GARY ANDERSON will begin the defence of his World Championship crown against Per Laursen or a PDPA qualifier next month.
The Scot beat Phil Taylor to clinch his first world title at the Alexandra Palace in January and will head to London with his sights set on a second success.
Anderson was beaten by Daryl Gurney in the second round of the Players Championship at the weekend and now has just a couple of weeks to hone his game ahead of a return to the Ally Pally oche.
The biggest tournament in darts will see 72 players take to the stage from December 17-January 3 as they battle it out for a £1.5 million top prize and the Sid Waddell Trophy.
Elsewhere in the draw, world number one Michael van Gerwen, who beat Adrian Lewis in Sunday's Players Championship final, will kick off his title challenge against Thanawat Gaweenuntawong or Rene Eidams.
Scots Peter Wright and Robert Thornton will play Keegan Brown and Alan Norris respectively while John Henderson will take on Darren Webster.
Taylor, the 16-time World Champion, will step up to the oche against Keita Ono or Alex Tagarao and Raymond van Barneveld will face Dirk van Duijvenbode.
World Championship first round draw in full:
Here's the draw for the 2016 William Hill World Darts Championship which starts 17 December #WHDarts pic.twitter.com/Mj71p6MZcz
— William Hill Betting (@WillHillBet) November 30, 2015
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