PDC World Championship 2024: Luke Humphries & Michael van Gerwen among favourites

The 31st Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) World Championship gets under way on Friday, with the 2024 champion to be crowned on Wednesday, 3 January.

A field of 96 players, including six former winners and the reigning champion Michael Smith, have gathered in London to compete for a first prize of £500,000.

Here are some of the stories to look out for at Alexandra Palace.

Luke Humphries may be third in the PDC order of merit, but he is many people's tip to win the world title.

Crewe-based Humphries has won three of the past four major televised events - the World Grand Prix in October, followed in November by the Grand Slam and the Players Championship Finals.

Rob Cross, world champion in 2018, believes fellow Englishman Humphries is the player to beat.

"Luke is very wise and is definitely up there with the best in the world," said Cross.

"He will take everything in his stride, he is a great guy. He is calm and collected, I can't see him going in there and panicking. He is playing too well. Whoever is going to beat him will have to play well."

Humphries beat Peter Wright en route to clinching the World Grand Prix in Leicester and while Wright agrees that Humphries is favourite to win, he believes this event might come "a little bit too soon" for the 28-year-old.

Two-time world champion Wright, 53, said: "He [Humphries] is favourite because he has won three out of the last four majors, and I won the other one [the European Championship].

"I was the only other person to get close to him. It's my fault, I created a monster because I had three darts at the Grand Prix to beat him and that was his first major. If I'd done that, things would have been different.

"He's a great darts player but I think it is a little bit too soon. Yes, I think he will win the Worlds but just not yet."

Humphries' run of form in the final months of 2023 is hugely reminiscent of Smith's path to world glory a year ago.

Smith, 33, had previously been the sport's nearly man, losing in several major finals before ending his trophy drought on the eve of the World Championship and then lifting the sport's biggest prize in January.

His 12 months as world champion has not yielded as many tournament victories as he may have hoped, but he will enter as world number one and will be in second-round action against Kevin Doets or Stowe Buntz in Friday's opening session (19:00 GMT).

Smith said: "I don't want to be the former [champion]. Eventually it will happen, but I'm not ready for it to end yet. I want to be announced next year as the reigning back-to-back champion, that is what I am striving for.

"I know I can do it, I have to work on my game to find it. I have done it countless times before, it is one more big push now to end the year on a big high."

Smith beat Michael van Gerwen in a classic final to win the 2023 title.

It was the third time 34-year-old Dutch thrower Van Gerwen has been runner-up, and he will again go in search of his fourth world crown.

Van Gerwen, who has appeared in six of the past 11 PDC finals, said: "I am one of the favourites, everyone still wants to beat me, but there will be pressure on everybody.

"The Worlds is a different kind of pressure. We are talking about the big tournament now. It is the biggest one so it adds extra pressure, you can't compare the Worlds to any other. It would mean the world to me."

Fallon Sherrock earned the tag of 'Queen of the Palace' when she made history as the first female player to win a match at the PDC World Championship in December 2019.

She will compete at Alexandra Palace a few weeks after meeting actual royalty.

Sherrock was made an MBE for services to her sport in June and collected her award from the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle in November.

The 29-year-old told BBC Radio London: "I was so nervous, I'm used to being on stage and playing in front of everyone, but receiving an MBE from Prince William was the most nerve-racking thing I've done in my life."

Sherrock will play Jermaine Wattimena of the Netherlands in the first round on Sunday while Mikuru Suzuki of Japan, the second qualifier from the PDC Women's Series, will take on Germany's Ricardo Pietreczko.

Darts fans will say goodbye to a familiar face - and voice - when Russ Bray takes charge of his final televised ranking matches at the World Championship.

Bray, best known for his distinctive, raspy call of "180", joined the PDC as a referee in 1996 and will begin a new role as a PDC ambassador, external after the tournament.

He told BBC Essex: "I've had a fantastic 27 years. I've always worked, I've always done something, and for me to get in the job I've got into for those years is a dream come true.

"When you're a kid you want to be a professional footballer; when they get to that point it's utopia. That's what it's been for me with this. To have made the very best out of it that I could possibly do is fantastic.

"You look at the kids these days and a lot of the youngsters that are in there weren't born when I started. It's scary, isn't it!"

In the UK, Sky Sports will televise every match, while live radio commentary can be heard on Talksport and Talksport 2.

You can read daily reports on the BBC Sport website and app, and follow live text commentary of the final on 3 January.