Darts at Ally Pally: bigger than ever — and a ballot for the first time

Some sporting events need explaining. And then there is Ally Pally. For two and a half weeks grown adults stand on beer benches in dinosaur costumes singing “Stand up if you love the darts” — and fall reverently silent the moment a dart flies towards double 16 down at the oche. It is the only place on earth where millimetre precision and carnival happen at the same time.

And in 2026/27 it gets bigger than ever. The championship is moving within Alexandra Palace — into the Great Hall.

The move everybody is talking about

First things first, because the question is in every search box: no, the championship is not leaving Ally Pally. Quite the opposite — the PDC has extended the deal to 2031.

What changes is the room. Until now play took place in the West Hall. From this championship the Great Hall is the stage, and that is a step up: more than 5,000 spectators per session instead of a little over three thousand, and up to 180,000 visitors across the tournament.

For anyone who has never managed to get into Ally Pally, that is the best news in years. There are simply a lot more tickets.

⚠️ But tickets are by ballot for the first time

The second change is the more important one. The PDC is allocating tickets by ballot for the first time — by draw, no longer on a first-click basis.

The registration window falls in September 2026. If you do not register you are out, however fast your broadband. And if the draw does not favour you, you need a second route — more on that below.

The dates: 11 December to 3 January

The World Championship runs from Friday 11 December 2026 to the final on Sunday 3 January 2027, with a break over Christmas.

It opens with the evening session on 11 December — there is no afternoon play on day one. After that most days carry two sessions, one afternoon and one evening, each three and a half to four hours. There are 34 sessions in total, and which one you pick decides the character of your night:

• Opening night, 11 December — the hall is new and so is the atmosphere. First round, plenty of outsiders, little pressure.
• Between Christmas and New Year — 27 December, afternoon and 27 December, evening, plus 29 December, afternoon and 29 December, evening. For connoisseurs the best days: the top seeds are in and the matches get tight.
• Quarter-finals on 1 January — New Year's Day at Ally Pally, in a hall full of people who have evidently come through the night in good order.
• Semi-finals on 2 January and the final on 3 January — the two sessions you should have been to once in your life.

All dates and categories are on our overview of the PDC World Darts Championship.

A hall far more continental than you expect

First-time visitors picture an English crowd and find themselves in an international one. More than 18,000 visitors from Germany, Austria and Switzerland come to north London across the tournament, and the Dutch contingent is a fixture of the Ally Pally soundtrack. In some sessions you will hear more of the continent than of London.

That has consequences for you as a traveller: the hotels around Haringey and Islington fill early, and the popular sessions between Christmas and New Year are the first to go. If your dates are fixed, the accommodation is worth locking down before the ticket question is even settled.

Who will be playing? The honest answer

This is the question we get most, and in August the answer is: nobody knows yet. The field is decided in November — through the world ranking on the cut-off date and through the various qualifying routes.

What the tournament has become, though, is properly international. At the last championship eight German players took part, more than ever before, led by Martin Schindler at 19 in the Order of Merit and Ricardo Pietreczko — “Pikachu” — at 34. A decade ago that would have been unthinkable.

How far can an outsider go?

The benchmark was set in 2023, when Gabriel Clemens became the first German to reach the semi-finals — beating a three-time world champion on the way. The “German Giant”, a locksmith by trade before he turned professional, suddenly had an entire country in front of the television.

That is the point of darts. The format, with its short sets, allows upsets that almost no other sport permits. You never quite know which session will turn out to be the one people talk about for years.

Getting there — and what to expect

Alexandra Palace sits in north London, in the borough of Haringey, on a hill above the city. From Alexandra Palace station it is a walk up the slope — and that walk is part of it: you climb in a procession of vikings, bananas and Teletubbies, and somewhere along the way the first singing starts.

A few practical things:

• A costume is not compulsory, but you stand out more without one than with.
• Football shirts are a no-go — the club game stays outside.
• A session runs three and a half to four hours. Do not overfill the evening.
• Around Christmas and New Year the London transport network runs a reduced service. Check your specific day before booking a hotel far out.
• Flying in from Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Dublin or Stockholm? Aim to arrive the day before an afternoon session — the walk up the hill is not one to do straight off a plane.

A darts trip with ticket and hotel from one source

Which brings us to the point that matters more this year than usual. With the ballot, the official route becomes a lottery in the literal sense. If you are not drawn you have no ticket — and you only find out in the autumn.

We work with our own allocations, which do not run through the ballot. You book the session you actually want to see, the hotel in London and, if you like, the travel — and you know straight away whether it is happening, instead of hoping.

Tell us which day appeals: the opening night in the new hall, the days between Christmas and New Year, or the final itself. An overview of every session is on our page for the Darts World Championship at Alexandra Palace.

---

Last updated: 21 August 2026. The field is confirmed in November — we will update this page as soon as it is clear who is in.