Tonight's schedule
This evening's action will be starting in the next few minutes. Here's the running order:
Jim Williams v Alan Soutar
Luke Woodhouse v Scott Williams
Dirk van Duijvenbode v Gabriel Clemens
Krzysztof Ratajski v Nathan Aspinall
Peter Wright v Joe Cullen
Raymond van Barneveld v Ritchie Edhouse
Dimitri Van den Bergh v Andrew Gilding
Michael Smith v Jonny Clayton
Why is Littler not here?
Luke Littler broke his silence after fans claimed he dropped out of the Hungarian Darts Trophy to play computer games.
He will now take the weekend off ahead of a packed winter schedule.
Fans couldn’t help but notice Littler’s absence came at the same time as the early access release of EA FC 25. Littler is an Ultimate Team fanatic, a game mode that features in the series previously known as FIFA.
He won over fans in February after being spotted opening UT packs during his Premier League walk-out. Gamers who pre-ordered the annual football game have the chance to play early from September 20.
A SportsBible Instagram post speculated the game’s release may have something to do Littler’s sudden absence.
The darts star decided to stir the pot, commenting under the post: “What a coincidence.” Littler added a tongue-out emoji, with the post racking up over 8,500 likes in under 3 hours.
One fan laughed in response: “This is an elite response.” Another said: “LUKE THE NUKE, won the Finals last week, weekend off gaming well deserved.” While a third added: “He’s just 17, let the man enjoy.”
Here's how the first session went
James Wade was amongst the winners as the tournament kicked off this afternoon.
Full results:
Darren Beveridge 2-6 Keane Barry
Sebastian Bialecki 5-6 Niels Zonneveld
Gyorgy Jehirszki 0-6 Wessel Nijman
Florian Hempel 6-5 Callan Rydz
Janos Vegso 4-6 Cor Dekker
Brendan Dolan 4-6 Martin Lukeman
Alberto Bezjian 6-4 Andras Csoka
James Wade 6-4 Lukas Wenig
What's at stake?
There's another sizeable pot up for grabs at the MVM Dome in Budapest this weekend.
In fact, £175,000 is at stake in this latest European Tour event - with the winner scooping £30k.
And if it's anything like last year's final, viewers will be getting good value!
Dave Chisnall pipped fellow Englishman Luke Humphries 8-7 in that epic.
Let the 'Hungar games' continue!
Dave Chisnall is chasing a glorious double achievement at the Hungarian Darts Trophy this weekend.
Not only is the Englishman looking to defend his 2023 crown, he's also targeting a second successive European title.
That follows his impressive victory in the first-ever Flanders Darts Trophy at the start of the month.
And if he does pull it off his status would soar - as it would mean seeing off World No 1 Luke Humphries, to name just one of the superstars taking part in Budapest.
We've eight matches rom 6pm tonight - all best of 11 legs.
Jim Williams and Alan Soutar launch the action.
But the pick of the encounters could be back-in-form Peter Wright taking on 2022 Hungarian Darts Trophy victor Joe Cullen.