2026 Winmau World Masters Betting Preview

James Punt is back! After a well earned post-World Championship break Sir Punt has returned and he has an outright 2026 Winmau World Masters Betting preview. Find out his thoughts on this weekend’s tournament below.

2026 Winmau World Masters

We have had a couple of fairly meaningless skirmishes in the deserts of the Middle East in the form of the two World Series events. Now it is time to get down to the serious business in Milton Keynes, and the 2026 Winmau World Masters.

This revamped version of the old non-ranking Masters tournament was actually a bit of a hit in my opinion, despite a fairly mad format. A hit in terms of being enjoyable to watch, but it wasn’t great for betting on, certainly not in the first round. Last Year I took a steady approach, only had four bets in the sixteen first round matches. All four lost, and two of my three outright bets lost in round one as well.

There were not many big surprises in round one, only two of the eight players who came through the preliminary round won their first-round match and only two of the Order of Merit qualifiers won their first-round matches.

Ranking Points

The World Masters is now a ranking event, with a bigger field and the players take it much more seriously. No longer is it just a seasonal opening exhibition, but a proper tournament, with a twist. The twist being that the preliminary rounds are mental.

The tournament proper consists of thirty two players. The top sixteen in the PDC OOM are seeded. They are drawn against the eight players ranked 17th-24th on the OOM, and eight other players who qualify via the preliminary rounds.

Prelims

The preliminary rounds are played the day before the tournament proper starts. The matches are played in a set format, but a VERY short set format. Best of three sets. Blink and you’ll miss it.

The preliminary rounds begin with a group stage, with one seeded player, ranked 57–88, per group, with four players per group. The 32 group winners progress to the last 64 stage and are drawn to play those ranked 25th to 56th. These 64 players are whittled down to the final eight players who enter the draw for round one proper. Got it?

Basically, the top 16 players are seeded in round one. The next 8 highest ranked players are guaranteed to enter at the first-round stage. The remaining eligible players are reduced to 8 via a preliminary tournament before entering the first-round draw.

Withdrawal

How many players that actually take up their places for the preliminary stage is open to question (Raymond van Barneveld has already withdrawn, as he did last year). The field for the preliminary rounds comprises all Tour Card holders ranked outside of the top 24, the top eight players from each of the PDC’s secondary tours and Global Affiliate Tours, and four representatives from the Junior Darts Corporation (JDC).

Last year, very few of the Global Affiliate tours took the chance to travel to the UK for the prospect of losing in the preliminary group stage and picking up just £750. It has now been confirmed that no players accepted invitations from the Asian Tour or from the affiliate tours in Australia or New Zealand.

122 Players

The entry list for the preliminary rounds was announced on Tuesday. A field of 122 players took their chances to try and win one of the eight places to join the twenty-four already in the first-round draw.

The Preliminary rounds were played on Wednesday 28th January, streamed on PDCTV, and the tournament proper runs from Thursday 29th January to Sunday 1st February, to be shown on ITV in the UK and other broadcasters around the world. The first-round matches are played on Thursday and Friday, with both evening sessions featuring eight matches.

Sets Based Format

The tournament is a sets based format. Round one is best of five sets, second round and quarter finals best of seven, semi-finals best of nine and the final best of eleven.

As is usually the case, the cream rose to the top in 2025. Number one seed Luke Humphries beat seventh seed Jonny Clayton in the final. Only one player outside of the top 16 seed players, Dimitri van den Bergh, made it past the second round, eventually losing to Clayton in the semi-final.

Only four of the top 16 seeds went out in round one. Anderson lost to Van den Bergh, Dobey lost to Searle, Chisnall lost to Menzies and Cross lost to William O’Connor. Not exactly seismic shocks. Number two seed, Luke Littler, lost 2-4 to Clayton in the quarter final, despite averaging 108.50.

The 2026 Winmau World Masters Seeds

1 Luke Littler

This tournament is on his ‘to do’ list. Littler has only two ranking Majors not on his CV. This and the European Championship. The latter will be harder for him to win as the finals are held in Germany, which he hates.

Littler played in both of the recent World Series events, losing to Gerwyn Price in the quarter final in Bahrain, and winning in Saudia Arabia. He has lost just one of his last twenty six matches.

