World champion Luke Littler and world No 2 Luke Humphries will represent Team England at 2026 World Cup of Darts between 11-14 June at the Eissporthalle in Frankfurt.
The top two ranked players in the world, who lost in the second round to Germany in the 2025 edition, will enter the tournament as the No 1 seeds, meaning they will enter the tournament again in the second round, along with Netherlands, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, comes from the Welsh lineup, where Gerwyn Price did not make himself available for selection for the second time in three years, leaving Nick Kenny to join an in-form Jonny Clayton as the No 7 seed.
Price, 41, said at last week’s Premier League of Darts: “My focus is there, but health-wise I’m not in a great place at the moment.
“But I’m battling on, searching for some results. Hopefully over the next weeks they will come and put me at ease.”
The remaining 36 nations have been split into 12 groups of three for the round-robin phase – including 12 seeded nations – from which each group winner will progress.
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The Netherlands hammered Scotland 8-0 in the second round of the 2025 World Cup of Darts
The pairings are decided based on the lowest cumulative PDC Order of Merit ranking of the two competing players, meaning Cameron Menzies qualifies ahead of Peter Wright to slot into Team Scotland alongside Gary Anderson. They will be hoping for a better return this time around after being whitewashed 8-0 by the Netherlands in the round of 16 last time out.
Elsewhere, the Dutch team boasts a formidable line-up of Gian van Veen and Michael Van Gerwen, while Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney enter the tournament as defending champions after winning the World Cup for Northern Ireland last year.
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Daryl Gurney attempted a no-look 180 to Devon Petersen’s amusement during their second round match in the World Cup of Darts
Mickey Mansell has previously represented Northern Ireland at the World Cup of Darts between 2012 and 2015 but switched his nationality to Ireland earlier this year, so will play alongside William O’Connor next month.
The No 5 seeded duo of Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietreczko return for Germany and will be hoping to better last year’s semi-final exit in front of their home crowd, while Belgian pair Mike De Decker and Dimitri Van den Bergh will look to redeem themselves after a disappointing group stage exit in 2025.
Unseeded Singapore will see the return of darts icon Paul Lim – who, at 71, became the oldest player to win a match at the World Darts Championship in December, while Cristo Reyes represents Spain having just notched an electric nine-darter at the Austrian Darts Open.
2026 BetVictor World Cup of Darts Pairings
Seeds 1-4 – Exempt to Round Two
1 – England (Luke Littler, Luke Humphries)
2 – Netherlands (Gian van Veen, Michael van Gerwen)
3 – Northern Ireland (Josh Rock, Daryl Gurney)
4 – Scotland (Gary Anderson, Cameron Menzies)
Seeds 5-16 – Seeded for Group Stage
5 – Germany (Martin Schindler, Ricardo Pietreczko)
6 – Belgium (Mike De Decker, Dimitri Van den Bergh)
7 – Wales (Jonny Clayton, Nick Kenny)
8 – Republic of Ireland (William O’Connor, Mickey Mansell)
9 – Poland (Krzysztof Ratajski, Sebastian Bialecki)
10 – Sweden (Jeffrey de Graaf, Oskar Lukasiak)
11 – Australia (Damon Heta, Adam Leek)
12 – Czechia (Karel Sedlacek, Adam Gawlas)
13 – Austria (Mensur Suljovic, Rusty-Jake Rodriguez)
14 – Latvia (Madars Razma, Valters Melderis)
15 – Croatia (Boris Krcmar, 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 Graversen)
France (Thibault Tricole, Nicolas Thuillier)
Hong Kong (Man Lok Leung, Lok Yin Lee)
Hungary (Patrik Kovacs, Pal Szekely)
India (Nitin Kumar, Ankit Goenka)
Italy (Michele Turretta, Riccardo Castelli)
Japan (Motomu Sakai, Haruki Muramatsu)
Lithuania (Darius Labanauskas, Mindaugas Barauskas)
Mongolia (Altantulkhuur Myagmarsuren, Ganzorig Lkhagvasuren)
New Zealand (Jonny Tata, Ben Robb)
Norway (Cor Dekker, Kent Sivertsen)
Philippines (Alexis Toylo, Paolo Nebrida)
Portugal (Luis Camacho, Jose de Sousa)
Singapore (Paul Lim, Phuay Wey Tan)
Slovenia (Benjamin Pratnemer, Stefano Bozicek)
South Africa (Graham Filby, Devon Petersen)
Spain (Cristo Reyes, Jose Justicia)
Switzerland (Stefan Bellmont, Marcel Walpen)
Thailand (Sarayut Ouamumpa, Sowaris Rodman)
Trinidad and Tobago (Joshua Balfour, James Walkin)
Uganda (Patrick Ocheng, Juma Said)
USA (Adam Sevada, Stowe Buntz)
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