2025 PDC WC Friday Afternoon Preview

The darts is back and so is James Punt, who finished off with a winner before the Xmas break. Fingers crossed for more of the same today. Check out his 2025 PDC WC Friday Afternoon preview and tips below.

The Tournament Starts Now

The tournament proper starts now is a common saying when talking about the World Championship. The shorter format matches are finished and we are now into the best of seven set matches. The field has been reduced to 32 players and the wheat has been sorted from the chaff, but there were some big names, and some surprises amongst the chaff.

No less than fourteen of the thirty two seeded players are out (a record), including the much fancied Gary Anderson, Rob Cross, Danny Noppert, Mike de Decker and Gian van Veen. Others, such as Dave Chisnall and Michael Smith, were not really surprises.

On the flip side, we have a few players who looked like stick on early departures who are still with us. Brendan Dolan is still in, Ricky Evans, Ian White and Paolo Nebrida to name but four. Of course, the other real shock is that Joe Cullen is still not the bookmakers favourite to win the title. Outrageous.

In Profit

For our betting previews, the news has largely been OK. A +6.25 point tally after the first nine days of play. We have twelve more sessions of play before the World Champion is crowned on January 3rd.

There has not been a lot of top quality matches, or high scores. Yes, there was a nine darter from Christian Kist, and a few near misses, but just three ton plus averages. That compares to six last year, so it’s not massively different.

Opening match nerves plays a big part in the low scores, so I expect we will see an uptick in the scoring from here on in. The only player to hit a ton plus average this year and last? Luke Littler.

Damon Heta vs. Luke Woodhouse

Heta continues to play well and play consistently. He has won seven of his last ten matches and averaged 97+ in eight of them. Damo finally got past the third round stage for the first time here last year, beating Berry van Peer 4-3. He cannot be called a tournament specialist, but he is heading in the right direction.

Luke Woodhouse has won six of his last ten matches and hasn’t been playing at the same level as Heta. He lost 0-6 to the Aussie in PC30 at the end of October. This will be Woodhouse’s sixth visit to Ally Pally and he is yet to get beyond the third round. He is knocking on the door of the top 32, but even a win here will not be enough, he will need to make the quarter finals to do that.

Their H2H record is 7-3 to Damion Heta and in 2024, 2-0. They met in the second round here in the 2022 championship and Heta won that 3-1, and that is their only match on TV.

Their recent matches have tended to provide a lot of 180s. Their last five matches have yielded thirty five maximums from forty one legs.

Damon Heta is the 1.33 favourite which is fair enough given his recent form. I will have a play in 180s market and hope we get a fairly competitive match, with maybe six sets.

2025 PDC WC Friday Afternoon Tip: 1 point over 12.5 180s @ 1.85 with Fitzdares

Jonny Clayton vs. Daryl Gurney

Clayton is up to 6th in the world rankings, which really does seem quite mad. He isn’t playing quite like what a top 6 player should be, but there are quite a few players in the top sixteen who are not exactly running hot.

Clayton wins his fair share of matches, but he hasn’t been having many great runs in the Majors. His recent form sees seven wins from his last ten matches. He struggled to beat Mickey Mansell in the second round. Mansell played well enough and Clayton did struggle with the pace of play, but a win is a win.

Daryl Gurney was more convincing when beating Florian Hempel 3-2 in his opening match. Hempel was not easy to beat, but Superchin upped his game in the final set and it was a good performance with a 98.31 average. He has won six of his last ten matches, but it is the rounds after the opening round where he needs to show better form. Gurney has played eight third round matches at Ally Pally and won three, Clayton has played five and won three.

Their H2H record is 5-2 to Daryl Gurney, but they have managed to avoid each other on TV. They have been short format matches, but only one saw them separated by more than two legs. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this being another close match.

Clayton is the 1.80 favourite with Gurney 2.10 and it is a hard call. I will go for over 5.5 sets for a bigger stake.

2025 PDC WC Friday Afternoon Tip: 2 point over 4.5 sets @ 1.67 with Betvictor

Stephen Bunting vs. Madars Razma

The heavy-scoring Bunting faces the resilient Razma. It is a clash of styles, with the quicker pace of Bunting being upset by the deliberate style of Razma. It might not be ideal for Bunting, but he is 5-1 vs. Razma.

Bunting has won six of his last ten matches and his third round record is very good, five wins from six played. Razma has only made the third round once, that was last year, and he lost that 1-4 to Michael Smith.

Bunting is better in just about every metric of the game. There is a significant scoring gap of around 5.5 points, and more like 8 in the first nine darts stats. They have only ever played the short, best of eleven leg format, and one best of nine, and most have been relatively close.

I would expect Razma to get a set, maybe two, on the board. Bunting has been hitting the 180s at a rate of 0.32 per leg compared to just 0.13 for Razma in 2024. Unless Razma can start to pepper the treble 19, the scoring pressure on him could become unbearable.

Bunting is the 1.25 favourite, Razma 4.35.

There is little in the way of value in the traditional markets. I was tempted by the 1.75 for Razma +2.5 sets, but it would have needed to be around 2.00 to make that backable. The correct scores get that bit harder to call in the longer format, but I will have a small wager on a 4-1 win for Bunting.

2025 PDC WC Friday Afternoon Tip: 0.5 point Stephen Bunting to win 4-1 @ 4.00 with Betfred

-JamesPunt