2025 Winmau World Masters Outright Preview

The 2025 Winmau World Masters is a heavily revamped version of The Masters, which was the traditional, non-ranking, season opening PDC Tournament. It used to be for the top 16 players in the world rankings, but that has been expanded to the top 24 in recent years.

The PDC decided last year that The 2025 Winmau World Masters would be expanded to 32 players and become a ranking event. It was then announced that the format was to be radically changed.

The field will involve the top 16 in the world rankings being seeded in the first round. They are joined by the next eight in the OOM and those 24 players were drawn on the 21st of January. That left eight more places to be filled for the first round.

Prelim Day

The preliminary day, which could have seen up to 156 players from around the world, reduced to 8. Those eight players were drawn into the remaining eight spaces left from the 21st of January draw.

The preliminary rounds started with thirty two groups. These groups had the players ranked 57th to 88th as the seeds. They were joined by the players ranked 89th to 128th, and the remaining players consist of the top eight players, not already qualified, on the Challenge Tour OOM, the Development Tour, the Women’s Series, the Baltic and Nordic Tour, the Asian Tour, the Australian Pro Tour, the New Zealand Pro Tour, the CDC Tour and four players from the JDC.

The winners of the thirty two groups then played the players ranked 25th to 56th in straight knock out format to arrive at the final eight players.

The Preliminary day was a blur. Up to 180 players, reduced to just eight in a day. It also meant we didn’t know the final line up until the end of the preliminary day. Which does not make writing this preview easy.

Of course, when I said ‘up to 156 players’ taking part in the preliminary rounds, I mean that some players did not take their places.

Low Early Prize Money

The prizemoney for those going out in the group stage is only £750. That was not going to cover expenses. Even those knocked out in the last 16 stage on the preliminary day only get £2500. Again, not a lot if you had travelled halfway around the world.

It seems to me that the preliminary day is a bit of a waste of time. Yes, it gives players from the secondary Tours a chance to play in a ranking Major, but their chances of even making the first round proper are very slim, and many are likely to be out of pocket after a long trip to get to the UK.

With two days to go before the preliminary rounds starts, the final entry list was confirmed, and we had forty three withdrawals. They included Beau Greaves and Raymond van Barneveld.

Only three of the Asian Tour players have entered (all Japanese), only four from the North American CDC Tour will take part, only three from the Australian Pro Tour, one from the New Zealand Pro Tour and three from the Development Tour. Three of Women’s Series qualifiers will not take part, and two of the Challenge Tour qualifiers have withdrawn. That means we were left with a field of 129 players.

Winner’s Purse Increased

Prize money for the first round proper is £5000 for the losers and the Tournament winner will now receive £100000, up from £65000 last year. The runner up gets £50000, so it is definitely worth taking seriously, which was not always the case when it was a non-ranking event for the top sixteen players on the OOM.

The format has also changed from a straight legs format to a set play tournament. Preliminary rounds are all best of three, three leg sets, so a very short format. The first round proper is best of five sets, the second round and quarter finals best of seven, the semi-finals best of nine and the final best of eleven sets.

2025 Winmau World Masters: Top 16 Seeds

It is hard to judge form at this time of the year. We have had two World Series events that gave some of the top seeds a chance to get some competitive matches in, but many players will not have played this year so far. We don’t know how much practice players have put in, but there is bound to be a lot of rust out there.

At least this year, with the prizemoney increased and the fact that this is now a ranking event, the players should have put some work in. This is now a proper Major after all. It is probably wise to ignore event form as the format is now completely different. That said, we have had six different winners of this event in the last six years.

1 Luke Humphries 

Went out of the World Championship at the fourth round stage, losing to Peter Wright. Cool Hand played in both World Series events, losing in the semi-final in Bahrain, but going out in round one in the Netherlands last weekend. He has at least got the rust off, but his 3-6 loss to Wattimena last Friday was a disappointing performance. He will face the mighty Joe Cullen in the first round.

