WDF World Championship 2026: Dates, Lakeside Schedule, Format and Past Winners

The WDF World Championship 2026 takes place from Friday 27 November to Sunday 6 December 2026 at the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Surrey. It is the World Darts Federation’s flagship event and the second of darts’ two world championships, finishing a few days before the PDC’s own World Championship begins at Alexandra Palace.

On this page

1. WDF World Championship 2026 dates
2. WDF vs PDC: two world championships
3. Format
4. 2025 champions
5. The same weekend as the Players Championship Finals
6. Tickets and how to watch
7. WDF World Championship 2026 FAQ

WDF World Championship 2026 dates

Start times are converted automatically for every visitor. You are seeing: UK time

The Lakeside weekend starts early this year. Across the weekend of 31 October – 1 November, the venue hosts the Lakeside Open and the final UK qualifier for the World Championship itself. Players who come through get to see the stage a month before the main event.

The WDF publishes the full draw and session-by-session order of play closer to the tournament. We will add session times here as soon as they are released, converted to your local time like every time on this site.

WDF vs PDC: two world championships

Darts has two separate world championships, run by two separate organisations:

The PDC event is bigger and richer, while the WDF event runs over ten days at the Lakeside from late November. For the PDC event, see our World Darts Championship 2026/27 schedule.

Format

Like the PDC World Championship, the WDF event is played in sets, with matches getting longer as the tournament goes on. The Open, Women’s, Youth and Girls’ titles all run during the ten days, building towards the Open final on the closing weekend.

2025 champions

Last year’s edition, played from 28 November to 7 December 2025, produced some memorable stories:

• Open: Jimmy van Schie (Netherlands) beat Scotland’s Mitchell Lawrie 6–3 in the final, coming from 3–0 down. He earned £50,000.
• Women’s: Deta Hedman beat Lerena Rietbergen 4–1. She became the oldest-ever world champion on the Lakeside stage.
• Youth: Mitchell Lawrie. At 15, he was also the youngest player ever to compete in a senior darts World Championship, and reached the Open final.
• Girls: Zehra Gemi, the first Turkish world champion at any level.

The same weekend as the Players Championship Finals

The opening weekend of the WDF World Championship (27–29 November) clashes with the PDC’s Players Championship Finals in Minehead. If you follow both circuits, that weekend has darts on two stages at once. Our live darts schedule shows both side by side, in your time zone.

Tickets and how to watch

For tickets and broadcast details, check the official WDF website, as coverage arrangements for the WDF event differ from the PDC’s. For everything on the PDC side, our darts on TV guide has you covered.

Want to see what else is on before Christmas? The full darts schedule 2026–27 lists every event.

WDF World Championship 2026 FAQ