2025 PDC WC Saturday Night Preview

Ryan Joyce ensured we didn’t go home empty handed from this afternoon’s session. Check out James Punt’s 2025 PDC WC Saturday Night preview and tips below.

Chris Dobey vs. Josh Rock

We have backed Dobey to win the quarter and this match was always likely to be on the agenda. Dobey has won six of his last ten matches, but hasn’t been at his best, and is lacking consistency.

He beat Alexander Merkx 3-1 in his opening match. It was an OK performance, but nothing more. Three of his last five matches have seen sub 90 averages, and he needs to find his scoring boots if he is to make progress. He is struggling against the better players, and Rock is one of those.

Rock was very unimpressive in his second round match against Rhys Griffin. It was a 3-0 win, but just an 87 average and he was far from pleased with himself. Rock has won seven of his last ten matches and that lacklustre performance against Griffin was out of line with his recent form. He was on a run of twelve consecutive 90+ averages, nine of them 97+.

Pressure

Rock has been putting himself under a bit of pressure to perform in the Major events. He has had four first round exits on TV this year and he expects better of himself. That would explain his poor performance against Griffin, he was trying too hard and found nothing, but it was a win, and he has another chance today, and should be a bit more relaxed.

I would say that Dobey is in much the same boat. He hasn’t kicked on from reaching, and blowing, his quarter final match here last year. He has had three first round exits in the last three Majors. He is the fourth heaviest scorer over the last twelve months and won three Players Championship titles in 2024, but he still hasn’t won a Euro Tour title and his only TV title was at the unranked 2023 Masters.

Who Can Settle?

This match will be decided by who can settle down the quickest and play their usual game. Their H2H record is 2-2. They met on TV once, in last year’s Grand Slam, and Rock won the 2-5, but Dobey has won their last two, including a Players Championship final back in May.

Dobey is the 1.73 favourite, Rock 2.20. I find them hard to split. Both are big 180 hitters, and if they can relax and play something close to their normal game, we could have a humdinger, with the emphasis on ‘could’.

The bookies have over 15.5 180s at 2.00. Only two of the six third round matches played yesterday have passed that threshold, both went to seven sets. This looks like another match that needs at least six sets to see the 180 threshold crossed.

Their two matches this year have produced twenty two 180s from 23 legs, so they have bounced off each other. They have met on stage on the Euro Tour twice, producing twenty three maximums from nineteen legs. We might as well be a bit more ambitious than 15.5 and hope we get a long match.

2025 PDC WC Saturday Night Tip: 1 point over 17.5 180s @ 2.75 with Boylesports

Michael van Gerwen vs. Brendan Dolan

MVG is now the 1.91 favourite to win the fourth quarter. It always looked like it was between him and Anderson, but Anderson went out very tamely in round two. Van Gerwen didn’t have to do much to beat James Hurrell 3-0 in his second round match, but it was a nice nerve settler. He will be smelling blood now, but can he produce the goods?

Van Gerwen has won five of his last ten matches, which is not the form of a man likely to win this tournament. His scoring hasn’t been anything special for most of those matches. He has won twelve consecutive third round matches here and he is the 1.15 favourite to win another. His H2H record with Dolan is 22-8, so he knows he cannot take The History Maker lightly.

Dire Dolan

Brendan Dolan came into this tournament in pretty dire form, winning just three of his previous ten matches, and his whole season had been largely disappointing, winning just PC10 back in May. He blamed his form on an arm injury which he played through as he couldn’t risk taking time off for fear of dropping down the rankings, and maybe out of the top 32.

Dolan played OK against Lok Yin Lee, averaging 92 in a 3-0 win. He says the arm is feeling much better after a few weeks off, but he will need to find more if he is to bother Van Gerwen.

Dolan has won his last two matches against MVG, including a 10-7 win at last year’s Matchplay, but on TV, it is 8-2 to Van Gerwen. Dolan can pull off upsets and he beat Gerwyn Price and Gary Anderson last year, but he is hard to fancy here.

MVG has covered a -2.5 set handicap in eight of his last ten third round matches here, and five of his last six. He should do so again, even if he isn’t the big beast he once was.

2025 PDC WC Saturday Night Tip: 1 point Michael Van Gerwen to win -2.5 sets @ 1.75 with Ladbrokes

Luke Littler vs. Ian White

It probably feels like he has had a bit of a Brucey Bonus for Ian White. A bye in his first round match, followed by a 3-1 win over some bloke pretending to be Ritchie Edhouse. White averaged just 88.86 in that match and he has won just four of his last ten matches, but he did beat a certain Michael van Gerwen in the Players Championship finals and averaged 102.69 in doing so. He can still pull the rabbit out of the hat, but very rarely.

Luke Littler was strangely emotional after beating Ryan Meikle 3-1 in the second round. He has won nine of his last ten matches and hit a ton plus average in all of them. He has now hit fourteen ton plus averages in a row. He is just about unplayable.

These two have met once, back in February, when Littler still had to play in Euro Tour qualifiers, and Littler won it 6-5. White was just 27% on the doubles that day, something of a recurring problem for him.

Littler is the 1.04 favourite and White 17.00. The last mammoth outsider we had, Cameron Carolissen, took Wessel Nijman to deciding leg, so strange things can happen, but I doubt it will tonight.

Littler is just 1.91 to win 4-0, but I will happily sit this one out. No, I won’t. I’ll chuck some loose change at a nine dart leg in the match. Littler just missed out one in the second round and they are coming like London buses this year. He is as low as 5.00 to do so with Ladbrokes (who strangely offer 7.00 on either player hitting a nine darter).

2025 PDC WC Saturday Night Tip: 0.5 point Littler to hit a nine dart leg @ 15.00 with SpreadEx

-JamesPunt