Gerwyn Price will get his PDC World Championship underway with a second-round match against the winner of Luke Woodhouse and Vladyslav Omelchenko.
The world darts championships begin at Alexandra Palace on December 15 and the first round draw has been made. A total of 96 players will compete for a top prize of £500,000 when the final taking place on January 3.
The top 32 players in the Order of Merit are joined by the top 32 players in the PDC Pro Tour and 32 qualifiers from around the world. Those seeded one to 32 automatically qualified for the second round.
Price comes into the tournament having won the most prize money this season and is top of the PDC Order of Merit and top seed. Price won the World Series Finals for the second time earlier this year.
After withdrawing from his third round match at last year's tournament with Covid-19 'Mighty' Michael Van Gerwen is hoping to clinch the crown for the fourth time - his last victory coming in 2019.
MVG showed his form by winning the Players Championship Finals for a record seventh time on Sunday and has also won the Premier League and World Matchplay titles during a successful season.
Van Gerwen will face the winner of Niels Zonneveld and Lewy Williams in the second round.
Reigning champion Peter Wright will face eitherMickey Mansell or Ben Robb. Snakebite became the oldest player to become world number one earlier this year, but had to take time out of the sport to have his gallstones removed.
Image:
Getty Images)Three women will be taking part in this year's tournament with Beau Greaves, Fallon Sherrock and Lisa Ashton all competing at the Alexandra Palace.
WDF women’s world champion Greaves, aged 18, won eight consecutive Women’s Series events to book her place at the world championships and has been branded as one to avoid in the first round. The teenager will face in the first round
Sherrock initially missed out on a qualifying spot as Ashton and Greaves had beaten her to two available spots only for the PDC to controversially award her a spot.
The 'Queen of the Palace' Sherrock will meet Ricky Evans in the first round with the winner going on to take on 13th seed Joe Cullen in the second round.
Full first and second round draw:
Gerwyn Price (1) to play Luke Woodhouse or Vladyslav Omelchenko
Raymond Van Barnevld (32) to play either Ryan Meikle or Lisa Ashton
Ryan Searle (16) will play either Adam Gawlas or Richie Burnett
Jose de Sousa (17) will play either Simon Whitlock or Christian Perez
James Wade (8) will play either Jim Williams or Sebastien Bialecki
Gabriel Clemens (25) will play either William O'Connor or Beau Greaves
Danny Noppert (9) will play either Ritchie Edhouse or David Cameron
Daryl Gurney (24) will play either Alan Soutar or Mal Cuming
Michael Smith (4) will play either Jermaine Wattimena or Nathan Rafferty
Martin Schindler (29) will play either Martin Lukeman or Nobuhiro Yamamoto
Joe Cullen (13) will play either Ricky Evans or Fallon Sherrock
Damon Heta (20) will play either Adrian Lewis or Daniel Larsson
Luke Humphries (5) will play either Keegan Brown or Florian Hempel
Vincent van der Voort (28) will play either Cameron Menzies or Diogo Portela
Dave Chisnall 12) will play either Andrew Gilding or Robert Owen
Peter Wright (2) will play either Mickey Mansell or Ben Robb
Stephen Bunting (21) will play either Geert Nentjes or Leonard Gates
Kim Huybrechts (31) will play either Keane Barry or Grant Sampson
Dimitri Van den Bergh (15) will play either Rowby-John Rodriguez or Lourence Ilagan
Krzysztof Ratajski (18) will play either Danny Jansen or Paolo Nerbida
Jonny Clayton (7) will play either Steve Beaton or Danny van Trijp
Brendan Dolan (26) will play either Jamie Hughes or Jimmy Hendriks
Nathan Aspinall (10) will play either Boris Krcmar or Toru Suzuki
Callan Rydz (23) will play either Josh Rock or Jose Justicia
Michael van Gerwen (3) will play either Niels Zonneveld or Lewy Williams
Mensur Suljovic (30) will play either Mike De Decker or Jeff Smith
Dirk van Duijvenbode (14) will play either Karel Sedlacek or Raymond Smith
Ross Smith (19) will play either John O'Shea or Darius Labanauskas
Rob Cross (6) will play either Scott Williams or Ryan Joyce
Mervyn King (27) will play either Matt Campbell or Danny Baggish
Gary Anderson (11) will play either Madars Razma or Prakash Jiwa
Chris Dobey (22) will play either Martijn Kleermaker or Xicheng Han