Littler to face O'Connor in European Championship Darts opener

Luke Littler will face William O'Connor in his European Championship Darts opener, while Gian van Veen will start his title defence against Andrew Gilding on Thursday in Dortmund.

World champion Littler, who won two of the three European Tour events he played in this year, will seek to arrest a poor run of form which has seen him lose in the quarter-finals of the World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam, in the first round at the World Grand Prix and the semi-finals of the World Youth Championship.

Littler had been hoping to add the World Series of Darts, World Grand Prix, European Championship, Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship Finals trophies to complete a historic clean sweep of the year. But his bid was derailed by Jonny Clayton in the Netherlands.

Dutch No 1 Van Veen - who set a new record average on the European Tour this weekend - has fond memories of Dortmund as he secured his maiden Premier title 12 months ago before his run to the World Championship final in January.

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The 24-year-old has enjoyed a successful year on the European Tour, making the final of the season opener in Poland as well as three consecutive semi-final runs in the last three events.

Following the conclusion of the Dutch Darts Championship on Sunday, which saw Niels Zonneveld secure his first-ever European Tour title, the 32-player field for the European Championship was confirmed, with seedings based on the one-year European Tour rankings.

That victory means Zonneveld will now start his hunt for a Premier title as fourth seed and will take on Cameron Menzies.

World No 2 and last year's runner-up Luke Humphries kicks off his campaign as the 12th seed and will face Ryan Searle.

Ross Smith - a winner of two European Tour titles this year - enters as the top seed and will take on Karel Sedlacek.

Wessel Nijman will compete as second seed after also boasting two titles on the circuit this year and he will meet Germany's Martin Schindler.

Other notable ties include 2019 runner-up Gerwyn Price vs two-time champion Rob Cross, Kevin Doets against four-time champion Michael van Gerwen and 2018 winner James Wade against Damon Heta.

The action gets under way at Dortmund's Westfalenhallen on Thursday, with a top prize of £150,000 up for grabs on Sunday October 25.

2026 European Championship Draw Bracket

(1) Ross Smith v (32) Karel Sedlacek
(16) James Wade v (17) Damon Heta
(8) Gian van Veen v (25) Andrew Gilding
(9) Luke Woodhouse v (24) Dirk van Duijvenbode
(4) Niels Zonneveld v (29) Cameron Menzies
(13) Gerwyn Price v (20) Rob Cross
(5) Danny Noppert v (28) Stephen Bunting
(12) Luke Humphries v (21) Ryan Searle
(2) Wessel Nijman v (31) Martin Schindler
(15) Ryan Joyce v (18) Jermaine Wattimena
(7) Jonny Clayton v (26) Niko Springer
(10) Josh Rock v (23) Chris Dobey
(3) Krzysztof Ratajski v (30) Dave Chisnall
(14) Kevin Doets v (19) Michael van Gerwen
(6) Nathan Aspinall v (27) Cristo Reyes
(11) Luke Littler v (22) William O'Connor

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