Michael van Gerwen will begin the defence of his William Hill World Darts Championship title against Jelle Klaasen or Kevin Burness.

The draw was made on Monday for the 2019/2020 William Hill World Darts Championship, which will see 96 of the world’s best players competing from December 13 – January 1 for the Sid Waddell Trophy and £2.5 million in prize money.

Three-time World Champion Van Gerwen heads up the top 32 players from the PDC Order of Merit, who are seeded and will enter at the second round stage.

The first round will feature 32 qualifiers from the ProTour Order of Merit, based on prize money won across 43 non-televised events in 2019, and 32 international qualifiers.

Reigning champion Van Gerwen will begin his bid to retain the title for the first time against either fellow Dutchman Klaasen or Burness, who qualified for the event through the last-chance PDPA Qualifier earlier on Monday.

Departing five-time World Champion Raymond van Barneveld will bid an emotional farewell at his final event before retirement and he will meet American veteran Darin Young in his opening assignment.

The winner of that tie will play rising Dutch star Jeffrey de Zwaan, a protégé of Van Barneveld in his early career.

Two-time World Champion Gary Anderson will take on Northern Irishman Brendan Dolan or Indian Qualifier Nitin Kumar, while Spain’s Cristo Reyes and Lourence Ilagan of the Philippines will face-off for the right to play two-time winner Adrian Lewis.

Rob Cross, who sensationally won the event on his Alexandra Palace debut two years ago, is set to face either Belgium’s Kim Huybrechts or Dutch youngster Geert Nentjes.

Three-time Lakeside Champion Glen Durrant will face a difficult PDC World Championship debut against either Portuguese number one Jose De Sousa or Brisbane Darts Masters winner Damon Heta, while back-to-back Grand Slam of Darts champion Gerwyn Price will come up against William O’Connor or Marko Kantele.

Japan’s Mikuru Suzuki and England’s Fallon Sherrock are the two women to qualify for this year’s event and they will face James Richardson and Ted Evetts respectively in round one.

2019/2020 William Hill World Darts Championship
Draw Bracket – Seeded Players Enter In Second Round

(1) Michael van Gerwen v Jelle Klaasen/Kevin Burness
(32) Ricky Evans v Mark McGeeney/Matt Campbell
(16) Jonny Clayton v Ryan Joyce/Jan Dekker
(17) Stephen Bunting v Arron Monk/Jose Justicia
(8) James Wade v Ritchie Edhouse/Boris Koltsov
(25) Steve Beaton v Kyle Anderson/Xiaochen Zong
(9) Ian White v Darius Labanauskas/Matthew Edgar
(24) Max Hopp v Gabriel Clemens/Benito van de Pas
(5) Gary Anderson v Brendan Dolan/Nitin Kumar
(28) Steve West v Ryan Searle/Robbie King
(12) Nathan Aspinall v Andy Boulton/Danny Baggish
(21) Krzysztof Ratajski v Jamie Hughes/Zoran Lerchbacher
(4) Michael Smith v Luke Woodhouse/Paul Lim
(29) Dimitri Van den Bergh v Josh Payne/Diogo Portela
(13) Adrian Lewis v Cristo Reyes/Lourence Ilagan
(20) Darren Webster v Ryan Meikle/Yuki Yamada
(2) Rob Cross v Kim Huybrechts/Geert Nentjes
(31) Danny Noppert v Steve Lennon/Callan Rydz
(15) Joe Cullen v James Wilson/Nico Kurz
(18) Jermaine Wattimena v Luke Humphries/Devon Petersen
(7) Peter Wright v Rowby-John Rodriguez/Noel Malicdem
(26) Keegan Brown v Mickey Mansell/Seigo Asada
(10) Dave Chisnall v Vincent van der Voort/Keane Barry
(23) Jeffrey de Zwaan v Raymond van Barneveld/Darin Young
(6) Daryl Gurney v Justin Pipe/Benjamin Pratnemer
(27) Glen Durrant v Jose De Sousa/Damon Heta
(11) Mensur Suljovic v Ted Evetts/Fallon Sherrock
(22) Chris Dobey v Ron Meulenkamp/Ben Robb
(3) Gerwyn Price v William O’Connor/Marko Kantele
(30) John Henderson v James Richardson/Mikuru Suzuki
(14) Simon Whitlock v Harry Ward/Madars Razma
(19) Mervyn King v Ross Smith/Ciaran Teehan