PDC World Championship draw: Gary Anderson to face Mark Frost in round one

Gary Anderson beat Adrian Lewis 7-5 in January to win a second PDC world title

Scotland's Gary Anderson will begin the defence of his PDC World Championship title against qualifier Mark Frost.

Anderson beat England's Adrian Lewis in the 2016 final and is aiming to win the event for the third year in succession.

World number one Michael van Gerwen will play Ross Snook or Kim Viljanen in the first round, while 16-time world champion Phil Taylor is up against either John Bowles or David Platt.

The tournament runs from 15 December to 2 January at London's Alexandra Palace.

It is the 10th time the PDC's showpiece event will be staged at the venue, following its move from the Circus Tavern in Purfleet for the 2008 competition.

Seventy-two players will compete for a record first prize of £350,000.

Stoke's Frost was one of four players to secure their spots at the World Championship at the final qualifying event in Wigan on Monday.

Anderson, 45, could become only the third player in darts history to achieve three consecutive World Championship wins.

Eric Bristow (1984-86) did so before the sport split into two governing bodies, after which Taylor (1995-2002) and (2004-2006) twice achieved the feat in the Professional Darts Corporation version of the World Championship.

Michael van Gerwen, the winner of 25 tournaments in 2016, is the number one seed for the PDC World Championship

First-round draw (seedings in brackets)

Michael van Gerwen (1) v Ross Snook or Kim Viljanen

Cristo Reyes (32) v Dimitri van den Bergh

Stephen Bunting (16) v Darren Webster

Simon Whitlock (17) v Boris Koltsov or Dragutin Horvat

Mensur Suljovic (8) v Ron Meulenkamp

Mark Webster (25) v Joe Murnan

Robert Thornton (9) v Zoran Lerchbacher or Simon Stevenson

Daryl Gurney (24) v Jermaine Wattimena

Adrian Lewis (5) v Magnus Caris

Joe Cullen (28) v Qiang Sun or Corey Cadby

Raymond van Barneveld (12) v Robbie Green

Alan Norris (21) v John Michael

Phil Taylor (4) v John Bowles or David Platt

Jamie Caven (29) v Kevin Painter

Kim Huybrechts (13) v James Wilson

Vincent van der Voort (20) v Max Hopp

Gary Anderson (2) v Mark Frost

John Henderson (31) v Andrew Gilding

Benito van de Pas (15) v Tengku Shah or Masumi Chino

Terry Jenkins (18) v Josh Payne

Dave Chisnall (7) v Rowby-John Rodriguez

Justin Pipe (26) v Chris Dobey

Jelle Klaasen (10) v Jeffrey de Graaf

Brendan Dolan (23) v Christian Kist

James Wade (6) v Ronny Huybrechts

Steve Beaton (27) v Devon Petersen

Michael Smith (11) v Ricky Evans

Mervyn King (22) v Steve West

Peter Wright (3) v Jerry Hendriks or Warren Parry

Jamie Lewis (30) v Mick McGowan

Ian White (14) v Kevin Simm or Gilbert Ulang

Gerwyn Price (19) v Jonny Clayton

Format

Preliminary round - best of three sets

First round - best of five sets

Second and third rounds - best of seven sets

Quarter-finals - best of nine sets

Semi-finals - best of 11 sets

Final - best of 13 sets

All sets are the best of five legs.