The British sporting winter has one fixed point, and it is not a football match. From 11 December to 3 January the PDC World Darts Championship takes over Alexandra Palace, and this year it moves out of the West Hall into the Great Hall for the first time in nineteen years. Ticket capacity goes up to roughly 180,000 across the tournament, allocated by ballot. There are 128 players, a prize fund of five million pounds and a million for the winner. Play stops from 24 to 27 December and resumes for the closing rounds.

Why The Room Change Matters

A bigger hall is not a cosmetic detail for this event. Ally Pally sells its atmosphere as much as its darts, and the West Hall had a hard ceiling on how many people could be in it. Moving across the building changes the sightlines, the sound and the number of tickets that exist at all. Luke Littler arrives as defending champion for the second year running and as world number one since 29 October.

Where To Watch

In the United Kingdom the tournament is on Sky Sports, which has held the PDC contract for years and runs every session. Operators that carry darts in-play usually show the board through their own player rather than a licensed broadcast feed, and the table at the foot of this page marks which of them stream at all in your country. One practical note for the holiday period: the three-day break means no session on Christmas Day or Boxing Day, so the schedule has a hole exactly where football fills in.

Boxing Day Returns To Seven Matches

Last season the Premier League ran a single fixture on 26 December and the reaction was loud. This year there are seven. Aston Villa host Leeds at 12:30 on TNT, four matches kick off at 15:00, Hull play Liverpool at 17:30 and Newcastle meet Manchester City at 20:00, both on Sky. Three more follow on 27 December, three on 29 December and seven on 30 December. For anyone planning a viewing day rather than a single match, that is the densest stretch of the English calendar.

England also close their Nations League group away to Spain on 15 November, three days after hosting Croatia.

Two Names In The News This Week

Michael Carrick and Mauricio Pochettino. Manchester United dismissed Carrick on 12 November after a draw with Aston Villa left the club in the relegation zone ten games into the season, their worst Premier League start. The club moved immediately for Pochettino, who is under contract with the United States Soccer Federation before the release clause worth ten million dollars is triggered. He is expected to take the United States through their remaining fixtures against Haiti and could take his first training session in Manchester on 18 or 19 November.

Fallon Sherrock and Luke Littler. Netflix staged a live event built around beating the world champion, hosted by Gary Lineker, and Sherrock did it. The 32-year-old from Milton Keynes won the bull to throw first and checked out in fifteen darts to take a prize of £501,000. Littler had gone through fourteen previous contestants in races to 501 and later admitted he had assumed the field would be pub players rather than Sherrock and junior internationals Mitchell Lawrie and Zach Griffiths.

What To Expect

The two December stories pull in opposite directions. Darts runs for three weeks and rewards following a bracket; Boxing Day is one dense afternoon and rewards nothing except being free at the right time. If you only follow one, the darts gives more hours of sport for less planning. The United story will run underneath both of them, because a new manager arriving in late November means his first full month in charge is December.