After 126 matches at the PDC Darts WC, only two players remain.
2026 PDC Darts World Championship Final preview and prediction: Littler on upset alert against van Veen? originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Luke Littler and Gian van Veen emerged as the two winners of the semifinal round in the 2026 PDC Darts World Championship.
They are set to clash Saturday night in one of the most anticipated WC finals in recent memory.
Both players have played top-tier darts in the past few weeks, setting up a final that can really be anyone's game.
Here is everything you need to know ahead of the biggest darts match of the year.
2026 PDC Darts World Championship final prediction: Luke Littler vs. Gian van Veen
In the 2026 PDC WC final, a best-of-13 (first to 7) set match will be played to determine which player will take home the biggest prize money total in the sport's history.
(1) Luke Littler vs. (10) Gian van Veen
Winner: Gian van Veen, 7-5
On paper, it always feels like Littler has to be the favorite in a major final with how he's played recently.
However, that mindset needs to be approached differently because of how dominant and impressive van Veen has been in this tournament.
Van Veen is a player that true darts fans should know, but the average fan may not be familiar with him.
He's a fairly new player on the PDC circuit, with just a few years of experience.
He's slowly played in more important tournaments in the last couple of years, and it actually wasn't until this year that van Veen won his first game on the Ally Pally stage at the PDC WC.
He finished 2024 as the 27th-ranked player in the world, and is now set to be at worst the 3rd-ranked player in the world after this event ends.
Before his upcoming match, he's already beaten Luke Humphries in the quarterfinals and Gary Anderson in the semifinals. Both opponents averaged over 101 in those long-format matches.
MORE: Every 170 'Big Fish' checkout at the 2026 PDC Darts World Championship
Van Veen was battle-tested in those matches and showed that he could win last-leg deciders and hit important triples in key parts of a match.
He averaged 102.99 in a 42-leg match against Luke Humphries and 105.41 in a 27-leg match against Luke Humphries.
He's starting to gain valuable experience in marathon-style matches, which will only increase his confidence, especially when he has to play against threatening opponents like Luke Littler.
Not letting long matches hinder his performance as the match progresses is a great quality to have, as he approaches a match against an opponent who has been virtually impossible to beat in this type of format.
Littler will look to capitalize on mistakes and inconsistency from van Veen in a best-of-13 set match if van Veen starts to fall asleep.
Littler himself is coming off dominant wins over Krzysztof Ratajski and Ryan Searle in the past two rounds, so he'll be feeling confident as well entering this match.
MORE: Predicting the PDC 2026 Premier League of Darts lineup
Littler has averaged under 100 in just one of his six matches played so far in the 2026 PDC WC.
He's played well overall, but has continued to start matches a little bit slow, so the emphasis for opponents once again is to get a strong start against Littler, who is bound to find a purple patch or several purple patches in the final.
Van Veen's checkout percentage has been very encouraging, which is at the top of the list of areas he'll need to be outstanding in to keep Littler's hands full throughout the contest.
You can expect a tight match that could swing either way, as both players could trade leads throughout the match.
The key moments will be when a player has their throw broken and can't respond, or when sets come down to last-leg deciders. These small margins will ultimately be the moments that players lose sleep over if they can't convert when given the chance.
I like van Veen's odds in this match, with how well his game has been overall recently, which is why I'll give him the slight edge in his match against the 2025 PDC WC.
More darts articles:
- Ranking the best PDC Darts moments from 2025: 9-darters to shocking upsets
- Every darts player who's qualified for the 2026 PDC World Championship
- Watch: Luke Littler hits nine-darter in one of the greatest legs of all time against Josh Rock
- How much do professional PDC darts players actually earn? The most lucrative events on the tour
- Predicting the top-five contenders for the 2026 PDC Darts World Championship
Category: General Sports
