What is the UK Open?

The 2026 UK Open, also known as the 'FA Cup of Darts', takes place this weekend in Minehead, Somerset.

Lasting three days from Friday, 6 to Sunday, 8 March, the tournament consists of 160 players competing for the trophy and for winner's prize of £120,000.

World number one Luke Littler is the defending champion, following a comprehensive 11-2 victory over James Wade in the 2025 final at Butlin's.

But with the tournament priding itself on being an open draw, there have been nine different winners in the past nine editions.

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The FA Cup is English football's open club competition where amateur and semi-professional teams also have the chance to qualify and compete against the nation's top flight.

Teams in higher divisions get the luxury of entering the competition in later rounds, where it remains an open draw, meaning that they can theoretically be drawn against any other team.

Most darts tournaments are strictly based on seeding, meaning the top-ranked players are virtually guaranteed to not face each other until the very late stages of the competition.

However, in the UK Open players enter the competition based on their PDC Order of Merit ranking, with preferential treatment given to the world's top 96 players.

Once they do enter, it is a completely open draw, meaning anyone can face anyone -and higher-ranked match-ups happen much earlier than they do in other competitions.

The UK Open consists of 160 players, with coming from the top-ranked on the PDC Order of Merit.

The remaining 32 spots consist of eight players from the PDC Development Tour, eight players from the PDC Challenge Tour and 16 amateur qualifiers.

Among this year's amateur qualifiers is 16-year-old Kyle Gilding, the youngest player at this year's tournament. Luke Littler also featured as a 16-year-old in 2023.

The 32 qualifiers plus the players seeded 97 and 128 in the Order of Merit enter in round one.

Seeds 65 to 96 enter in round two and players ranked between 33rd and 64th will enter in the third round.

The players in the world's top 32 enter in round four, but the open-draw format could lead to some big names suffering early exits.

Matches are played in leg format at the UK Open.

There is a total prize pot of £750,000 on offer at the 2026 UK Open.

Phil Taylor is the most decorated player in UK Open history with five titles.

Michael van Gerwen, Wade and Raymond van Barneveld are the only other players to have more than one UK Open title to their name.

This article is the latest from BBC Sport's Ask Me Anything team.