World Darts Championship 2025: Why James Wade could reluctantly win the title at Alexandra Palace

If you speak to James Wade about heading to Alexandra Palace, he initially strikes as someone who could think of a million better ways to spend his December.

Indeed, the World Darts Championship has a gruelling schedule that requires the top players, in particular, to give up the majority of their Christmas to focus on winning the ultimate title from around December 15 until January 3 each year.

Of his 20 appearances at Ally Pally, Wade has made it past the Christmas break on 13 occasions, including four semi-finals (2009, 2012, 2013, 2022), meaning the world No 16 has spent 13 Christmas days knowing he will be heading back to London soon after.

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With young children at home and a new-found love for Christmas, Wade is undertaking a new balancing act of enjoying the time with his family while also doing his job at a time when he, frankly, does not want to do it.

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"I enjoy it - ish. It's just Christmas though, isn't it? Yeah. I don't want to be playing darts at Christmas," said Wade, who faces a tough opener against Jermaine Wattimena in the second round on Monday afternoon, live on Sky.

"I want to be at home. Yeah, it kind of ruins Christmas. You're robbed of Christmas.

"I've got young children now so I actually do like Christmas. I genuinely do like it. I love seeing their little faces and their little eyes light up.

"But yeah, it's a kind of ****** time to have it, isn't it? But it's obvious why we have it because Christmas is a great time to capture an audience.

"It's a great business model and it's a great idea, and it works really well, but it's not so great for people that have to work around it."

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Over the years, Wade has been known for some epic moments on the big stage and has shown his class at the Worlds consistently over his 20 years at the top.

However, he has also had some moments he would rather forget when he has been firmly in control of a match and ended up losing.

Most memorably, this occurred against Adrian Lewis in the 2012 Worlds, when the eventual world champion rallied from 5-1 down to beat Wade, who remarkably did not win another leg after missing D18 to go 6-2 up.

Wade has since opened up about his diagnoses of bipolar and ADHD in Sky's Game of Throws: Inside Darts documentary, explaining that learning about both has helped make sense of some of those pivotal moments over the years.

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"I have good weeks and bad weeks. So I just change like that," he added.

"It's never been my ability or down to my throw. There was one time when my throw went a bit wayward, but it's always down to how I feel and what space I'm in.

"It's how I am, not the surroundings.

"If I'm in the wrong place, I'll interpret everything as a negative, everything I don't want to do, everything that's against me.

"It is a problem. It takes mind. And my mind... I don't know how many times a year I get it where I have the best part of three weeks with a clear mind without having a little wobble or a meltdown.

"I don't know. I probably can do it. Probably have done it but not very often.

"I'll have some bad days in there somewhere. That's me."

If, buts and maybes

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If you have reached the semi-finals of the World Championship on four separate occasions, it is fair to say you may look back on some of those moments and think, 'what if?'.

From Wade's perspective, he remember the dramatic loss to Lewis as "an easy game to win".

On that particular occasion there were complaints of a breeze on stage, with the players going off while Wade was 2-0 up.

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In 2022, Wade admits he simply could not bring himself to care when facing Michael Smith. He did care after he lost though.

"Adrian Lewis, when he complained about the wind and I did the gentlemanly thing and walked off," Wade said.

"That was an easy game to win. It's the only time Adrian's ever beat me on telly as well. That was definitely an easy world title. I would have bashed [Andy] Hamilton in the final, I'm sure.

"Against Michael Smith, I just went into that and I didn't care.

"When I'm like that, I can't change it. I just didn't care. But then I cared afterwards when I'd lost."

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'I might not be the best world champion'

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Despite Wade's qualms with the biggest tournament in darts, if you ask him whether winning the whole thing would make for the negatives, it is an automatic and emphatic, 'yes'.

While most world champions see winning the biggest prize on the planet as a moment to kick on from, Wade views it more through the lens of him putting a neat bow on his achievements - and that it could be a catalyst from which he would retire.

"Yeah, of course it would. Probably be a bad thing if I did win it, I think," Wade added.

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"Because I think I'd jack it in. I don't know why I'm still playing. Well, I know why I'm still playing because I want more money, but I might not be the best world champion if I was to be a world champion.

"I wouldn't be in a rush to attend everything and do everything.

"But I'm a little bit of a freak of nature with darts anyway because of how long I've been doing it for.

"It's only because I wasn't very well a couple of years ago where I did slip outside the top 10. But I think I'm a little bit different in that way anyway. I don't think anything really phases or affects me too much, apart from myself.

"I think I'm so conscious about myself that I put everything secondary, you know? Just try and make sure I behave and make sure I'm in a good place. It's exhausting at times."

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Despite retirement talk, Wade knows - if he were a world champion - certain obligations would come his way, such as the Premier League and World Series.

Although invitational, these events he knows are the types at which fans should "get to see the world champion".

"They're all invitational, aren't they? World Series is invitational, Premier League's invitational, so you choose, don't you? You choose what's right for you at the time.

"You know, I think as world champion, you're obliged, aren't you?

"I don't know how I'd do it, but the fans and the people should get to see the world champion."

When will the World Darts Championship take place?

The tournament gets under way at Alexandra Palace on Sunday December 15, with three first-round matches and one second-round match on the opening evening.

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There will be live darts over each of the following eight days, including seven afternoon sessions, with the usual three-day break from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day before returning with the third round and a double session on December 27.

The third and fourth rounds will be completed by December 30 before a night off on New Year's Eve, with the quarter-finals held 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 here.

Who will win the Paddy Power World Darts Championship? Watch every match exclusively live from December 15-January 3 on Sky Sports' dedicated darts channel. Stream darts and more top sport with NOW.