Gary Anderson has been motivated for the World Darts Championship at the best of times, but even more so when he hears people doubting whether he will ever win another world title.
Anderson is a two-time world champion, winning back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2016.
This makes him the last man to win back-to-back world titles a decade ago, and this time Luke Littler is chasing a piece of history.
Anderson has not reached a final since 2021, when he lost to Gerwin Price, but the ‘Flying Scot’ believes he has won a third World Darts Championship.
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See how Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson, Luke Humphries and Luke Littler joined the Triple Crown club by winning the World Championship, World Match Play and Premier League.
Despite not being able to devote much time to darts, the 54-year-old has still found stellar form, winning the ProTour and European Tour in 2025, and his sights are now firmly set on Ally Pally.
There are many motivating factors that keep Anderson playing darts, but as he chases a third glittering world title to join Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen as three-time champions, he is happy for people to doubt him because it only spurs him on.
“Oh, I guess so. Especially since I haven’t offended that many people.” Anderson said.
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Highlights of Stephen Bunting’s performance against Gary Anderson at World Match Play.
“I mean, £1 million, it’s fantastic, you never would have thought it would happen and Barry (Hearn) is good at what he does.
“He loves darts so he pushed and pushed and pushed and it’s good because it’s probably the biggest game on the planet now.”
“But yeah, it would be nice to win one more time.
“Normally I’m very happy. A few weeks ago I was very happy to go. You know what? I did all that work.
“Then people started saying, ‘Oh, he’s done, he’s this, he’ll never do it,’ and that got me excited again and I couldn’t stop playing. I just kept going.
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Find out why the 2018 Grand Slam of Darts final, which saw Gerwyn Price and Gary Anderson battle it out for the title, is considered one of the most controversial matches of all time.
“If everyone was nice and said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ I’d probably just walk away and stop playing.
“But someone always says, ‘That guy is in the past,’ and I say no.
“I haven’t put in as much time, but I still get to play with the best players as I have been playing darts.
“I know I’m good where my game is, so I just need to connect now, right? I just need to connect.”
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Price wastes two more match darts, bringing his total to 11. Anderson wastes three more set darts! Price returns to find D5 and secure the Sid Waddell Trophy.
Anderson, who has been involved in the game for a long time, has seen rapid changes in the sport.
He didn’t even expect to be competing for the top prize of £1m for the winner of the World Darts Championships.
“I know the story is meant to change that, but when you drive up that hill and see Ally Pally sitting on that hill, that’s what gets your juices flowing. That’s what it was,” he added.
“The whole year doesn’t really matter, it’s all about the World Championships in December.
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Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson met in the final of the 2011 World Darts Championship where ‘Jackpot’ threw a nine-darter in the opening ceremony. Is this the best dart set of all time?
“It doesn’t matter if you play bad all year, you still have those big games ahead of you, and if you can’t prepare for that, you shouldn’t be playing.
“If you go back five years and look at the salaries we were getting, we thought we wouldn’t be able to go play darts anywhere – Australia, Dubai, China, Japan.
“We’ve seen the world. We’ve done it all, the travel is a bit difficult, but we’ve seen the world while playing darts.
“So it was great to play a game I love and see parts of the world that I probably would never have seen anyway.”
Who will win the Paddy Power World Darts Championship? Watch every match live exclusively on Sky Sports’ dedicated darts channel from December 11 to January 3 (Sky Channel 407 from December 10). Stream darts and other top sports with NOW.
