Dartitis, Littler vs Van Veen in London: PDC World Championship final on 3 January for £500,000

On Saturday, 3 January 2026, the PDC World Darts Championship final at Alexandra Palace in London will bring together two players who now define the future of the sport: 18-year-old world number one Luke Littler and Dutch challenger Gian van Veen, whose career was nearly destroyed by dartitis before his return to the elite.
The match will determine whether Littler becomes a two-time world champion before his 19th birthday or whether Van Veen rises to second in the PDC world rankings by completing one of the most remarkable comebacks in modern darts. Tournament data show that both players have averaged over 100 points per visit throughout this championship, underscoring the exceptional level of the final. This is reported by The WP Times, citing the official PDC World Championship tournament centre.

Who plays on 3 January — the final in numbers

Why this final matters: Littler, Van Veen and the future of the PDC

This final is not simply about a trophy. It is a referendum on where elite darts is heading. Littler is already the dominant force in the professional game. In just three years on tour, he has reached three consecutive world finals, won the sport’s biggest titles, and posted television averages previously seen only in the peak years of Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen. His opponents are no longer hoping he will make mistakes — they are hoping he has an off-day.

Van Veen represents a very different kind of elite athlete. His rise has been slower, harder and more fragile. Four years ago he was unable to release a dart reliably due to dartitis, a neurological condition that has ended many professional careers. He fought back through sports psychology, technical rebuilding and relentless competition. In October 2025 he won the European Championship, his first major title. That moment transformed him from a promising outsider into a genuine world contender.

How Van Veen reached the final: the numbers behind his dartitis comeback

Gian van Veen’s run to the 2026 PDC World Championship final is not built on sentiment. It is built on elite-level performance metrics that place him firmly among the tournament’s dominant forces.

Across five matches at Alexandra Palace, Van Veen has produced a tournament average just above 100, a threshold normally associated with championship-winning runs. Only three players — Luke Littler, Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson — have consistently crossed that level during this event.

His quarter-final demolition of Luke Humphries, the reigning world champion, was the defining moment. Van Veen won the match 5–1, but the scoreline understated the scale of control. He out-averaged Humphries by more than nine points per visit, closed over 50% of his doubles, and broke throw in four of the six sets — a level of efficiency rarely seen against the sport’s most disciplined closer.

Against Gary Anderson in the semi-final, Van Veen faced a very different test: a long-format, high-pressure duel against one of darts’ most experienced champions. Yet again, the numbers told the story. Van Veen produced multiple legs in 12 darts or fewer, held his own scoring pace deep into the match, and won more than 70% of legs when throwing first, neutralising Anderson’s biggest weapon.

What makes this run extraordinary is not simply the quality of opposition but the technical consistency behind it. Van Veen has hit:

• More 140+ scores than any player other than Littler
• A checkout success rate in the mid-40% range
• A first-nine-dart average among the best in the field

These are not the statistics of a lucky outsider. They are the statistics of a title contender.

Four years ago, Van Veen could barely release a dart due to dartitis, a neurological block that disrupts the motor command required to throw. Today, his throwing action is among the smoothest in the tournament, his tempo is stable under pressure, and his decision-making on doubles ranks with the elite.

The transformation is one of the most striking performance reversals ever recorded in professional darts — not a recovery to competence, but a leap to world-class dominance.

What is at stake on Saturday night: Littler, Van Veen and the £500,000 PDC world title

This final is not merely about a trophy. It is about who controls the next decade of professional darts. If Luke Littler wins, he will become the youngest two-time PDC world champion in history, achieving a benchmark that took Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen years longer to reach. More importantly, he would establish something rarer than a title run: a dynasty in formation. Two world crowns before the age of 19 would give him unmatched leverage over sponsorship, television scheduling and the commercial future of the sport. At that point, PDC darts would no longer be building around potential — it would be building around him.

For the competitive structure of the game, that matters. Dominant champions shape who gets funded, who gets televised and how tournaments are marketed. A Littler victory would cement a hierarchy in which everyone else is competing for second place.

A Gian van Veen victory, however, would trigger a very different rebalancing.

He would become the first player in the modern PDC era to win a world title after overcoming dartitis, one of the most career-destroying conditions in elite darts. He would also be only the third Dutchman ever to lift the Sid Waddell Trophy, joining Raymond van Barneveld and Michael van Gerwen — but doing so as an outsider who fought back from neurological collapse rather than rising smoothly through the system.

From a rankings perspective, Van Veen would jump to world number two, placing him directly behind Littler and creating the first genuine two-pole power structure the sport has had since the Van Gerwen–Taylor years.

Either result rewrites darts’ competitive order: one path leads to an early empire, the other to a rivalry capable of preventing one from forming.

Dartitis final in London: when Littler vs Van Veen is played, where to watch and what £500,000 is at stake

The final will be played on Saturday, 3 January 2026, at Alexandra Palace in north London, the historic home of the PDC World Championship. The first dart is scheduled for 8:00 pm UK time, with a global television audience expected to exceed five million viewers across Europe, Asia and Australia.
In Britain the match will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Darts, with streaming available via NOW TV and Sky Go, while international viewers will be able to follow the final on PDC.tv and regional broadcast partners.

The stakes are financial as well as sporting. The winner will receive £500,000 in prize money, with the runner-up collecting £200,000, making it one of the most valuable single matches in professional darts. The ranking points attached to the final will determine the top of the PDC Order of Merit for the coming season, shaping tournament seedings, broadcast exposure and sponsorship negotiations throughout 2026.

Both Luke Littler and Gian van Veen were born in the 2000s. Their first meeting in a world final came in youth darts, when Littler defeated Van Veen in the 2023 World Youth Championship. Their second now comes on the sport’s biggest possible stage, with commercial and sporting consequences far beyond a single trophy.

For broadcasters, sponsors and the PDC itself, this pairing offers something the sport has lacked since the Taylor–Van Gerwen era: a long-term rivalry between two players young enough to shape a decade. Littler represents sustained supremacy. Van Veen represents resistance — a challenger who has already beaten the reigning world champion and a two-time titleholder to reach this final.

On 3 January, in front of a worldwide audience, darts will not simply crown a champion. It will decide whether the sport enters an age of one-man dominance — or an era of genuine, market-defining rivalry.

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