The sport of darts is often a solo one but once a year we get a unique and brilliant team event – The World Cup of Darts. We’ve previewed the event and provided you with our selections to win.
World Cup of Darts Tips
History and Format
This is the thirteenth running of the PDC World Cup of Darts, which is held over the weekend of 15th-18th June 2023 at the Eissporthalle in Frankfurt, Germany.
The tournament was introduced in 2010 and replaced the Jocky Wilson Cup, a one-off team competition between England and Scotland.
Netherlands and England are the most successful clubs in the World Cup era, with four wins apiece, Scotland are next with two wins, then Wales and Australia with a win each.
Last year’s defending champions are Damon Heta and Simon Whitlock of Australia, who defeated Wales’ Jonny Clayton and Gerwyn Price 3-1 in the final.
The format has been tweaked slightly this season, with an expansion to 40 teams.
Four top seeded teams (England, Scotland, Wales and Netherlands) have automatically qualified for the second round, with the other 36 teams split into 12 groups of three, the top in each group qualifying for the second round.
All matches will now be played as single team match, removing the singles then doubles element of previous years.
Group stage: Best of seven legs.
Second round, quarter and semi-finals: Best of fifteen legs.
Final: Best of nineteen legs
Prize Money
There is a £450,000 total prize fund with the money distributed as follows:
| Winner (1) | £80,000 |
| Runner-up (1) | £50,000 |
| Semi-finalists (2) | £30,000 |
| Quarter-finalists (4) | £20,000 |
| Last 16 (8) | £9,000 |
| Second in Group (12) | £5,000 |
| Third in Group (12) | £4,000 |
Draw
40 teams will be taking place, with four automatic qualifiers and then 12 group qualifiers. The teams are as follows:
Seeded to second round
| Seed | Team | Players |
| 1 | England | Michael Smith and Rob Cross |
| 2 | Netherlands | Michael van Gerwen and Danny Noppert |
| 3 | Wales | Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton |
| 4 | Scotland | Peter Wright and Gary Anderson |
Seeds in group stage
| Seed | Team | Players |
| 5 | Belgium | Dimitri Van den Bergh and Kim Huybrechts |
| 6 | Germany | Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler |
| 7 | Australia | Damon Heta and Simon Whitlock |
| 8 | Northern Ireland | Brendan Dolan and Daryl Gurney |
| 9 | Ireland | William O’Connor and Keane Barry |
| 10 | Austria | Mensur Suljović and Rowby-John Rodriguez |
| 11 | Poland | Krzysztof Ratajski and Krzysztof Kciuk |
| 12 | Canada | Matt Campbell and Jeff Smith |
| 13 | Czech Republic | Adam Gawlas and Karel Sedláček |
| 14 | Spain | José Justicia and Tony Martinez |
| 15 | Latvia | Madars Razma and Dmitrijs Žukovs |
| 16 | Switzerland | Stefan Bellmont and Marcel Walpen |
Other qualifiers
Croatia Boris Krčmar and Romeo Grbavac
Denmark Vladimir Andersen and Benjamin Drue Reus
Lithuania Darius Labanauskas and Mindaugas Barauskas
Philippines Christian Perez and Lourence Ilagan
Portugal José de Sousa and Luis Ameixa
South Africa Devon Petersen and Vernon Bouwers
United States Jules van Dongen and Leonard Gates
France Thibault Tricole and Jacques Labre
Bahrain Bassim Mahmood and Abdulnaser Yusuf
China Zong Xiao Chen and Lihao Wen
Finland Marko Kantele and Paavo Myller
Gibraltar Craig Galliano and Justin Hewitt
Guyana Sudesh Fitzgerald and Norman Madhoo
Hong Kong Man Lok Leung and Lee Lok Yin
Hungary Patrik Kovács and Levente Sarai
Iceland Vitor Charrua and Hallgrímur Egilsson
India Prakash Jiwa and Amit Gilitwala
Italy Massimo Dante and Michele Turetta
Japan Jun Matsuda and Tomoya Goto
New Zealand Ben Robb and Warren Parry
Singapore Paul Lim and Harith Lim
Sweden Dennis Nilsson and Oskar Lukasiak
Thailand Thanawat Gaweenuntawong and Attapol Eupakaree
Ukraine Vladyslav Omelchenko and Ilya Pekaruk
Wales to win – 11/8
It’s hard to accurately predict this tournament, with a random draw for the second round, once the group stages are finished.
However, it’s Wales who look like the strongest team here, with two Premier League finals players in their ranks, which no other team can boast.
Both Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton finished the Premier League strongly and they will be looking to go one better than last year, when they were runners up.
The other three seeded sides either have a player out of form or a supposed weak link.
Germany each way (1/2 2 places) – 18/1
The twosome of Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler looks the strongest of the seeds in the group stage, along with Belgium.
Germany have the world no 20 and 25 and showed just how they are a growing super power in the game, during the recent World Championships, with Clemens reaching the semi-final.
With home support they could go all the way here.
Canada each way (1/2 2 places) – 50/1
As a bit of a shot to nothing, I like the chances of Canada to go well here.
Matt Campbell and Jeff Smith are ranked 60th and 68th in the world respectively and Smith looked in superb form when reaching the final of the recent US Darts Masters.
*All prices correct at the time of writing.
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