Draft:2027 IDF World Darts Championship
| 2026 IDF World Darts Championship | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament information | |||
| Dates | December 10, 2025 – January 7, 2026 | ||
| Venue | Winter Gardens | ||
| Location | Blackpool, England | ||
| Organisation(s) | International Darts Federation (IDF) | ||
| Format | Sets | ||
| Prize fund | $5,000,000 | ||
| Winner's share | $1,000,000 | ||
| |||
The 2027 IDF World Darts Championship is an upcoming professional darts tournament that will be held in December 2026 to January 2027 at Alexandra Palace in London, England. It will be the 5th World Darts Championship to be organised by the International Darts Federation and the 5th to be held at Alexandra Palace. The winner will receive $1,000,000 from a total prize fund of $5,000,000.
The tournament will feature 96 players, down from 128 in the 2026 edition.
Logan White is the defending champion, having defeated Max Mad 7–6 in the 2026 final.
Overview[edit | edit source]
The International Darts Federation (IDF) was founded in 2022 to provide greater opportunities for players outside the established Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) system, particularly in Australia, where many competitors identified as casual or semi-professional sought access to major events with comparable prize funds. The federation staged its inaugural IDF World Darts Championship in 2023, with Alexandra Palace in London serving as the host venue since the beginning.
The upcoming 2027 IDF World Darts Championship will be the fourth edition of the tournament and the fourth consecutive to be held at Alexandra Palace, running from 10 December 2025 to 7 January 2026. A record field of 128 players, including 32 seeds, will compete following the IDF’s March 2025 decision to expand the draw from 96 to 128 entrants. Logan White will return as defending champion after defeating Max Mad 7–6 in the 2026 final to claim his first world title.
Format[edit | edit source]
Under the new format, all players – including the 32 seeds – will enter the tournament in the first round, a change from previous years where seeds entered in the second round. The 32 seeds will be the top 32 players on the IDF Order of Merit heading into the tournament. The seeded players, plus players ranked 33–64 drawn at random, will be placed on the left hand side of the draw, and will be matched up against the remaining 64 qualifiers drawn at random.
All matches will consist of games of 501, where players are required to reduce their score from 501 to zero in order to win a leg, finishing on a double or the bullseye. The matches are played in set format, with the amount of sets required to win a match increasing as the tournament progresses. All sets will be played to the best of five legs in the first round, and also in non-deciding sets of subsequent rounds. In the deciding set of all but the first round, the first player to win at least three legs and be leading by two or more will win the set and the match. If the set reaches a 5–5 tie without a winner, it will be decided by a sudden death leg.
| Round | Best of (sets) | First to (sets) |
|---|---|---|
| First & second | 5 | 3 |
| Third & fourth | 7 | 4 |
| Quarter-finals | 9 | 5 |
| Semi-finals | 11 | 6 |
| Final | 13 | 7 |
Ranking[edit | edit source]
The IDF's main world ranking system, the IDF Order of Merit, is calculated on a two-year cycle. Prize money won by players in ranking tournaments are removed from their ranking after 104 weeks, meaning players who participated in the 2024 World Championship, who did not lose their IDF Tour Card during the two-year period, will be 'defending' their prize money from that event. At the end of the tournament, the prize money won at the 2026 tournament will be added and the prize money won at the 2024 tournament will be removed. After the tournament, the top 64 players in the IDF Order of Merit will receive a one-year extension on their Tour Card, joined by the players who earned two-year Tour Cards in 2025 who will enter their second year in 2026. Players with two or more years on their Tour Card, who finish outside of the top 64, will lose their Tour Card and see their ranking reset to $0, along with all other players who earned prize money in ranking tournaments without holding a Tour Card.
Prize money[edit | edit source]
On 31 March 2025, the IDF announced the biggest prize money increase in the organisation's history, starting from the 2026 season onward. Coinciding with the expansion of the field to 128 players, the World Championship's total prize money and winner's share doubled from $2,500,000 to $5,000,000 and from $500,000 to $1,000,000 respectively; this was the first time the tournament's prize money increased. The winner will also receive the IDF World Trophy. The prize money breakdown is shown below:
| Position (no. of players) | Prize money
(Total: $5,000,000) | |
|---|---|---|
| Winner | (1) | $1,000,000 |
| Runner-up | (1) | $400,000 |
| Semi-finalists | (2) | $200,000 |
| Quarter-finalists | (4) | $100,000 |
| Fourth round losers | (8) | $60,000 |
| Third round losers | (16) | $35,000 |
| Second round losers | (32) | $25,000 |
| First round losers | (64) | $15,000 |