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Everyone loves our annual dose of pairs darts and the hype this year is even bigger than ever as we prepare for the 'Dream Team' of Luke Humphries and Luke Littler to pair up for England.
It has been likened to the anticipation surrounding the USA basketball team ahead of the Barcelona Olympics (if you're old enough to remember!) and I doubt anyone will be surprised if it ends up being a similar kind of glorious procession.
That's meant as no disrespect to any other pairing but we're talking about the world's number one and two who have won 10 of the last 14 televised majors dating back to the 2024 World Championship final and are clearly the dominant forces in the game today.
What Littler and Humphries lack in experience as a pairing, they more than make up with the friendship and chemistry they've already displayed on the oche when competing against each other in the highest pressure situations.
This is exactly why their much publicised 'friendly rivalry' can pay off spectacularly.
Obviously pairs has thrown up many shocks in the past and the format is undeniably a bit of a leveller due to factors such as longer waits for each player between visits and if team-mates have different preferences on their finishing doubles, but Littler and Humphries are more than talented enough to deal with this.
In fact, I am sensing them to break average records during the tournament and potentially hit the first ever televised pairs nine-darter. They'll have definitely spoken about it during the build up to the tournament and it would be typical of Littler to mark his World Cup debut with another history-making achievement.
Only the group winners will join England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in the knockout stages
VERDICT: The NETHERLANDS pairing are 1/10 to win this group even without Michael van Gerwen and it's hard to see how either Italy or Hungary can stop them.
Gian van Veen is one of the fastest rising stars on the circuit and we all know what Danny Noppert is capable of so they've definitely got potential to get as far as the semi-finals.
VERDICT: Interestingly, of the four televised majors that Luke Littler or Luke Humphries haven't won since the 2024 World Championship, two belong to the Belgian pairing of Mike de Decker and Dimitri Van den Bergh.
De Decker beat Humphries to win the World Grand Prix back in October while Van den Bergh also stunned Cool Hand in the 2024 UK Open final, so on that evidence alone you could make a case for them being a potential banana skin for England later down the line.
However, van den Bergh's struggles on and off the oche this season saw him step away from the sport back in April and we haven't seen him in competitive action since. Hopefully he's in the right frame of mind to give this a go, but if he's not, the dangerous PHILIPPINES pairing of Lourence Ilagan and Paolo Nebrida will fancy their chances of springing a surprise at 13/2.
At that price they're worth a small flutter.
VERDICT: World Cup hosts GERMANY will be looking well beyond the group stages after being handed a relatively soft group which they are 1/6 to win although it'll be interesting to see if there's enough chemistry between Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietreczko to trouble the big hitters later on in the tournament.
The world of darts will be hoping the ageless Paul Lim can help Singapore pick up another victory to celebrate and a very good chance of that will come against Portugal, who are captained by a very out of form Jose de Sousa.
VERDICT: Another group where the seeds are hot favourites, with the REPUBLIC OF IRELAND priced at 1/12 to advance to the knockout stages.
Keane Barry is enduring a difficult season on tour but he'll be solid enough support for William O'Connor, who is by far and away the highest quality player on show in this group.
VERDICT: POLAND will be heavily expected to advance at 1/5 especially given that Krzysztof Ratajski has recently returned to winning ways on the Pro Tour after suffering with health problems.
However, if Cameron Carolissen can play anything like he did against Wessel Nijman in that epic World Championship match back in December and Devon Petersen can somehow summon some of his old magic, then they might give the Poles a scare.
VERDICT: If you want a favourite that isn't too short a price to include in a group acca then CANADA are an ideal choice at 4/9.
Matt Campbell has produced some decent performances this season, particularly on the European Tour where he beat James Wade and Ross Smith en route to a quarter-final earlier this month before losing a last-leg decider to Damon Heta.
He'll be backed up by the experienced Jim Long, who is averaging around 89 in all competitions for the season which is better than anyone else in this group.
VERDICT: On paper this is regarded the toughest group to predict but at 6/5, SWEDEN are an extremely tempting proposition to include in our acca.
Jeffrey de Graaf has become a very credible operator on the PDC circuit over the past couple of seasons - as we saw at the World Championship when dismantling Gary Anderson en route to the last 16 - and even reached his third Players Championship final back in March only to get thumped by Martin Schindler.
Oskar Lukasiak averages around the mid-80s on the Nordic Baltic Tour or whenever he gets opportunities to compete on the Pro Tour so together they have the talent to battle through this group.
France won't be short of backers due to Thibault Tricole boasting a higher seasonal average than de Graaf and also enjoying some decent results this season but Jacques Labre is posting a lot of 70s averages on the Challenge Tour.
Lithuania are the slight outsiders but I do feel they're effectively a one-man team.
VERDICT: Austria and AUSTRALIA have superb World Cup records in recent years and they'll be both be cursing their lack of luck in this draw.
