2026 PDC WC Day 4 Preview

It was a tough day for James Punt on Day 3 but we at least landed one nice winner in the opening match. It looks like another tricky day today, check out his 2026 PDC WC Day 4 preview is below.

Afternoon Session

Ritchie Edhouse vs. Jonny Tata

Edhouse has never progressed beyond the second round in his five previous World Championships, but he has won three first round matches. His recent form sees five defeats in his last ten matches, much in line with his seasonal win rate of 51%. Half of his last ten matches saw sub-90 averages, but there was a (losing) 112.57 in a Grand Slam qualifier. Consistent he is not.

Jonny Tata has a seasonal win rate of 85%. Very Impressive but he is playing on the New Zealand Pro Tour and the ANZ Premier League. The standard there is more like our Challenge tour. He is a big fish in a small pond.

When he faced the top-flight PDC players in the World Series in 2025, he lost 3-6 to Humphries, 4-6 to Price and 4-6 to Ross Smith. He averaged 97 against Price and he does have a good A game, but playing at the level he does, he can win with sub-90 and even sub-80 averages. He hit the first ever nine dart leg on the DPNZ Pro Tour in September.

A-Game Needed

Clearly if Jonny Tata can play his A game, he can compete, and if Edhouse turns up with his B game we have a match that Tata could win.

In the last seven years when the DPNZ qualifiers entered at the first-round stage, all of them have lost in the first round. Cody Harris did make the second round one year, but he was UK based at the time and qualified vis the Challenge Tour OOM. Tata will be making history if he beats Edhouse and qualifies for the second round.

Edhouse is the 1.36 favourite with Tata 3.40. Edhouse is very unpredictable, but I would say that the way he has been playing all year suggests that he would be beatable by a player of Tata’s ability in about 40%-50% of his matches. What we don’t know is how Tata will cope with playing on the big stage. He played in the World Series finals a few months ago and lost 4-6 to Ross Smith.

At the odds, I will take a chance with the Kiwi.

2026 PDC WC Day 4 Tip: 1 point Jonny Tata to win @ 3.50 with BET365

Dom Taylor vs. Oskar Lukasiak

Lukasiak will be trying to emulate Andreas Harrysson and be the second Swede to make round two. Lukasik qualified via the Nordic Baltic tour, but he also plays on the Pro Tour having picked up a tour card in January.

He has struggled at that level and has only won eight Players Championship matches all season. Lukasiak has lost seven of his last ten matches and is making his Ally Pally debut.

Dom Taylor is a player of interest. He has a lot of talent but is struggling to get the most out of it. He played Andrew Gilding in the recent Players Championship and went 4-1 up and was cruising, but he then just lost the plot and managed to lose from being 5-3 up, missing match darts.

Taylor has lost six of his last ten matches but he scores well without being a 180 monster. He has reached a couple of Players Championship semi-finals in 2025.

Drugs Ban

Taylor should have made his debut here last year but he had to serve a ban for failing a drugs test. Hopefully he hasn’t been on the Gak this time round.

Taylor is the 1.23 favourite, Lukasiak 4.75. I expect Taylor to win, but the odds are of no interest. Lukasiak is 2.75 to hit the most 180s and he may well do. Both players have a 12 month 180 per leg strike rate of 0.14, which is low. It could be a bit of a coin toss, but I am happy to give this match a miss betting wise. No bet.

2026 PDC WC Day 4 Tip: No Bet

Richard Veenstra vs. Nitin Kumar

Veenstra had a good win when beating Wessel Nijman 6-5 in the first round of the Players Championship finals, but then was poor in a 0-6 loss to Aspinall in the second round.

Looking at Veenstra’s last eight matches, his averages have been 97.28, 85.14, 94.30, 87.75, 102.91, 86.31, 96.39 and 87.40. Ridiculous inconsistency. He has played in two PDC World Championships and won one first round match.

Kumar is making his fifth appearance at Ally Pally and has lost all four first round matches, three of them 0-3 and the other 1-3.

Veenstra is the 1.09 favourite and just 1.73 to win 3-0. Another match with zero betting interest. No bet.

2026 PDC WC Day 4 Tip: No Bet

Joe Cullen vs. Bradley Brooks

I hope nobody tips Brooks to win. Cullen might have another meltdown. Still the GOAT in his own head, Cullen is a bit sensitive if he isn’t the favourite. He is not going to be pleased with the bookies this year either, as Brooks is the 1.62 favourite. So disrespectful.

