Luke Littler will begin his World Darts Championship defence against Darius Labanauskas, with Beau Greaves facing Daryl Gurney and Fallon Sherrock taking on Dave Chisnall in the first round at Alexandra Palace.
World No 1 Littler is the player to beat when the annual festival of darts returns to Ally Pally from December 11 to January 3, live on SportNews Darts.
Lithuania's Labanauskas will be the first to try and derail Littler's defence - something no player has achieved in a decade.
"Defending is different," Littler told SportNews. "I have won the last few majors and now the big one is around the corner.
"Gary Anderson was the last person to go back-to-back and that was 10 years ago. I'll try to go back-to-back. Only three people have ever done it, the last time was 10 years ago. So I want to go back-to-back.
"I am very happy with the draw, he's not the quickest player in the world, but it's all about getting past the first round. It won't be easy, but I just have to try and get past the first round.
"If there is nerves I will know how to cope, I didn't have a clue last year, but this year I know what to expect."
Gerwyn Price is a likely opponent in the quarter-final with world number four Stephen Bunting the highest-ranked player Littler could face in the semi-finals.
Luke Humphries, who would move back to the top of the rankings with victory at Ally Pally, has vowed to get his hands on the Sid Waddell Trophy again.
He begins his campaign against Ted Evetts, while three-time winner Michael van Gerwen has been drawn against Mitsuhiko Tatsunami.
"The last two years I've been world No 1 and now I'm world No 2," said Humphries. "It's up to me to find the hunger to want to challenge him - take that number one spot back.
"I knew if I didn't win the Worlds this year I wouldn't be world No 1 anyway so I knew that was going to be the case. Not really much has changed. If I win the Worlds I could still become world No 1 again but if I don't I'm going to have to fight hard and work harder. It will make me a better player but it's a new chapter in my career.
"I'm going to work hard to get it back. I'm not going to let him keep it forever."
One of the standout ties of the first round sees three-time women's world champion Greaves take on World Cup winner Gurney.
Greaves gave Van Gerwen and Anderson a run for their money in the recent Grand Slam of Darts and will provide a test for the Northern Irishman.
Former world champion Michael Smith will take on Lisa Ashton while 'Queen of the Palace' Fallon Sherrock faces Dave Chisnall.
Only Phil Taylor, Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson have ever defended their title at Ally Pally, with the Scot winning in 2015 and 2016.
A bumper £5m prize pot is on offer at Alexandra Palace, with £1m going to the winner - the biggest payday in darts history. Yet Littler insists his focus is firmly on making history, not money.
"People were saying after the Premier League defeat [to Luke Humphries] was I going to go under the radar and start losing things," Littler added. "I won the World Matchplay and the last three majors now. I've not had a bad patch!
"It's just about going back-to-back and then think about the money afterwards. I've still got to tick off the World Masters in Milton Keynes and the European Championship."
Top half
Luke Littler (1) vs Darius Labanauskas
Mario Vandenbogaerde vs David Davies
Joe Cullen (32) vs Bradley Brooks
Mensur Suljovic vs David Cameron
Damon Heta (16) vs Steve Lennon
Raymond van Berneveld vs Stefan Bellmont
Rob Cross (17) vs Cor Dekker
Ian White vs Mervyn King
Chris Dobey (8) vs Xiaochen Zong
Andrew Gilding vs Cam Crabtree
Luke Woodhouse (25) vs Boris Krcmar
Martin Lukeman vs Max Hopp
Gerwyn Price (9) vs Adam Gawlas
Lukas Wenig vs Wesley Plaisier
Ryan Joyce (24) vs Owen Bates
Krzysztof Ratajski vs Alexis Toylo
Stephen Bunting (4) vs Sebastian Bialecki
Richard Veenstra vs Nitin Kumar
Dirk van Duijvenbode (29) vs Andy Baetens
James Hurrell vs Stowe Buntz
Martin Schindler (13) vs Stephen Burton
Keane Barry vs Tim Pusey
Ryan Searle (20) vs Chris Landman
Brendan Dolan vs Travis Dudeney
Jonny Clayton (5) vs Adam Lipscombe
Dom Taylor vs Oskar Lukasiak
Michael Smith (28) vs Lisa Ashton
Niels Zonneveld vs Haupai Puha
Ross Smith (12) vs Andreas Harrysson
Thibault Tricole vs Motomu Sakai
Dave Chisnall (21) vs Fallon Sherrock
Ricardo Pietreczko vs Jose De Sousa
Bottom half
Luke Humphries (2) vs Ted Evetts
Jeffrey de Graaf vs Paul Lim
Wessel Nijman (31) vs Karel Sedlacek
Gabriel Clemens vs Alex Spellman
Nathan Aspinall (15) vs Lourence Ilagan
Mickey Mansell vs Leonard Gates
Mike De Decker (18) vs David Munyua
Kevin Doets vs Matthew Dennant
James Wade (7) vs Ryusei Azemoto
Rickey Evans vs Man Lok Leung
Cameron Menzies (26) vs Charlie Manby
Matt Campbell vs Adam Sevada
Gian van Veen (10) vs Cristo Reyes
Alan Soutar vs Teemu Harju
Dimitri Van den Bergh (23) vs Darren Beveridge
Madars Razma vs Jamai van den Herik
Michael van Gerwen (3) vs Mitsuhiko Tatsunami
William O'Connor vs Krzysztof Kciuk
Peter Wright (30) vs Noa-Lynn van Leuven
Kim Huybrechts vs Arno Merk
Gary Anderson (14) vs Adam Hunt
Connor Scutt vs Simon Whitlock
Jermaine Wattimena (19) vs Dominik Gruellich
Scott Williams vs Paolo Nebrida
Danny Noppert (6) vs Jurjen van der Velde
Nick Kenny vs Justin Hood
Ritchie Edhouse (27) vs Jonny Tata
Ryan Meikle vs Jesus Salate
Josh Rock (11) vs Gemma Hayter
Niko Springer vs Joe Comito
Daryl Gurney (22) vs Beau Greaves
Callan Rydz vs Patrik Kovacs
An expanded 2026 tournament begins at Alexandra Palace on Thursday December 11 with four first-round matches on the opening evening.
It kick-starts 13 consecutive days of darts action, with afternoon and evening sessions taking place everyday until December 23 before the competition pauses over Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
The tournament resumes on December 27, with the third and fourth rounds completed by December 30 before another pause on New Year's Eve.
The quarter-finals are scheduled across two sessions on New Year's Day ahead of the semi-finals on January 2 and the final on Friday January 3.
The full day-by-day schedule for this year's tournament can be found .
Who will win the Paddy Power World Darts Championship? Watch every match exclusively live from December 11 to January 3 on SportNews' dedicated darts channel (Sky channel 407 from December 10). .