2 Luke Littler 

The Nuke also played on both World Series events, reaching the quarter-final in Bahrain and the semi-final in the Netherlands. He lost 6-7 to Bunting in that semi but averaged 107.59 and there is not a lot wrong with his form. He may suffer a bit of the mental let down that players who win the World Championship can have. The Nuke has a potentially tricky first round match against a player with a rare winning H2H record against him, and it is not Nijman Wessel.

3 Michael van Gerwen 

Only played in the Dutch Darts Masters last weekend, losing to Littler in the quarter final. He looked rusty, but it is hard to read too much into a couple of exhibition matches. He was very good at the World Championship, and he always took this event seriously even in the non-ranking days, as it was a god warm up for the start of the Premier League.

4 Rob Cross 

Winner of the Dutch Darts Masters last Saturday night. He went to Bahrain without having thrown a dart since the World Championship, and he lost in the first round. He obviously put in a bit of work over the week in between, and he played well, beating the bang in-form Stephen Bunting 8-5 in the final, averaging 101.87. It will have been a nice little confidence booster.

5 Stephen Bunting 

Came close to winning both of the World Series titles to start his year off in style. Bunting is in top form. He has played eight matches in 2025 and won seven. He was a semi-finalist in the World Championship before that. The Bullet is playing at a high level, and doing so with a lot of consistency. Bunting is also the defending champion, albeit in a very different format. He has to be one of the leading contenders.

6 Dave Chisnall 

That this is now a ranking Major, means Chizzy gets an additional chance to finally win a Major title. He was suffering from a back injury at the end of 2024, and he lost nine of his last ten matches. I have no idea about his fitness, but Chisnall is expensive to follow in the big TV events at the best of times.

7 Jonny Clayton 

The Ferret has been on the slide for a while now. At the end of 2021, the year of the Ferret, his seasonal average was 98.41. At the end of 2024? 93.69. From elite level to just outside the top 30 in terms of three dart averages.

Clayton won here in 2021, but his form has declined since then. He still wins his fair share of matches, and won on the Pro Tour last year, but he is not the player he once was. Clayton faces Martin Schindler in the first round, with whom he has a 3-4 H2H record.

8 Damon Heta 

On the positive side, Heta wins a lot of matches. He has plenty of good runs and he banks plenty of cash. He is now ranked eighth in the world rankings. The negative side? He struggles to win titles. In 2024, Heta lost ten quarter finals across all events, lost four semi-finals, but did win one Players Championship title. That must be doing his head in. It also makes him very hard to back outright.

9 Gerwyn Price 

Thoughts about retirement have been banished, for now. Price remains one of the heaviest scorers in the game, but his doubling is becoming very average. It wasn’t long ago that if you wanted a darts player to hit double tops to save your life, it was a toss-up between Price or Searle.

In the final quarter of 2024, he was checking out at 35%, well off the top players and well down on what he used to do. It will be very frustrating to lose legs he should have tidied up and it can be a vicious circle. It puts pressure on his scoring to get him wins and it goes a long way to explain why he didn’t win a title of any kind in 2024.

Price played in both World Series events this month, reaching the final in Bahrain, losing 4-8 to Bunting. In the Netherlands last weekend, Price went down 3-7 to Cross in the semi-final. His average checkout rate across his seven matches was 42%. It is not a huge sample, but at least it was an awful lot better than what he did at the World Championship, where it was 33% across four matches.

If Price is getting to grips with his doubles, he is a contender. He looks more interested in his matches and not just going through the motions. In a recent interview he said that he had a short session with a sports psychologist recently and it gave him some pointers and he is now raring to go, even looking forward to the Premier League!

10 Chris Dobey 

An elite level player, but he doesn’t have a lot to show for it. We have a World top ten that has four players that have never won a ranking Major, and Dobey is one of them. He has won the Masters, but it has never been a ranking Tournament until this year.