Littler didn’t look remotely motivated in Bahrain, playing with some different darts and treating it as the exhibition that it was. He was a bit more focused in Saudi, beating Lim, Van Veen, Price and MVG. The shorter format in round one is a potential banana skin, but the 2.30 tournament favourite is hard to oppose.

2 Luke Humphries 

Another who played in both World Series tournaments. Humphries won both his opening matches against the minnows, but lost both quarter finals, 3-6 to Aspinall and 5-6 to Price.

Cool Hand has won six of his last ten matches. He is playing well on the whole, but was poor in his last match, averaging just 91.47 in his loss to Price. I imagine Humphries is getting frustrated. He is just finding Littler very hard to beat and a few others have been too good for him.

Humphries is the defending champion here, but that was his only Major title in 2025. Losing two finals to Littler and another to Van Veen. His A-game is still extremally good but perhaps the frustration is just making him a bit more vulnerable?

3 Gian Van Veen

It is amazing to think that this year’s number three seed failed to get through the preliminary rounds last year. But that is what winning the European Championships and being runner up in the World Championship does for you.

It is no more than Van Veen deserved and he is right up there with Humphries and not far off Littler these days. Van Veen is still improving but this year is a big one for him. Gian has won seven of his last ten matches and is in the bottom half of the draw, potentially avoiding Littler until the final.

4 Michael van Gerwen 

2026 is all about rebuilding his game. 2025 saw jaw surgery and latterly a divorce leaving his darts to take a back seat. MVG has not won a ranking Major since 2022 and his loss of form has been a gradual one, which then took a nose dive in 2025.

This was an event he farmed back in his heyday, winning it five times in a row between 2015 and 2019, but since then he has made just one final, in 2024.

Van Gerwen reached both finals in the recent World Series events, winning in Bahrain, but losing the final to Littler in Saudi. He played some good stuff, but he is not close to his best form of old.

However, winning eight of his last ten matches will have done his confidence no harm. He needs to improve his doubling if he is to be able to keep up with the youngsters.

5 Jonny Clayton 

The Ferret has his beady eyes on the upcoming Premier League and will be using this to sharpen his game after a few weeks off.

Clayton has not played since losing the quarter final of the World Championship on New Year’s Day. He has lost six of his last ten matches and frankly, he wasn’t playing that well. Six sub 94 averages in his last ten and his last ton plus was on the 2nd October 2025.

He has been winning ugly for a while and his B game has proven to be robust (handy for the Premier League), it is hard to see him winning a tournament right now. Clayton does like the event, winning it in 2021, runner up last year and a semi-finalist in 2022, so his form might pick up in a venue where he has had success before.

6 Gary Anderson 

Did his job at Ally Pally, reaching the semi-final and shooting up the rankings to sixth place. Anderson was runner up here in 2017, but he has not got beyond round two since 2020.

He will play a light schedule for the rest of the year, concentrating on the Majors, and the World Championship in particular. His last Major title was back in 2018 and there are just too many better players these days.

7 Stephen Bunting 

Another year passed without Bunting winning that elusive ranking Major. He won this back in 2024, the last year it was a non-ranking event. It remains his only PDC TV title and he remains something of a nearly man.

Bunting has won five of his last ten matches, was underwhelming in the two recent World Series matches, and it has all been a bit of a struggle for him for the last three months. He played a lot of good darts in 2025 but didn’t get that ranking Major monkey off his back. It is an ever-heavier burden to carry.

8 Ryan Searle 

Heavy Metal always seems to start the year in good form, on the floor at least. In four of the last six seasons, Searle has won a Players Championship title in one of the first four events, along with five runners up spots.

His record here, however, is poor. In four appearances, he has never got past the second round. He arrives here as the number eight seed, his highest ever ranking, thanks to his run to the semi-final of the World Championship.

Searle is another player that really needs to win an event on TV, or indeed on a stage of any kind. He remains a much more successful floor player. Searle has won seven of his last ten matches but was blowing hot and cold at Ally Pally and has had three weeks off.

