World Cup of Darts: Is England's dream team unbeatable this week?
Lewis Watson 
The World Cup of Darts gets underway on Thursday with Luke Littler and Luke Humphries leading the English charge in Germany.
The pair won the trophy last year and are once again heavy favourites with betting sites to win it this time round, despite the poor history of defending champions.
Free Bets darts expert Lewis Watson has had a closer look at the tournament and who is competing.
World number one Luke Humphries and reigning world champion Luke Littler are attempting to make England the first back-to-back winners of the World Cup of Darts this weekend, as the pair of Englishmen head to Frankfurt, Germany in a bid to defend the title.
Not since 2016 and the pair of Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis have a nation successfully defended the World Cup of Darts crown, and Littler will be taking over from Michael Smith (Humphries' partner in 2024) to partner "Cool Hand" as heavy favourites inside the Eissporthalle.
England triumphed 10-6 over the Austrian pair of Mensur Suljovic and Rowby-John Rodriguez in 2024's final, notching up their fifth crown following wins in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016.
The Netherlands are the second most decorated nation with four titles, but haven't reigned supreme since Michael van Gerwen's unstoppable reign in 2018, alongside the darting legend Raymond van Barneveld.
England's duo of Littler and Humphries enter this year's tournament as massive 4/9 favourites with bet365, and you can see why.
"The Nuke" and "Cool Hand" are ever present in PDC finals and are lightyears ahead of any other player in the PDC's Order of Merit, notching up an impressive £3 million+ worth of prize money over a two-year cycle.
England's stiffest competition is expected to come in the shape of 2023 winners, Wales (5/1 with bet365), once again putting forward the talented team of Jonny Clayton and Gerwyn Price.
Price is playing some good darts at the moment, and the Welsh outfit could well find themselves on a collision course with England having found themselves on opposite sides of the draw.
MVG's absence from the Dutch team see them priced as long as 11/1 with bet365 to notch up a fifth title, with Danny Noppert and Gian van Veen representing the Oranje army.
Former world champions Gary Anderson and Peter Wright make up an experienced Scottish team and fourth seeds Northern Ireland have a healthy mix of styles in Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney.
Competing Nations and Players
- (1) England - Luke Humphries & Luke Littler
- (2) Wales - Jonny Clayton & Gerwyn Price
- (3) Scotland - Gary Anderson & Peter Wright
- (4) Northern Ireland - Josh Rock & Daryl Gurney
- Argentina - Jesus Salate & Victor Guillin
- Australia - Damon Heta & Simon Whitlock
- Austria - Mensur Suljovic & Rusty-Jake Rodriguez
- Bahrain - Sadeq Mohamed & Hasan Bucheeri
- Belgium - Mike De Decker & Dimitri Van den Bergh
- Canada - Matt Campbell & Jim Long
- China - Xiaochen Zong & Lihao Wen
- Chinese Taipei - Pupo Teng-Lieh & An-Sheng Lu
- Croatia - Pero Ljubic & Boris Krcmar
- Czechia - Karel Sedlacek & Petr Krivka
- Denmark - Benjamin Reus & Andreas Hyllgaardhus
- Finland - Teemu Harju & Marko Kantele
- France - Thibault Tricole & Jacques Labre
- Germany - Martin Schindler & Ricardo Pietreczko
- Gibraltar - Craig Galliano & Justin Hewitt
- Hong Kong - Man Lok Leung & Lok Yin Lee
- Hungary - György Jehirszki & Gergely Lakatos
- India - Nitin Kumar & Mohan Goel
- Italy - Michele Turetta & Massimo Dalla Rosa
- Japan - Ryusei Azemoto & Tomoya Goto
- Latvia - Madars Razma & Valters Melderis
- Lithuania - Darius Labanauskas & Mindaugas Barauskas
- Malaysia - Tengku Shah & Tan Jenn Ming
- Netherlands - Danny Noppert & Gian van Veen
- New Zealand - Haupai Puha & Mark Cleaver
- Norway - Cor Dekker & Kent Joran Sivertsen
- Philippines - Lourence Ilagan & Paolo Nebrida
- Poland - Krzysztof Ratajski & Radek Szaganski
- Portugal - Jose de Sousa & Bruno Nascimento
- Republic of Ireland - William O'Connor & Keane Barry
- Singapore - Paul Lim & Phuay Wei Tan
- South Africa - Cameron Carolissen & Devon Petersen
- Spain - Daniel Zapata & Ricardo Fernandez
- Sweden - Jeffrey de Graaf & Oskar Lukasiak
- Switzerland - Stefan Bellmont & Alex Fehlmann
- USA - Danny Lauby & Jules van Dongen
Prize Fund (Per Team)
- Winners - £80,000
- Runners-Up - £50,000
- Semi-Finalists - £30,000
- Quarter-Finalists - £20,000
- Last 16 Losers - £9,000
- Second in Group - £5,000
- Third in Group - £4,000
- Total £450,000
The top four seeds won't see the oche until the second round on June 14th, but expect plenty of thrills and spills in the competitive group stages.
Plenty of eyes will be on the Argentinean paring of Jesus Salate and Victor Guillin who will be representing the south American side for the first time in the event, following a successful qualification campaign across Latin and the Caribbean, at the expense of Guyana who played at the 2023 and 2024 tournaments.
They have been paired with Finland and New Zealand in Group L, and other than Bahrain at 1500/1 with bet365 are the longest priced 1000/1 in the darts betting markets to win the World Cup of Darts.
We will have darts betting tips ahead of the World Cup of Darts this week and for every major tournament over the course of the year.
