The draw for the PDC World Championship has been made, with the tournament getting underway on 15 December.

Darts legend Michael van Gerwen is hoping to win his fourth title, having lost last year's final to Michael Smith. 'Mighty Mike' has not won the World Championship since 2019 and was the second seed in the draw, with Smith the number one seed. Van Gerwen will take on Keane Barry or Reynaldo Rivera in the second round.

Number three seed Luke Humphries is the bookies' favourite, having won both the Grand Slam of Darts and the Players' Championship this year. He recently defeated Van Gerwen at the PDC Players Championship Finals title with an 11-9 win. Speaking after his most recent success, he said: "I would never have dreamed of winning one, let alone three. To beat Michael in the final means the most to me."

He will now take on either Lee Evans or Sandro Eric Sosing in the second round of the world championship. Former world champions Peter Wright and Gerwyn Price round off the top five seeds.

The latter faces a tie against Jim Williams or Norman Madhoo, while Price will tackle either Connor Scutt or Krzystof Kcuik as he aims to add to the title he lifted in 2021.

The PDC World Championship gets underway in just over two weeks' time and will take place at the Alexandra Palace - where it has been held since 2008 and will run until 3 January 2024.

Michael Smith celebrates winning the PDC World Championship (
Image:
Getty Images)

Who do you think will win the PDC World Darts Championship? Share your predictions in the comments below

Take a look at the full draw for the first and second round of the competition below:

PDC draw

Michael Smith v Kevin Doets or Stowe Buntz
Madars Razman v Mike De Decker or Dragutin Horvat
Ross Smith v Niels Zonneveld or Darren Webster
Chris Dobey v William O’Connor or Bhav Patel
Rob Cross v Mario Vandenbogaerde or Thibault Tricole
Jose De Sousa v Richie Edhouse or Jeffrey De Graaf
Jonny Clayton v Steve Lennon or Owen Bates
Krzysztof Ratajski v Jamie Hughes or David Cameron
Peter Wright v Jim Williams or Norman Madhoo
Raymond van Barneveld v Radek Szaganski or Marko Kantele
James Wade v Matt Campbell or Lourence Ilagan
Andrew Gilding v Christian Kist or Luke Littler
Gerwyn Price v Connor Scutt or Krzystof Kcuik
Brendan Dolan v Mickey Mansell or Xiaochen Zong
Dirk van Duijvenbode v Keegan Brown or Boris Krcmar
Gary Anderson v Simon Whitlock or Paolo Nebrida
Michael van Gerwen v Keane Barry or Reynaldo Rivera
Kim Huybrechts v Richard Veenstra or Ben Robb
Dimitri van den Bergh v Dylan Slevin or Florian Hempel
Stephen Bunting v Ryan Joyce or Alex Spellman
Danny Noppert v Scott Williams or Haruki Muramatsu
Martin Schindler v Jermaine Wattimena or Fallon Sherrock
Damon Heta v Martin Lukeman or Haupai Puha
Josh Rock v Luke Woodhouse or Berry van Peer
Luke Humphries v Lee Evans or Sandro Eric Sosing
Callan Rydz v Ricardo Pietreczko or Mikuru Suzuki
Joe Cullen v Jules van Dongen or Darren Penhall
Ryan Searle v Ian White or Tomoya Goto
Nathan Aspinall v Ricky Evans or Simon Adams
Daryl Gurney v Steve Beaton or Wessel Nijman
Davie Chisnall v Cameron Menzies or Rusty-Jake Rodriguez
Gabriel Clemens v Gian van Veen or Man Lok Leung