9 Josh Rock 

Improved his Major form in 2025 with two quarter finals and two semi-finals. He lost in the second round here last year.

Rock hasn’t played since losing 0-4 to Justin Hood in the World Championship. You had to feel sorry for Rock as he was just on the end of a ridiculous display of doubling from Hood.

That is a month from his last competitive match and he is one of many players who it is hard say what kind of form he is in. Before the break he had won seven of his last ten matches and reached the quarter finals of the Grand Slam and Players Championship finals.

10 Danny Noppert 

It was another disappointing World Championship for Noppert. Out in the second round for the third year running. He did get to play in the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Darts Masters, the lucky so and so, but only won one match, and was only against a Bahraini player.

The Freeze has lost five of his last ten matches but is playing better than that sounds most of the time. He was very poor in a 3-6 loss to Man Lok Leung in Saudi, however.

Noppert just looks to have lost a bit of confidence. He can play really well and still lose. Noppert reached the semi-final here last year and went on to lose a further three Major semi-finals later in the year.

11 James Wade 

Won the old Masters tournament in 2014 (when it was held in Edinburgh) but hasn’t got beyond the second round in the last four years. Wade hasn’t played since his early second round exit at Ally Pally before Christmas. He had lost five of his last ten and wasn’t playing particularly well at the back end of 2025.

12 Gerwyn Price 

Exited in round two here last year. The Iceman has plenty of deep runs in the Majors, but he has lost his killer instincts. He had three quarter finals and two semi-finals in 2025, but his last Major title was in 2021.

The Iceman is out of the top ten in the rankings for the first time since 2017 which does reflect the fact that he is no longer winning the Majors, or reaching finals.

Price reached the semi-final of both World Series events earlier this month and has won six of his last ten matches. He could have a good run, but Price is getting expensive to follow at pretty short odds.

13 Chris Dobey 

Won here in the old Masters tournament in 2023, his one and only win in a TV tournament. You will go skint backing Dobey to win stage events and he is easily passed over.

14 Nathan Aspinall 

Comes out of the blocks well in January. The Asp was a quarter-finalist here last year and in the old Masters event he had two semi-finals and a quarter final from four starts.

Like Price, Aspinall reached the semi-finals of both the World Series events earlier this month and was runner up in the Players Championship Finals. He has won six of his last ten matches, is playing well enough and could have a decent run, but he has been struggling against the very best players.

15 Martin Schindler 

Has not needed a hotel room for the night in his previous two visits to Milton Keynes. Back-to-back first round exits in the last two years. He has not played since losing to Ryan Searle at Ally Pally just before New Year.

Schindler has won six of his last ten matches, but hasn’t strung more than two wins together since mid-October 2025. That reflects that he is not playing with any great consistency or playing that well.

16 Ross Smith 

Another player who has not enjoyed his early season trips to Milton Keynes. Smudger has won just one match in three visits and went out in round one last year.

Smith lost 2-3 to Andreas Harrysson in the first round at Ally Pally, so he has had a month and a half without competitive play. He had been very inconsistent since winning PC29 at the start of last October. Hard to fancy.

2026 Winmau World Masters: Order of Merit Qualifiers

Damon Heta 

Made the most of a kind draw to reach the third round of the World Championships but he was far from impressive. He finished 2025 in poor form, and in 2025 the highlight of his Major season was getting to the quarter final here. Heta has lost six of his last ten matches and that is a fair reflection of his form before the winter break.

Jermaine Wattimena 

Ended last season ranked 18th in the PDC OOM, the highest he has been in his career. His Major form was a bit disappointing. His best result was to reach the semi-finals of the Players Championships finals.

Wattimena played a lot of very good darts last year, won 68% of his matches and more importantly won his first PDC title with Players Championship 23 and got his second with PC31. I imagine that for 2026, his target is to get a stage title under his belt. He has the game to have a good run but is in the Littler zone in the top half of the draw.

Mike de Decker 

Won the World Grand Prix in 2024 and it looked like De Decker had finally clicked. He had shown promise for some time but never really did much until that win. Sadly, it wasn’t the dawn of something special and 2025 was a very disappointing one for De Decker, and it got worse as the season went on.

