How does the World Cup of Darts work?

The World Cup of Darts gets under way on Thursday and teenage sensation Luke Littler will be making his debut in the competition.

In the international doubles tournament in Leverkusen, Germany, Littler and world number one Luke Humphries will pair up to represent England.

England are the defending champions, with Humphries winning it alongside former world champion Michael Smith in 2024.

The two players in each team will throw three darts each and alternate throughout the match.

Each team consists of the two best-ranked players from each nation based on the Professional Darts Corporation’s Order of Merit on 7 May.

The four top-ranked nations – England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – have received a bye into the second round, which will consist of 16 nations.

Dutch world number three Michael van Gerwen opted not to play in the competition, effectively costing the Netherlands a spot in the second round.

The other 12 spots will be determined via the results of the group stage, where 36 teams will compete.

Those 36 nations have been split into 12 round-robin groups of three, with the group winners advancing to the second round.

The top 16 nations were seeded, with the nations ranked between five and 12 separated in the groups to face two unseeded nations in the group stage.

A total of 80 players from 40 nations are taking part.

The numbers next to each nation indicate the seeding.

Through to the second round

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Group I

Group J

Group K

Group L

All rounds are played as one-off doubles matches.

During the group stage all matches are played in a best-of-seven-legs format.

In the second round, quarter-finals and semi-finals, matches are best of 15 legs.

The 36 group stage matches will be played on Thursday and Friday.

Thursday’s session starts at 18:00 BST. Friday’s afternoon session starts at 11:00 and the evening session at 18:00.

All 12 second-round matches will be played on Saturday.

The afternoon session starts at 12:00 and the evening session at 18:00.

The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will take place on Sunday.

A total prize pot of £450,000 is available.

The winning team will earn a combined £80,000, with the runners-up taking £50,000.

All teams in the group stage are guaranteed at least £4,000, while teams in the knockout rounds will earn a minimum of £9,000.

Prize money (per team)

The first edition of the World Cup of Darts was in 2010 and it became an annual competition from 2012.

Five different nations have won the competition and there have been eight different winning pairs.

Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis won it four times for England, and Van Gerwen and Raymond van Barneveld three times for the Netherlands.

Of the teams competing at the 2025 World Cup, Scotland’s Anderson and Wright, Wales’ Clayton and Price and Australia’s Heta and Whitlock have won the World Cup.

This article is the latest from BBC Sport’s Ask Me Anything team.

Ask Me Anything is a service dedicated to answering your questions.

We want to reward your time by telling you things you do not know and reminding you of things you do.

The team will find out everything you need to know and be able to call upon a network of contacts, including our experts and pundits.

We will be answering your questions from the heart of the BBC Sport newsroom, and going behind the scenes at some of the world’s biggest sporting events.