Cullen has lost six of his last ten matches and hit seven sub-90 averages. It is all a bit weird. Cullen won PC27 in early October and since then he has played twenty two matches and won just eight and hit seventeen sub-90 averages.

Bradley Brooks won PC21in July but at least he has carried on showing some decent form, reaching three more Players Championship quarter finals. His recent form isn’t great, also losing six of his last ten matches.

Brooks is playing better than Cullen has been, but neither are in backable form. No bet.

2026 PDC WC Day 4 Tip: No Bet

Evening Session

Lukas Wenig vs. Wesley Plaisier

Wenig won his tour card in 2024 but didn’t make any great impression on the Pro Tour until he reached the final of PC23 in late July. He didn’t do much after that until he came through the tour card holders’ qualifier for the Grand Slam, and he ended up reaching the quarter final.

Wenig didn’t do anything special other than doing the right thing at the right time. He didn’t qualify for the Players Championship finals, so this is his first outing since picking up the biggest cheque of his career. This is Wenig’s Ally Pally debut.

Wesley Plaisier comes here having lost seven of his last ten matches. He has played some good stuff, but with absolutely no consistency. In those last ten there have been averages from 75.03 to 100.85 and everything in between. Plaisier made his debut last year and beat Ryusei Azemoto 3-2 in the first round, before losing 2-3 to Peter Wright in round two.

These two have met four times and it is 2-2, but their last match was back in 2022. Plaisier in the 1.73 favourite with Wenig 2.20. At the odds, Wenig makes the most appeal, but not enough. No bet.

2026 PDC WC Day 4 Tip: No Bet

Dimitri van den Bergh vs. Darren Beveridge

This is another tricky one. Van den Bergh has so much more experience at this level than debutant Beveridge. Dimitri has played in ten previous World Championships and reached two quarter finals and semi-final.

He is a two-time major winner but 2025 has seen him take time out of the sport to try and sort his head out. He was a semi-finalist at the World Masters in early February and reached the sixth round of the UK Open, but he failed to qualify for the next five majors.

Having stopped playing in early April, Van den Bergh returned in June for the World Cup but it just hasn’t worked out. His 12 month average is now just 88.50. Van den Bergh has won five of his last ten matches but he hasn’t been beating much or been scoring well.

Darren Beveridge has lost six of his last ten matches and is struggling every bit as much as Van Den Bergh. His scoring is poor and he inspires little confidence.

Beveridge is the 1.88 favourite with Van Den Bergh 2.05 but it is hard to think of a less attractive betting proposition than this match. No bet.

2026 PDC WC Day 4 Tip: No bet

Stephen Bunting vs. Sebastian Bialecki

Bunting is the heavy favourite at 1.14, with Bialecki the 8.00 outsider. The young Pole dumped Rob Cross out of the recent Players Championship finals and he won his first senior PDC title by winning PC22 in July. His most recent form at senior level sees just one win from his last ten matches.

Bunting has suffered a few defeats himself lately, losing eight of his last ten matches, but he has only played two poor matches, the rest were all high scoring defeats. He just needs to make sure he wins this and settles down.

They have met three times and Bunting won all three. We are on him to win the quarter and that is enough interest for me in another unappealing match. No bet.

2026 PDC WC Day 4 Tip: No Bet

James Hurrell vs. Stowe Buntz

Hillbilly Hurrell made his Ally Pally debut last year and beat Jim Long 3-0 in round one. This year he gets another North American in the first round. Hurrell has lost six of his last ten matches but he is playing OK, not good, but not terrible.

Stowe Buntz has played here for the last two years but is yet to win a match, or indeed a set. He has won four of his last ten matches, but those ten saw two sub-70 averages, one sub-80 and three sub- 90’s. There is a fairly good chance that he will be poor.

Hurrell is the 1.36 favourite, Buntz 3.40. Hurrell is not my idea of a 1.36 favourite, but against this opponent, maybe he is.

This another very unappetising betting opportunity. I thought we might have got some value around Hurrell, but sadly not. The only thing worth the smallest of bets is for Hurrell to repeat his scoreline of last year’s first round.

Buntz has already lost two matches here to nil and our first American in the competition, Alex Spellman, was embarrassing.

2026 PDC WC Day 4 Tip: 0.5 point James Hurrell to win 3-0 @ 3.50 with Betvictor

-JamesPunt