It ended with him failing to qualify for the Grand Slam, losing in the first round of the Players Championship finals and losing in the first round of the World Championship, to the unheralded Kenyan player, David Munyua. De Decker has lost five of his last ten matches and was at best inconsistent, and just not playing well. He lost 2-3 to James Wade in the first round here last year.

Rob Cross 

It’s all gone Pete Tong for Rob Cross. Trouble with the tax man and a loss of form in 2025 has left him outside the top 16 in the world rankings for the first time since he joined the tour in 2017.

Voltage did make the last 16 at the World Championship and gave Littler a bit of match in round four. He has to start rebuilding is career and at least he does retain plenty of ability. It strikes me that it is his head that is the problem.

He played plenty of good darts in 2025, won PC1 in February and was playing well in the first half of the season, hitting plenty of ton plus averages. However, he was losing a lot of matches and at the business end of the season, he lost his game, the scoring dropped just when he needed to cash in to up his ranking.

He now faces a tough season ahead. Cross lost in the first round here last year, and while he made the final of the Masters in 2023, this is not a venue that has been a terribly good one for him.

Luke Woodhouse 

Up to 21st in the OOM and he has improved his ranking for the last four years in a row. The Majors have still proven to be difficult for him. He reached the semi-final of the European Championship in 2024 but last year it was more a case of winning a match or two in the Majors but not making any real progress.

Woody made the fourth round at Ally Pally, as he did in 2024, but he remains without a senior PDC title of any description. It is hard to see him making any great impression this week.

Dave Chisnall 

Chizzy was a two-time finalist here in the old days of the Masters, but he lost in the first round of this event last year. He has never fully recovered from a back problem in the latter part of 2024. He has dropped out of the World top 20 for the first time since 2011. His 12-month average is just 91.70 and his win rate in 2025 was only 52%. Hard to fancy.

Daryl Gurney 

It used to be a New Year tradition for Daryl to arrive in Milton Keynes for the Masters, lose to Dave Chisnall and then go home.

Superchin has been out of the top 20 since 2021and he seems to have found his level as mid top 20 player and had a couple of Major quarter finals in 2025 and won the World Cup alongside Josh Rock.

He ended 2025 in poor form, losing six of his last ten matches, and there was little to get excited about his form.

Ryan Joyce 

Failed to get through the preliminary rounds last year and ended 2025 losing five of his last ten matches. Joyce has had two Major quarter finals and two semi-finals in the last three years and when he is in good form, he is a player to follow, but there wasn’t much to commend his game at the end of 2025, as he lost five of his last ten matches.

Preliminary Rounds Qualifiers

These players have had yesterday’s matches to get some rust off, but that didn’t really help them last year with, with six of the eight going out in round one.

Niels Zonneveld 

He was hardly pulling up any trees in yesterday’s preliminary rounds, but he is a decent player, if a bit of a journeyman. Hard to see him making much progress. He plays Gary Anderson in round one, and you never know what Anderson’s motivation will be like.

Jeffrey de Graaf 

Had a disappointing 2025 season, Major wise, but he did win a Players Championship event. When he is good, he can be very good.

De Graaf has never made any great impression on the Majors. He lost half his matches last year but averaged 98 across his three knockout stage matches yesterday. De Graaf faces Bunting in round one, and the Dutch born Swede is 3-1 against The Bullet. It was Bunting who he beat in the final of PC24 to win his only PDC title so far. Interesting.

Madars Razma 

Always a potential banana skin for any of the top players. Razzmatazz only averaged 89.73 in his three knockout stage matches yesterday, and was lucky to catch Ratajski having a moment, averaging just 82.55 in the deciding match. He faces James Wade in round one and he was 1-2 against him in 2025. Not good enough to expect a run.

Wessel Nijman 

Nijman will be an interesting player to watch in 2026. We know how good he is, but he has underachieved on the big stage. Now that his fellow young Dutch darting prodigy, Gian van Veen, has rocketed up to number three in the world, and won a Major championship, Nijman may be a case of ‘inspiration by association’. If he can do it, so can I.

Nijman can score as well as anyone and he won two of the last five Players Championship titles of 2025, but he does seem to get tight on stage. Wessel averaged a ton across his three knockout matches yesterday, beating Bellmont, Springer and Clemens.

