World Cup of Darts 2024 LIVE RESULTS: Latest updates as 40 nations compete in Frankfurt – TV channel, live stream

The rest of the seeds

Here are the nations expected to do best in the opening round robin - at least judged on their seeding.

They are bidding to join England, Wales, the Netherlands and Scotland in round two.

5 Belgium - Dimitri Van den Bergh, Kim Huybrechts.
6 Northern Ireland - Josh Rock, Brendan Dolan.
7 Germany - Martin Schindler, Gabriel Clemens.
8 Australia - Damon Heta, Simon Whitlock.
9 Republic of Ireland - William O'Connor, Keane Barry.
10 Austria - Rowby-John Rodriguez, Mensur Suljovic.
11 Poland - Krzysztof Ratajski, Radek Szaganski.
12 Czechia - Adam Gawlas, Karel Sedlacek.
13 Croatia - Boris Krcmar, Romeo Grvabac.
14 France - Jacques Labre, Thibault Tricole.
15 Sweden - Jeffrey de Graaf, Oskar Lukasiak.
16 USA - Danny Lauby, Jules van Dongen.

The four top seeds

These are the four nations who go straight through to the second round:

1 England - Luke Humphries, Michael Smith.
2 Wales - Jonny Clayton, Jim Williams.
3 Netherlands - Michael van Gerwen, Danny Noppert.
4 Scotland - Peter Wright, Gary Anderson.

How long is each match?

Each match is pretty similar to Premier League Darts and the European Tour - at least in terms of length.

Group Stage - Best of seven legs.
Second Round - Best of 15 legs.
Quarter-Finals - Best of 15 legs.
Semi-Finals - Best of 15 legs.
Final - Best of 19 legs.

How it works...

Last year's successful format will be repeated - groups and knockout stages of all doubles matches over four days.

The top four seeds are the nations with the lowest combined PDC Order of Merit ranking of their two players.

Those four countries - England, Wales, the Netherlands, Scotland - enter at the second-round stage.

The other 36 teams are split into 12 groups of three for the round-robin first round - battling to join the four seeds on Saturday.

Get ready for the World Cup... but with no Littler

Frankfurt is ready for the launch of the World Cup of Darts this evening.

But the sport's biggest star will be missing.

Luke Littler is NOT in the England side as they bid for a fifth crown.

But they are still top seeds and strong favourites via the pairing of world champion Luke Humphries and Michael Smith.

Holders Wales are without main man Gerwyn Price - so Jim Williams comes in to partner Jonny Clayton.

Michael van Gerwen and Danny Noppert represent third seeds and four-time winners Netherlands.