2025 WM Darts Sunday Afternoon Tips – JP
2025 WM Darts Sunday Afternoon Preview
James Punt made a rock solid start with two winners from three bets on Saturday, including a two pointer on Danny Noppert. His 2025 WM Darts Sunday Afternoon previews and tips are below.
Damon Heta vs. Andrew Gilding
Both these players have reached a Matchplay quarter final, but both have also lost three first round matches. That means Heta has lost three of his four first round matches, Gilding three from five.
In terms of recent form, Heta is playing nicely. He won PC20 less than two weeks ago and he had a run of ten consecutive wins. That run was ended by a 2-6 loss to….Andrew Gilding. Heta has averaged over 93 in his last fifteen matches, and his last sub 90 average came a month ago against…..Andrew Gilding. Spooky.
It could just be that Heta doesn’t play well against Captain Weird. Gilding is a slow player and some players don’t play their best against him. Their H2H record is 5-3 to Heta, so he can and has beaten him. Heta beat Gilding four times in a row, including a 7-2 win in the semi-final of PC13, before losing those two recent matches, both 2-6. I think that Heta has some sort of a mental block when it comes to Gilding.
Raised His Game
Gilding averaged 98.70 and 104.79 in his last two matches against Heta, and 97.62 in that 2-7 defeat, so he has raised his game against the Aussie. Overall, Gilding’s recent form sees seven wins from his last ten and while he has not shown the same consistency as Heta, his good performances have been very good.
He has reached the semi-final of PC19 and PC21. He was also runner up to Gary Anderson in the European Darts Grand Prix in May, so Gilding has been having some good runs and playing some very good darts.
Strange Fish
Goldfinger is a strange one. He has been around for years, is a bit of a journeyman, but he has won a Major, beating MVG in the final of the 2023 UK Open, he was a quarter finalist in that year’s Grand Prix and was a quarter finalist here last year. He has reached two finals on the European Tour, he has beaten the likes of Luke Littler, Gary Anderson and Rob Cross on the big stages on TV.
Heta is the flashier player, plays to the crowd and has a win rate of 72% in 2025, bettered only by Luke Littler of the 32 players here this week.
Heta is the 1.50 favourite, Heta 3.00. Given that Gilding has given Heta two recent spankings and whose A game is very strong right now, he has to have a decent chance to make a mockery of those odds.
Heta is playing well, winning a lot of matches and playing consistently, but his record here in the first round is not great, and that might play on his mind if Gilding starts to fire. I will go for the value option.
2025 WM Darts Sunday Afternoon Tip: 1 point Andrew Gilding to win @ 2.95 with Livescorebet
Rob Cross vs. Dirk van Duijvenbode
Rob Cross has a strange record here. He won it in 2019 and was a quarter finalist last year, but lost two first round matches and four second rounds. His recent form sees six wins from his last ten matches, hitting four ton plus averages and his game looks in good shape.
Dirk has lost six of his last ten matches and he too has hit four ton plus averages but there have been some poor performances in there as well. He has played in three Matchplays and won three matches and won two first round matches.
Their H2H record is 3-3, but they have not met since early 2023. They have played one long format match, which Cross won 10-3 at the 2022 Players Championship finals. They also met in the 2020 World Championship, which Dirk won 3 sets to 2.
The market is finding it hard to split the pair and you can back both at 1.95. It is a very tricky one to call. It is a long tournament and there will be better opportunities. No bet.
2025 WM Darts Sunday Afternoon Tip: No Bet
Peter Wright vs. Jermaine Wattimena
It is four years since Snakebite won his Matchplay title, but more recently, and more relevantly, he has won just one match in the last two. Wright is slipping out of the top 16 and fighting to find a new level.
He has won five of his last ten matches but with no consistency in his game. Six sub 93 averages and, it must be said, most of his performances have been weak, but with a couple of very good ones just to remind us that he was a player. His TV form is much the same, up and down, but more downs than up.
Winless Wattimena
Jermaine Wattimena has never won a match in his four previous Matchplays, the last being in 2021. However, he is a better player these days having slowed his pace down a little.
He made the final of the European Championships last year, and the quarter finals of the Grand Slam, but outside of that, he is not a Major monster. Indeed, he has never won a senior PDC title of any sort. He took Wade to added legs on debut in 2018, but since then he has won just nine legs, so I doubt he looks forward to this event with any great enthusiasm.
Wattimena has won seven of his last ten matches, but he cannot be said to be playing with any great deal of consistency. At last weekend’s Baltic Sea Darts Open he averaged 103 in a 6-1 win over Callan Rydz on Friday, and on Saturday averaged 90 in a 3-6 loss to Martin Schindler.
H2H
Their H2H record is 18-5 to Wright. They played twice in 2024 with Wattimena beating Wright 6-0 at the European Championships and Wright winning 4-2 at the World Championships. Wattimena has only won one of their last eight matches. However, he is moving up the OOM, Wright tumbling down.
Wattimena is the 1.73 favourite, Wright 2.20. I can’t back Wattimena at those odds given his terrible tournament record. I can’t back Wright as he is not the player he once was. No bet.
2025 WM Darts Sunday Afternoon Tip: No Bet
Dave Chisnall vs. Mike de Decker
Chizzy has not been playing well lately, losing five of his last ten matches and hitting four sub 90 averages in his last seven. In the last six Matchplays, Chisnall has lost four first round matches and never gone beyond round two.
Mike De Decker is in much the same boat. Losing five of his last ten matches and he has thrown three sub 90’s in his last seven. He had hit a hot streak of form in mid-June hitting five consecutive ton plus averages, but he has blown hot and cold since then. De Decker has only played in one Matchplay and lost his first-round match.
Their H2H record is 3-2 to Chisnall and he won their only TV match at the 2022 World Championship. Chisnall is on the slide, but what about De Decker? His 2024 World Grand Prix win sticks out like a sore thumb in his Major record. He is an early exit specialist on the whole, and it could just be that he had a golden spell for that event. It could have been the peak of his career.
Mike De Decker is the 1.73 favourite, Chisnall 2.20. The odds look about right but this is not a match with any appeal betting wise.
Not a great session betting interest wise, but there are four more matches this evening.