He will play Jonny Clayton in round one, and he beat him 6-0 the last time they played, in October 2025, but Clayton won their other two matches, both in 2025.

Shane McGuirk 

The 2024 WDF World Champion won a tour card earlier this month, so he is on cloud nine. He averaged 92.61 across his three knockout matches yesterday. These new players are always hard to assess so early in the season, but they can be right up for it. He faces Nathan Aspinall in round one, so he has got a tricky tie.

Connor Scutt 

A much-touted player, who hasn’t got a lot to show for his three years on the tour. He can hit big averages, which may explain why he is so well fancied. He lost Players Championship finals in 2024 and 2023 and is ranked 49th in the PDC OOM. That is about right.

Scutt had to work hard to win his three knockout matches and played some good stuff. He plays Josh Rock in round one, which is a tricky one for Rock, but Rock is the better player.

Jimmy van Schie 

May be the tallest player in Darts. Huge even by Dutch standards. He won the two big WDF titles in 2025, the World Championship and World Masters. He made a Players Championship quarter final on a rare invite and won a tour card earlier this month.

Obviously, there is a bit of a buzz around him. Van Schie beat Edhouse, Veenstra and Scott Williams to qualify, and was solid rather than spectacular. He faces Ross Smith in round one and that is a winnable match, but he lacks any experience at this level.

James Hurrell 

Had a decent 2025, ending up 48th on the OOM. He can have his moments, as he did when averaging 111.16 in a 3-0 win over Joe Cullen yesterday. His reward is to play Gerwyn Price in round one, and he is 0-4 against the Welshman, three of which required a deciding leg.

The 2026 Winmau World Masters Draw

First Quarter 

Luke Littler is the top seed and heads this quarter. He will play Mike De Decker in round one. The other seeds are Josh Rock, Ryan Searle and Ross Smith. Ryan Searle will play Rob Cross, with Van Schie and Scutt to play Smith and Rock respectively.

This looks a pretty tough quarter and not entirely straightforward for the world number 1. He is 7-0 vs, De Decker, 5-1 with Ross Smith 14-3 with Cross, 6-0 vs. Searle, and 3-0 vs. Rock.

Littler had the advantage of two World Series events as preparation, winning one. Rock and Searle ended 2025 in decent nick, but neither has ever beaten Littler.

Littler needs this tournament and the European Championship to complete his set of all the ranking Major Championships. He will not be taking it lightly. He is hard to oppose, but he will be facing some good players along the path to the semi-finals.

Second Quarter

Michael van Gerwen warmed up by winning the Bahrain Masters and was runner up to Luke Littler in Saudi Arabia. He has won eight of his last ten matches. The other seeds are Jonny Clayton, Chris Dobey and Gerwyn Price.

MVG will play Damon Heta in round one. He is 10-6 with the Aussie but they have only played once in the last 14 months, MVG winning a floor match 6-5. Heta has been struggling and is not in good form.

Dobey isn’t backable in Majors. Jonny Clayton will be well prepared with the Premier League starting next week but faces the dangerous Wessel Nijman in round one.

His buddy, Gerwyn Price also plays a qualifier, James Hurrell, and the two Welsh World Cup teammates could meet in round two. Price has had the better of Clayton in their last eight matches. Should Nijman beat Clayton, Price was 3-1against the young Dutchman in 2025. Nijman is 0-5 vs. MVG and whichever way he looks, Wessel is facing problems.

Dark Horse

The dark horse in this quarter is Jermaine Wattimena. A very dangerous opponent who will play Chris Dobey in round one. Wattimena is 8-3 against Dobey.

The problem with Wattimena is that he is just 1-8 vs. MVG and they should meet in round two. This has the look of a Price vs. MVG quarter final. Both got the rust off in the World Series events, but MVG is 38-17 vs. Price and 3-2 in 2025 and he beat the Welshman 7-2 in the semi-final of Bahrain Masters a couple of weeks ago. Price was rusty after a few weeks off, but MVG has the edge.

Michael van Gerwen looks the logical choice, but he is hard to back with much confidence, and likely to face Littler in the semi-final.

