2025 Bahrain Masters Thursday Tip

In our first darts preview of the year James Punt will try to land a tasty 2025 Bahrain Masters Thursday double. We finished the World Championship on a high, hopefully we can start off this season in the same vein. Find out who he is backing below.

2025 Bahrain Masters Thursday

A very quick look at two matches for today’s Bahrain Darts Masters. I do not cover the World Series events as a rule, but there is not a lot to do on a January afternoon!

This is the third Bahrain Darts Masters, and it is fair to say it is the least prestigious ‘tournament’ on the PDC calendar. These are all exhibition events, but there is £1250 for the first round losers and £20,000 for the winner.

This was the scene of Luke Littler’s first senior PDC title, which will surely be its only claim to fame, and he is the defending champion, having beaten MVG in last year’s final. MVG is not here this week. He is wisely taking a longer break before returning for the Dutch Darts Masters next weekend.

The format sees eight PDC pros and eight invites. For this event, it is the Asian Tour players who get six places, and two local Bahraini players, you know, to get the crowds in.

Non-Existent Atmosphere

The atmosphere is non-existent but the PDC pros get to have a paid holiday, maybe a chance to drive some fast cars at the adjacent Shakir Formula 1 track or play some golf in the warm weather. The Asian Tour players take it a bit more seriously. Thay have a chance to beat a ‘big name’ player and maybe make a few quid. It is of course, non-ranking prizemoney.

The Asian Tour players will be up for it and I expect some of them to put up a fight, and maybe win a match or two. In the first Bahrain Darts Masters in 2023 All of the PDC pros won their first round matches, with only Van den Bergh requiring a deciding leg. None of the others required more than nine legs.

In 2024, again all the PDC pros won their first round matches, but three required a deciding leg, and half the matches went over nine legs.

Lack Of Bahraini Players

The one thing that has stood out is the paucity of the Bahraini players. It is hardly a surprise. The PDC pros are some of the very best in the world. The Asian players play on a competitive PDC Asian Tour. The Bahraini players don’t even have a pub league. Over the previous two years, the Bahraini representatives have manged to win one leg between them.

Today, Basem Mahmood will face Chris Dobey, and Abdulla Saeed will play world number one, Luke Humphries. Saeed also had the pleasure of playing Humphries last year and averaged 68.83 in a 0-6 defeat. In 2023 Basem Mahmood averaged a respectable 78 but lost 0-6 to a rampant Jonny Clayton.

I will be having one bet. A rare double, and my last ever tip on Twitter. It would be nice to close the chapter with a winner.

2025 Bahrain Masters Thursday Tip: 2.5 points Humphries and Dobey both to win -4.5 legs @ 3.10 with Ladbrokes

The @jamespunt twitter account will be deactivated on Sunday. I have been migrating to the growing Blue Sky Social platform and a few of you have already joined the Rebel Alliance. You can find me at @jamespunt.bsky.social. TXMarkets can also be found there at @txmarkets.bsky.social. Those that wish to remain with the Dark Side will still get the tips with TXMarkets on the s*ite formerly known as Twitter.

-JamesPunt