World champion Luke Littler and world number 2 Luke Humphries will represent England at the 2026 World Cup of Darts, to be held at the Eisporthalle in Frankfurt from 11 to 14 June.
In the 2025 tournament, the top two players in the world rankings who lost to Germany in the second round will participate in the tournament as the top seeds, and will re-enter the tournament from the second round along with the Netherlands, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
But perhaps the biggest surprise lies in Wales’ line-up. Gerwyn Price is not included in the selection for the second time in three years, leaving Nick Kenny to join in-form Johnny Clayton as the seventh seed.
Price, 41, said on last week’s Premier League of Darts: “My concentration is there, but health-wise I’m not in a good place at the moment.
“But I’m fighting for a result. I hope they come and reassure me in the coming weeks.”
The remaining 36 countries will be divided into 12 groups of three in a round-robin stage, including the 12 seeded countries, with the winners of each group advancing from there.
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Netherlands beat Scotland 8-0 in the second round of the 2025 Darts World Cup
The pairings will be determined based on the lowest cumulative PDC merit rankings of the two players taking part, meaning Cameron Menzies will qualify to feature in the Scotland team alongside Gary Anderson ahead of Peter Wright. After losing 8-0 to the Netherlands in the last round of 16, they will be hoping for a further comeback this time.
Elsewhere, the Dutch team boasts a formidable line-up with Jan van Veen and Michael van Gerwen, while Josh Lock and Darryl Gurney enter the tournament as defending champions after winning last year’s Northern Ireland World Cup.
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Darryl Gurney attempts a no-look 180 to please Devon Pietersen in the second round of the Darts World Cup
Mickey Mansell represented Northern Ireland at the World Cup of Darts between 2012 and 2015, but switched citizenship to Ireland earlier this year and will be playing alongside William O’Connor next month.
Fifth-seeded duo Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietrechko will be back in Germany hoping to build on last year’s semi-final defeat in front of their home crowd, while Belgian pair Mike Dekker and Dimitri van den Berg will be looking to bounce back from their disappointing group stage exit in 2025.
Unseeded Singapore will see the return of darts icon Paul Lim. At 71, he became the oldest player to win a match at the World Darts Championship in December, while Spanish international Cristo Reyes just hit an electric nine darter at the Austria Darts Open.
2026 BetVictor Darts World Cup Combinations
Seeds 1-4 – Round 2 exempt
1 – England (Luke Littler, Luke Humphries)
2 – Netherlands (Jan van Veen, Michael van Gerwen)
3 – Northern Ireland (Josh Locke, Darryl Gurney)
4 – Scotland (Gary Anderson, Cameron Menzies)
Seeds 5-16 – Group Stage Seeded
5 – Germany (Martin Schindler, Ricardo Pietrecko)
6 – Belgium (Mike Dekker, Dimitri van den Bergh)
7 – Wales (Johnny Clayton, Nick Kenny)
8 – Republic of Ireland (William O’Connor, Mickey Mansell)
9 – Poland (Krzysztof Ratajski, Sebastian Bialecki)
10 – Sweden (Jeffrey de Graaf, Oscar Lukasiak)
11 – Australia (Damon Heta, Adam Leake)
12 – Czech Republic (Karel Sedlacek, Adam Gaulas)
13 – Austria (Mensur Suljovic, Rusty Jake Rodriguez)
14 – Latvia (Madars Razma, Walters Merdelis)
15 – Croatia (Boris Krčmar, Pero Ljubic)
16 – Finland (Jani Haavisto, Jonas Masalin)
non-seeded
Canada (Jim Long, David Cameron)
China (Qingyu Zhan, Xiaochen Zong)
Denmark (Andreas Toft Jorgensen, Jonas Glaversen)
France (Thibault Trichole, Nicolas Thuillier)
Hong Kong (Man Lok Leung, Lok Ying Lee)
Hungary (Patrik Kovacs, Pál Székely)
India (Nitin Kumar, Ankit Goenka)
Italy (Michele Turetta, Riccardo Castelli)
Japan (Motomu Sakai, Haruki Muramatsu)
Lithuania (Darius Labanaskas, Mindaugas Balauskas)
Mongolia (Altanturkur Myagmasren, Ganzorig Ruhagvasren)
New Zealand (Johnny Tata, Ben Robb)
Norway (Coe Dekker, Kent Sivertsen)
Philippines (Alexis Toiro, Paolo Nebrida)
Portugal (Luis Camacho, Jose de Sousa)
Singapore (Paul Lim, Fai Wei Tan)
Slovenia (Benjamin Platnemar, Stefano Božicek)
South Africa (Graham Philby, Devon Petersen)
Spain (Cristo Reyes, Jose Justicia)
Switzerland (Stephane Belmont, Marcel Valpen)
Thailand (Sarayuth Waamungpa, Sowaris Rodman)
Trinidad and Tobago (Joshua Balfour, James Walkin)
Uganda (Patrick Ochieng, Juma Saeed)
America (Adam Sebada, Stow Buntz)
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