He will be aware of his record and it can become an issue. Just look at Dave Chisnall. Dobey did win three Players Championship titles last year, which is a step in the right direction, but his stage record sees plenty of quarter finals and semi-finals, but the Tournament wins on stage are proving elusive.

Dobey reached the semi-final of the World Championship, dodged a few bullets before going down tamely to MVG. He played in both of the World Series event this month but only won one match, and that was against a Bahraini qualifier. Dobey plays Ryan Searle in the first round and he does have a good record against him, winning nine of their eleven matches, and their last five in a row.

11 Nathan Aspinall 

The Asp was saying late last season that 2025 was going to be a big year for him. He was back to full fitness, he could practice full time again, and he was working with specialist to help with his Dartitis.

He then went off to play the two World Series events, but was struck by Bursitis in his elbow, in his throwing arm. This causes a build-up of fluid in the elbow joint, which restricts movement. I had it myself a few years ago. It does go away in a few weeks, but it needs rest. He has been to hospital to have treatment.

This is just another injury on a long list for Aspinall. His throwing arm is knackered. It has been one thing after another and it will be a worry that Bursitis can be brought on by repetitive motions, such as throwing a lot of darts. It is not a serious problem in itself, but it is if you throw darts for a living. It is likely to come back.

Aspinall did play in both World Series events despite the problem, and he beat Zong Xiaochen 6-2 in the first round in Bahrain, then lost 5-6 to Humphries in the second round and averaged 101.90, so it can’t have been too big a problem at that stage. In the Netherlands last weekend he only managed a 91 average in a 1-6 loss to Kevin Doets.

I was watching an interview with Aspinall on Tuesday and he was completely fine. He isn’t in any pain, the elbow isn’t swollen and he isn’t worried. Hopefully that will remain the case.

12 Peter Wright 

Snakebite’s performance at the World Championship suggested that there is some life in the old dog yet. He beat the in-form Wattimena, before knocking out Luke Humphries. Wright lost the quarter final to Bunting and played more like he had been going into the event. He took MVG’s place at the Bahrain Darts Masters and reached the semi-final but he was far from impressive. It is hard to know what to expect, but he remains hard to fancy.

13 Danny Noppert 

Noppert played last weekend and lost his first round match 2-6 to Gerwyn Price. It was a display that suggested rustiness, but his form at the end of 2024 was disappointing.

He made through the group stage at the Grand Slam but then lost to Mickey Mansell. Noppert made the last sixteen at the Players Championship finals but was thrashed 3-10 by Luke Littler.

The Freeze lost his opening match at the World Championship to Ryan Joyce. He didn’t play badly, but he didn’t play well. His seasonal average dropped by 2.76 in 2024, and there is little to suggest he can have a good run this weekend. He will face Michael Smith in the first round, which will be an interesting match.

14 Gary Anderson 

Held the highest seasonal average in 2024. He won 74% of his matches, won a Euro Tour title and two Players Championships. However, Anderson will be aware that his record in the big TV events has been disappointing.

His last final was in 2021 and his last Major win was 2018. He professes to prefer playing floor events these days. He has the game, but a lack of self-belief on the big stage. Anderson faces Dimitri van den Bergh in the first round, and very possibly MVG in the second.

15 James Wade 

Wade was playing with too much inconsistency at the end of last season. There was some good stuff, but too many ordinary performances. He had plenty of good runs in 2024 but lost five quarter finals and two semi-finals. The Machine could have a decent run but is hard to fancy to make the final. He will face Mike de Decker in the first round, and De Decker has a point to prove having been passed over for the premier league.

16 Josh Rock 

Finds himself in a tough quarter of the draw. He faces Jermaine Wattimena in round one, and should he win that, he may face Luke Humphries. The other seeds in his quarter are Gerwyn Price and Damon Heta, so he faces a very tough path just to make a semi-final.

Rock was playing well at the end of 2024 but wasn’t getting a great return on that form. He will be getting a bit frustrated at his lack of progress in the Majors, with just one quarter final from eighteen played.

