The World Darts Championship from December 15, 2023 to January 3, 2024
Grand Slam of Darts winner Luke Humphries is seeded third for the World Darts Championship; Michael Smith will begin his title defence against Kevin Doets or Stowe Buntz;
Ahead of the 2024 World Darts Championship, Wayne Mardle makes his pick to win it, takes a closer look at defending-champion Michael Smith’s draw and assesses some of the other contenders…
The standard of play we’ve seen this year, in all of the events, it all builds to this.
I was standing near Michael Smith when the draw was being pulled out and he was a little nervy, I will say that.
I think it’s a decent enough draw for him. We know what Stowe Buntz has been doing on TV, but Kevin Doets has also actually been playing some of the best darts of his life.
And the thing is, if you if you beat a high seed, you take their seeding, so straight away your draw can become pretty favourable. That’s why when you when a top seed gets beat, it’s like ‘wow, right, we’ve all got chances now’.
Michael will have to be on his game, but we know what happens when he is on his game, carnage ensues, he hits nine-darters and wins world titles.