Simon Whitlock has featured in every edition dating back to 2010 so it was obviously a highly emotional moment for him to lift this trophy back in 2022 alongside Damon Heta a decade after suffering 'that' agonising final defeat to England when partnering Paul Nicholson.
Since then, Whitlock and Heta teamed to reach the quarter-finals in 2023, when they suffered a painful 8-7 defeat to Belgium, while they also reached the knockout stages 12 months ago only to suffer a shock defeat to Italy in round two.
Whitlock is clearly not the player he once was but he can still give Heta high quality support while his wealth of experience can't be underestimated.
Mensur Suljovic has led Austria to a pair of finals back in 2021 and 2024 alongside Rowby-John Rodriguez but this time he's teaming up with the younger and less experienced Rusty-Jake.
They will both beat Spain before colliding in a winner-takes-all showdown but I'm firmly siding with the Aussies and throwing them in the acca.
VERDICT: USA may well be the seeded team in this group but with Danny Lauby and Jules van Dongen struggling for any kind of form, it's Hong Kong who find themselves priced up as clear favourites.
Van Dongen was sadly averaging in the 60s repeatedly much earlier in the season before deciding to take a break from PDC action so it's unlikely he'll be able to supply Danny Lauby with the support he needs to trouble the Hong Kong pairing of Man Lok Leung and Lok Yin Lee.
It's the weakest group in the tournament and I wouldn't want to be putting any nation in my acca.
VERDICT: The CZECH REPUBLIC would seem a fairly safe favourite here at 1/4 due to Karel Sedlacek being by far the strongest and most experienced player in this group.
Petr Krivka's performances on the Challenge Tour suggest he'll provide pretty solid back up whereas India and Chinese Taipei are seemingly 'one-man teams' and their captains aren't anywhere near as strong as Sedlacek.
VERDICT: CROATIA are the marginal favourites to come through this group as the seeded team but I'm sure you'll find plenty siding with a dangerous Japanese pairing.
Ryusei Azemoto and Tomoya Goto are consistently averaging in the 80s and low 90s on the vastly improving Asian Tour while the latter has previously won hearts of the Ally Pally crowd during his World Championship appearances.
However, Pero Ljubic has made a steady start to life on the PDC Tour for the first time in his career at the age of 47 while Boris Krcmar has bounced back from the disappointment of losing his card by producing some highly impressive performances on the European Tour.
He's beaten the likes of Josh Rock, MVG, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Gian van Veen while he averaged almost 103 during a narrow defeat to Luke Humphries.
Krcmar will be fired up for this and I'm making Croatia the final team in my acca.
VERDICT: This group feels like a coin toss between Finland and New Zealand so it's no surprise to see the bookies pricing them both at 6/5 to win it.
Teemu Harju, Marko Kantele, Haupai Puha and Mark Cleaver are all producing similar levels of performances on their different tours this season so it's really difficult to find a solid reason why to back one team over the other.
I'll end this preview with a whimper by sitting on the fence.
Top four seeded nations went straight to the knockout stages
Top team in each group progress to the second round
Group A
(5) Netherlands
Italy
Hungary
Group B
(6) Belgium
Latvia
Philippines
Group C
(7) Germany
Portugal
Singapore
Group D
(8) Republic of Ireland
Gibraltar
China
Group E
(9) Poland
South Africa
Norway
Group F
(10) Canada
Malaysia
Denmark
Group G
(11) Sweden
Lithuania
France
Group H
(12) Austria
Spain
Australia
Group I
(13) USA
Hong Kong
Bahrain
Group J
(14) Czechia
Chinese Taipei
India
Group K
(15) Croatia
Japan
Switzerland
Group L
(16) Finland
New Zealand
Argentina
Thursday June 12 (1900 local time, 1800 BST)
Group Stage – First Matches (Best of seven legs)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports
Friday June 13
Afternoon Session (1200 local time, 1100 BST)
Group Stage – Second Matches (Best of seven legs)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports
Evening Session (1900 local time, 1800 BST)
Group Stage – Final Matches (Best of seven legs)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports
Saturday June 14
Afternoon Session (1300 local time, 1200 BST)
Second Round (Best of 15 legs)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports
Evening Session (1900 local time, 1800 BST)
Second Round (Best of 15 legs)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports
Sunday June 30
Afternoon Session (1300 local time, 1200 BST)
Quarter-Finals (Best of 15 legs)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports
Evening Session (1900 local time, 1800 BST)
Semi-Finals (Best of 15 legs)
TV Coverage: Sky Sport
Final (Best of 19 legs)
The 2025 BetVictor World Cup of Darts will be broadcast on Sky Sports for viewers in the UK & Ireland, through the PDC's international broadcast partners, including DAZN, Viaplay and VTM, and on for Rest of the World Subscribers.