Rock is hard to call. He is playing well, but frustration is a limiting factor, and his draw is tough. He got married on Tuesday and will be making his debut with his new darts supplier, so his head may be in a bit of a spin.

The Best of the Rest

Michael Smith 

It will be interesting to see how Michael Smith gets on in 2025. He has fallen to seventeenth in the world rankings as he was unable to defend enough of his 2022 prize money, and of course his 2023 World Championship ranking money was wiped off after his second round defeat to Kevin Doets. His game has not gone down the plug hole, but it has diminished and with that goes a confidence hit. He can come back, but he will need to want to.

I have got the feeling that Smith lost a bit of interest once he won the World Championship. Some people just want to win it, others to win it multiple times.

The Formula 1 equivalents might be Jenson Button or Nico Rosberg. Button didn’t quit after winning his title, but his appetite was satisfied. Rosberg couldn’t face the grind of trying to do it again and just walked away.

Smith has made his fortune and if he is not fully motivated, it is unlikely he will reproduce that form of 2022 and 2023. He is best watched for now.

Ryan Searle 

Heavy Metal is not a happy bunny. He says that he would never get a pick for the Premier League, as his face doesn’t fit. He is not amused by more changes to the Euro Tour which makes life easier for the top 16 players. Searle may also have plateaued form wise.

Searle is a great floor player but hasn’t matched that on stage. He has played in thirty eight ranking Majors, reached one final, and two other quarter finals. Not great for a heavy scoring player. He has won five Players Championship titles and been runner up in a further ten. However, he has only made one Euro Tour final which again is a minus in terms of stage form.

Searle does play well at the start of the season, however. In the last five seasons, Searle has won three of the first three Players Championship events of the season and been runner up in another four. I will be backing him on the floor in the upcoming Players Championships, but not on the stage.

Joe Cullen 

Fresh (?) from climbing Kilimanjaro, The GOAT (in his own head) is a former Masters champion, the highlight of his career. He was a Premier League runner up as well, both in 2022. Cullen has had enjoyed some good runs in the Majors, making four ranking semi-finals and seven other quarter finals.

The problem is that his form since around 2018 – 2023 has not been great. He has had off the oche issues that have knocked his orbit and if his head is in the right place, he can get back into contention, but the chip on his shoulder might be affecting his throw.

Mike de Decker 

Another angry player. De Decker won the 2024 World Grand Prix but was still passed over for the Premier League. Chris Dobey and Stephen Bunting were given the nod by the PDC, despite having never won a ranking Major.

Dobey and Bunting have played the Premier League before, and both got in by winning The Masters before it was a Major. I believe De Decker is the first Grand Prix winner not to be selected. He certainly has a point. Unfortunately, Bunting has a big social media following, and Dobey will sell tickets for the Newcastle venue.

I like a player with a point to prove. It is motivational. I can’t wait to see De Decker play Bunting and Dobey. He is in the same quarter as Dobey, but his problem is that, should he beat James Wade in round one, he will then likely face Luke Littler. De Decker has beaten Wade in four of their last five matches, but against Littler he is 0-3. He is not without a chance against Littler, but it is a tough draw.

Preliminary Round Qualifiers

The eight players who came through the preliminary day will have the advantage of having match practice, in the same format. They are ‘warmed up’ to a degree. There are a handful of interest.

Kevin Doets 

Had a good run in the World Championship to make the last sixteen, beat Aspinall in the Dutch Darts Masters and won three matches to get through the preliminary round. His averages haven’t been great, but he has pulled some rabbits out of the hat.

Jermaine Wattimena 

One of the form horses in late 2024. Wattimena averaged 96.89 across his three matches yesterday. He is more than capable of having a good run. He beat Luke Humphries last weekend and he is a much better player these days.

