third favourite, may not have many more chances to get his hands back on the Sid Waddell trophy and he is guaranteed to give it his best shot, even if youth wins out in the end.

Michael van Gerwen

Only the legendary, now retired, Phil Taylor has won more PDC titles than the 35-year-old Dutchman.

Van Gerwen is a three-time world champion, but the most recent of those was in 2019 and he hasn’t won a major event this year.

The two Lukes have usurped him as darts’ biggest attraction, but that could all change over the next three weeks and Mighty Mike won’t go down without a fight.

If he gets somewhere near his best form, van Gerwen is well capable of going all the way, but he needs to rise a couple of levels to win a fourth title.

Michael Smith

Bully Boy, from St Helens, looked set for an era of dominance when he won the world title in 2023, but his fortunes have slipped since then while the two Lukes have been on the rise.

Partnered with Humphries, Smith won the World Cup of Darts this year, but secured only one other PDC title and is seventh-favourite for Alexandra Palace, which would have seemed unthinkable a couple of years ago.

But while form may be temporary, class is permanent and if he plays well, Smith certainly has the game to go a long way into the tournament.