Tis the season for darts! Fancy costume followers take over Alexandra Palace because the World Championship will get underway – with greater than half a MILLION pints to be consumed throughout event
Crazed darts fans have taken over Alexandra Palace again for this year’s World Championship, with close to 5,000 cramming into the West Hall to watch teenage sensation Luke Littler get his title defence underway on Thursday.
With tickets selling out in mere minutes, fans are set to make the most of the hottest seat in town by downing gallons of pints in fancy dress while blaring out renditions of their favourite chants.
Up 750,000 pints of beer are consumed by fans during the three-week tournament. Lucky fans will also have hopes of pocketing £60,000 through Paddy Power‘s nine-dart bonus initiative, which sees £180,000 split between the player, the charity and a random fan if the perfect leg is achieved.
‘It’s darts – there are rowdy fans for sure,’ Sky Sports anchor Emma Paton told Daily Mail Sport about the rowdy crowds. ‘But there is a lot of security around, and everyone is ultimately having a good time at the majority of places.
‘There have been very few incidents that I have seen. Maybe some of the bigger venues in the Premier League, where there have been fights breaking out, people throwing beer and stuff. But a lot of the time people are just having a good time and enjoying the darts.’
And have a good time they shall. Night one will see Littler face Darius Labanauskas in the third match of the evening, while former world champion Michael Smith will also be in action.
Fancy dress darts fans have taken over Alexander Palace for the World Darts Championship
More than half a million pints are expected to be consumed during the three-week-long event
Fans made sure they got to the venue early, with the first match to start just after 7pm
Paddy Power have again taken over the iconic venue, just days after it was announced that the bookmakers had extended their sponsorship of the tournament until 2031.
The Irish betting brand publicised the extension through a humorous video with former PDC chairman Barry Hearn, during which the promoter is faced with two Paddy Power ‘marketing experts’.
Paddy Power first took the deal to sponsor the iconic event, held at London’s Alexandra Palace, in 2023 and have since donated more than £2million to Prostate Cancer UK during the last two events.
The brand have renewed their pledge to get 180,000 men to check their risk of prostate cancer during the 2026 World Darts Championship as part of ‘The Even Bigger 180’ campaign.
They are also urging the public to enter their Darts of Destiny fundraising challenge – where an entrant will be selected at random for the chance to win £180,000 live on stage at Ally Pally if they can score at least 180 points from nine darts.
It was also announced that, from next year, the tournament will be moving to the Great Hall inside Ally Pally, allowing for 180,000 fans in total to attend across the three weeks.
A number of those in attendance don fancy dress. Those in attendance early on Thursday were spotted dressed as the likes of jockeys and giant pizza slices.
Other fans opted for more colourful outfits, with one fan opting for a giant gold chain, sunglasses and a bucket hat.