Cameron Menzies 

Now residing in Milton Keynes, this is a home tie for Menzies. He left the World Championships in tears after losing to Leonard Gates. It transpired that his dad was in hospital at the time and his head was elsewhere. His old man is fine now. Menzies averaged 96.39 in the preliminary rounds, beat some good players and he took out a red hot Gian van Veen in his final match. Menzies shouldn’t be underestimated.

Florian Hempel 

Hit a 110 average when beating Suljovic and he also took the scalps of Ryan Joyce and Gabriel Clemens. That will do his confidence no harm. It is hard to see a deep run, but he will be a dangerous first round opponent for Gerwyn Price.

The 2025 Winmau World Masters Draw

First Quarter 

Luke Humphries will be the favourite to come through the quarter, but he hasn’t quite been at his best recently, and lost 3-6 to Wattimena last week, his second defeat in a row to the rejuvenated Dutchman. Josh Rock is hard to call with his unusual preparation. Gerwyn Price looks like he is coming to the boil, so long as he can hit the doubles.

Second Quarter 

Bunting is the form player in this quarter, but he was beaten, again, by Rob Cross, in the final of the Dutch Darts Masters. Indeed Cross has a very good record against Bunting (13-3), and Michael Smith (22-9).

He has winning H2H records against Doets (3-1), his opening opponent Willy O’Connor, Peter Wright (19-15), Noppert (5-4) and Big Willy Borland (4-2). It is unusual of a player to have winning record against all of his possible opponents in a quarter and given that he just picked up a title last weekend, Cross has to be on the shortlist.

Third Quarter 

Luke Littler is the big favourite to come through the quarter. He will face Andy Baetens in the first round. The Belgian didn’t make a great impression in 2024, he was tipped up to do so by some good judges, but he can play.

He averaged 93.69 in the preliminary day and rounded his day off with a 100 average in a win over Darius Labanauskas. He also beat Martin Lukeman and Joes de Sousa. Baetens also has a 4-2 H2H record with Littler, so he will not be totally intimidated. Interesting.

Other players in the quarter include James Wade, Mike de Decker, Jonny Clayton, Martin Schindler, Chris Dobey and Ryan Searle. All of those players, on their day, are very good players. Littler will be hard to stop, but not impossible.

Fourth Quarter 

Michael Van Gerwen used to farm this event, winning it five times, but he is no longer the Big Beast. That said, he will still be the favourite to come through this quarter. Gary Anderson has not performed well on TV for a while, Dave Chisnall has fitness question marks, ditto Aspinall. Van den Bergh isn’t in good form and the dark horse here has to be Cameron Menzies. The venue being on his doorstep is a plus and he played well yesterday.

Summary

The fact that this is the first ‘proper’ event of the season means that a lot of players will be a bit rusty. Those that have played in the World Series have a had a chance to get some competitive play in, and those that played yesterday. That should count for something.

The format change certainly makes the first round matches potential banana skins. Best of five, three leg sets. That means a match can be over in six legs, but it is not that much different to a best of eleven leg match, just that sets mean that you can win, but lose more legs. After the first round, the format gets a little more comfortable for the more fancied players.

I am going to have three small outright bets at this stage, but this may well be a Tournament where waiting until the second round may be wise.

The market naturally makes Luke Littler the 3.00 favourite and Luke Humphries 5.50 second favourite. The in-form Stephen Bunting is 11.00 and five time winner MVG, 10.00.

Last year we had some surprise Major winners, and we have seen six different winners here in the last six years, including relative surprises, Dobey and Bunting. Maye that is because it is so early in the season, but it is enough for me to have small plays on three longer priced players.

2025 Winmau World Masters Selections

Rob Cross 0.5 point e/w to win the 2025 Winmau World Masters @ 21.00 with Livescorebet

Jermaine Wattimena 0.5 point e/w to win the 2025 Winmau World Masters @ 67.00 with Ladbrokes, Betfair

Cameron Menzies 0.5 point e/w to win the 2025 Winmau World Masters @ 126.00 with Betfair

-JamesPunt