Third Quarter

Luke Humphries is the top seed in the bottom half of the draw. He is also the defending champion and has had a few matches in the World Series events to warm up. He faces the bang out of form Dave Chisnall in round one, and either Schindler or Woodhouse in round two. That is very doable for Humphries.

Stephen Bunting gets something of a Nemesis in Jeffrey de Graaf in round one and Bunting is hard to fancy to go deep. He could face the winner of Noppert vs. Gurney. Neither of those players is in great form, but Bunting was 1-3 vs. Noppert in 2025, and while he is 15-6 vs. Gurney, it was Gurney who won their last match in the Players Championship finals.

It is hard to oppose Humphries in this quarter.

Fourth Quarter

Gian van Veen is the top seed here. He plays Ryan Joyce in round one, a potentially tricky one, but Van Veen has had a few matches under his belt already in 2025, is in decent form and he is 3-0 vs. Joyce.

Van Veen is likely to face Nathan Aspinall in the second round, with the Asp facing a qualifier in round one. They faced each other a couple of weeks ago in Bahrain, with Van Veen winning 7-4, but Aspinall was 2-0 in 2025.

In the bottom half of this quarter we have Gary Anderson and James Wade, who have both drawn a qualifier for round one. Anderson is 40-20 against Wade and has won their last seven matches.

Motivation?

It is hard to say what Anderson’s motivation will be like. He won a load of ranking money at the World Championship, moving up to number six in the world rankings. The temptation for him is to play a very light schedule in 2025. This is a ranking event, so he might as well have a go, but I imagine he hasn’t looked at a dart board since losing the World Championship semi-final.

Van Veen is in good form and has had some competitive matches to tune him up for this. He looks the logical choice.

2026 Winmau World Masters Selections

We now live the Littler era. Just as Phil Taylor made outright tournament betting very dull for a long time, and MVG when he was in his prime, we just have to get used to the fact that you have the choice of backing Littler at short odds, or taking bigger odds on another player and hope that Littler has a rare blip, or settle for place money.

Litter is the 2.30 favourite to win the tournament. He has already won ten Major Championships since joining the PDC at senior level in 2024. He has played in sixteen ranking Majors and won eight, plus a Premier League and World Series final.

Eight From Six

In 2025, of the eight ranking Majors, he won six. He started the 2026 season by winning the World Championship. I would have to say that being odds against makes him a value bet. He didn’t win here last year, but that was soon after he had won his first World Championship and he was still on a bit of a rollercoaster at that time. The Nuke is just used to winning big titles as a matter of course now.

If not Luke Littler, who else? It is almost as predictable as Littler to win, but the next best players are Gian Van Veen and Luke Humphries, but not necessarily in that order.

Ally Pally Runner Up

Gian Van Veen was runner up in the World Championship. He was heavily beaten by Littler in the finals, but as I said in the preview for that match, Van Veen was likely to have had his batteries drained by his close semi-final with Gary Anderson.

Van Veen has a decent record against Littler (4-6) but Littler has won their last three matches, including one less than two weeks ago in Bahrain, and Van Veen has never beaten Littler on TV.

Luke Humphries is 10-16 against Littler, but he too is falling further behind, losing his last three against the youngster. Humphries is also losing ground to Gian Van Veen. Van Veen is now 5-4 with Humphries and has won their last five matches in a row. That’s why I have Van Veen as the second-best player in the world as of now.

Bottom Half

Van Veen and Humphries are both in the bottom half of the draw and have the chance to get to the final, and a probable match with Littler. The market has Humphries as the 6.50 second favourite, and Van Veen 8.00.

I was hoping that we would get options, such as ‘name the finalists’, which we do get for most Major championships but there is only one firm offering these kind of markets as far as I can see.

I can’t see any outsiders worth backing and the tips are rather boring I am afraid.

2026 Winmau World Masters Tip: 2 points Luke Littler to win @ 2.30 with Livescorebet (2.25 generally)

2026 Winmau World Masters Tip: 1 point Gian van Veen to reach the final @ 4.00 with Livescorebet

Tonight’s first round matches to follow later this afternoon.

-JamesPunt