Dutch Darts Masters 2025: Darts predictions, betting tips and preview for the ITV4-televised World Series event in Den Bosch, Netherlands

By Chris Hammer

Darts

Fri January 24, 2025 · 1M ago

The ITV4-televised Dutch Darts Masters takes place from Friday to Saturday, live on ITV4, and our Chris Hammer brings you his preview and tips.

Darts betting tips: Dutch Darts Masters

2pts Luke Littler to win the Dutch Darts Masters at 2/1 (Sky Bet)

1pt Noppert, Doets (+2.5) & Veenstra (+2.5) all to win at 9/2 (Sky Bet)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

The second of this season's World Series events takes place in Den Bosch and it's fair to say the entire field is a lot stronger than what we saw in Bahrain last week.

Firstly, defending champion Michael van Gerwen returns to action for the first time since finishing runner-up to Luke Littler in the World Championship final, while the majority of the unseeded 'Benelux representatives' can be considered as live outsiders for the title.

Dutch Darts Masters draw

(1) Stephen Bunting v Gian van Veen
Chris Dobey v Raymond van Barneveld
(4) Luke Littler v Dimitri Van den Bergh
Michael van Gerwen v Dirk van Duijvenbode
(2) Gerwyn Price v Danny Noppert
Nathan Aspinall v Kevin Doets
(3) Luke Humphries v Jermaine Wattimena
Rob Cross v Richard Veenstra

Littler is unsurprisingly favourite to lift the title in his first event since turning 18 this week and unless he gets blindsided by a superhuman performance like Gerwyn Price threw at him in Bahrain, I'd expect him to get his seasonal tally up and running.

The Iceman unleashed a spectacular 115 average during a 6-2 victory over Littler, who managed 105 himself, but he couldn't get out of the 90s in his next two games as he finished an eventual runner-up to Stephen Bunting.

Phil Taylor recently told Littler - via the media - that one of his potential hurdles during the next phase of his career will be the 'Manchester United syndrome'; where players will try even harder against him than against anyone else.

It's something the Power had to deal with during his era of dominance in the PDC and Price's display out of the blue was certainly an early example of this.

There's not really much you can do about a 115 average but Littler has so far shown that he can pretty much deal with anything else - including Gary Anderson rolling back the years in a spectacular Grand Slam of Darts semi-final last November.

No challenge fazes him and he'll probably be even relishing a potential World Championship final rematch with van Gerwen in the second round in front of a raucous Dutch crowd - if the legend can overcome Dirk van Duijvenbode in a tricky opener.

They met on this stage 12 months ago in the final, with MVG running out an 8-6 winner despite averaging six points less than Littler's 106, but in their last clash on the Dutchman's home soil, it was the Nuke who stormed to an 11-4 success with an average of almost 108.

That was at the World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam which he went on to win and the way he dealt with MVG at the Ally Pally has further heightened the psychological advantage that has developed in Littler's favour.

Should he get past Dimitri Van den Bergh and MVG like I expect then his semi-final opponent will be Bahrain Masters champion Bunting, Gian van Veen, Chris Dobey or Raymond van Barneveld.

I think Bunting is in danger against van Veen in such a short format while he'll be in the unusual situation of not being the crowd favourite.

The Dutch youngster beat Michael Smith in last year's first round before averaging almost 101 in a 6-3 victory over Danny Noppert

Dobey will be eager to bounce back from his 84 average in a 6-0 mauling against Bunting last week but the home fans certainly won't make his life easy when he comes up against Dutch legend Raymond van Barneveld in the opening round.

Overall, I'd still fancy Littler to come through the semi-final against any of this quartet and then ultimately, the trophy.

CLICK HERE to back Luke Littler to win the title with Sky Bet

Dutch delight?

In the bottom half of the draw, I'd expect at least two 'upsets' in the opening round - it's just a case of picking the right ones.

It was great to see Price show more clear signs of his revival last week but Noppert is the highest ranked of the Benelux representatives and his average of 96.66 since the start of October is seventh best in the world - even higher than Humphries and considerably more than the Iceman's 94.02.

Somewhat interestingly, Noppert only played two non Dutch players in the three home events he competed in last season - Nathan Aspinall and Andrew Gilding - but he did win them both before crashing out to compatriots.

Aspinall could also find himself in trouble against the increasingly popular Kevin Doets, who made a real name for himself during his drama-filled run to the fourth round of the World Championship.

Doets revelled in the atmosphere of the Ally Pally crowd - especially when they were almost all exclusively on his side against Krzysztof Ratajski - so I'd expect him to find an extra gear in front of the Dutch fans when Aspinall is largely friendless by comparison.

Luke Humphries lost 10-4 to Jermaine Wattimena at the European Championship as recently as October and their seasonal averages since the start of that month are only a point apart, so this could also be one to keep an eye on.

Cool Hand produced a mixed bag of performances last week but his scoring power doesn't seem to be as explosive as it was during the lengthy purple patch that saw him rocket to world number one status and I'm not sure he'll be bouncing back to title winning form this week.

Rob Cross is in need of a confidence boost to arrest this worrying spell of form but this might prove to be a difficult place to earn it despite being a very warm favourite to beat the lowest ranked player in the tournament in Richard Veenstra.

Voltage has only averaged over 100 once in his last 22 games dating back to early October and that only came because Luke Littler only allowed him three darts at a double during a 6-0 thumping at the Players Championship Finals.

In that same period he's gone under 90 on six occasions, including his last two outings at the World Championship and during last week's 6-3 defeat to Paolo Nebrida at the Bahrain Darts Masters.

Veenstra may not be formidable opposition, but he regularly averaged well in the 90s during the latter part of the campaign and that's why it was surprising to see him crumble in spectacular fashion against Alexis Toylo on the Ally Pally stage.

However, the home crowd will be a comforting advantage and he can definitely make this close.