Stephen Bunting celebrates with his son (Picture: Taylor Lanning/PDC)
Stephen Bunting is the defending Masters champion

PDC World Masters 2025: Free darts betting tips and preview for the ITV4-televised major in Milton Keynes


The PDC's revamped Winmau World Masters takes place from January 30 to February 2 so check out Chris Hammer's preview and selections for the ITV4- televised major.

Darts betting tips: PDC World Masters

1pt each-way Stephen Bunting to win the World Masters at 10/1 (General 1/2, 1, 2)

0.5pts each-way Danny Noppert to win the World Masters at 80/1 (BetVictor 1/2, 1,2)

0.5pts each-way Jonny Clayton to win the World Masters at 66/1 (BetVictor 1/2, 1,2)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook


The new PDC season may have already begun with a couple of invitational World Series events earlier this month but this is where the whole tour can attempt to get their campaigns up and running with a bang.

For the first time in its 13-year history, the event previously known as the 'Masters' is now ranked and open to all Tour Card holders - in addition to a selection of qualifiers from the secondary tours - while it's also become a set-play tournament like the BDO's 'World Masters' used to be from 1974 to 2019.

Since the BDO's demise, the WDF have only put on two World Masters and both of those adopted the standard legs format and were held overseas.

As Paul Nicholson wrote in his World Masters column, it's fair to say that the WDF failed to maintain the prestige of the sport's oldest major and the PDC were quick - and canny - to incorporate its best features with their own Masters that was probably in need of a shake-up anyway.

In case you don't already know, the top 24 players on the PDC's Order of Merit qualified straight through to the televised stages of the new Winmau World Masters at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, which takes place on ITV 4 from Thursday to Sunday, while eight other spots were up for grabs during the preliminary rounds on Wednesday.


World Masters: First-round draw and tournament bracket

  • (1) Luke Humphries v Joe Cullen
  • (16) Josh Rock v Jermaine Wattimena
  • (8) Damon Heta v Ross Smith
  • (9) Gerwyn Price v Florian Hempel
  • (4) Rob Cross v William O'Connor
  • (13) Danny Noppert v Michael Smith
  • (5) Stephen Bunting v William Borland
  • (12) Peter Wright v Kevin Doets
  • (2) Luke Littler v Andy Baetens
  • (15) James Wade v Mike De Decker
  • (7) Jonny Clayton v Martin Schindler
  • (10) Chris Dobey v Ryan Searle
  • (3) Michael van Gerwen v Bradley Brooks
  • (14) Gary Anderson v Dimitri Van den Bergh
  • (6) Dave Chisnall v Cameron Menzies
  • (11) Nathan Aspinall v Andrew Gilding

Considering there was over 100 players battling it out in a best-of-three set format - where each set is a cut-throat best-of-three legs with no tiebreaks - I'm sure some of them felt that'd have had a better chance at surviving Squid Game.

Best-of-three leg sets was of course an integral part of the old BDO World Masters and I'm sure darts fans will love to see this ruthless format introduced into a PDC major and give more variety to the calendar.

After all, there are now three set-play majors in the PDC and they're all unique from one another; whether that's because of double-start, best of three leg sets or the World Championship.

The first-round proper in Milton Keynes is best-of-five sets, the second-round and quarter-finals are both best-of-seven sets, the semi-final is best-of-nine sets and the final is best-of-11 sets, so we could be seeing a lot of deciding legs throughout each match, particularly in the latter stages.

Therefore in terms of picking potential champions, one of the key ingredients for success has got to be the ability to be clinical and ice cool in these pressured situations. And on a consistent basis too.

There aren't many players in the field who have notable experience of this kind of format but Michael van Gerwen will have vague recollections having won the original World Masters way back in 2006 aged 17 to break Eric Bristow's record as the youngest ever champion before his switch to the PDC, while the defending Masters champion Stephen Bunting won it back-to-back in 2012 and 2013 in the days when he was ripping up the BDO.

MVG and the Bullet are therefore just the only players who can achieve a Masters 'treble' of sorts by winning both versions of the Winmau World Masters and also the PDC's previous version of this event.

As the rest of the big names and most likely winners don't have form in this exact type of format, one statistic we could use to identify potential champions is percentage of deciding legs won in the last 12 months.

The data only refers to matches that have gone all the way rather than deciding legs in the two other set-play tournaments but it still gives us a flavour as to who can hold their game together most in these clutch moments.

We've got to bare in mind that some players won't have as big a sample size as others, while the data available to me doesn't split out how many times in these deciding legs they were throwing first or not. So this list can't be used to categorically determine who holds their nerve better in last leg deciders.


Deciding leg percentage of the 32 qualifiers

  1. Stephen Bunting: 65.22%
  2. Jonny Clayton: 63.33%
  3. Chris Dobey: 60.00%
  4. Danny Noppert: 59.46%
  5. Nathan Aspinall: 59.26%
  6. Gerwyn Price: 58.33%
  7. Luke Littler: 58.00%
  8. Kevin Doets: 57.14%
  9. Ross Smith: 53.66%
  10. Mike de Decker: 53.13%
  11. Michael Smith: 52.27%
  12. Cameron Menzies: 51.35%
  13. Michael van Gerwen: 50.00%
  14. Andrew Gilding: 50.00%
  15. Ryan Searle: 50.00%
  16. James Wade: 48.48%
  17. Gary Anderson: 48.15%
  18. Bradley Brooks: 47.92%
  19. Luke Humphries: 47.62%
  20. Rob Cross: 47.37%
  21. Peter Wright: 47.06%
  22. Damon Heta: 46.15%
  23. Willie Borland: 46.15%
  24. Josh Rock: 45.16%
  25. Dave Chisnall: 44.12%
  26. Andy Baetens: 42.11%
  27. William O'Connor: 41.67%
  28. Martin Schindler: 39.29%
  29. Joe Cullen: 37.50%
  30. Florian Hempel: 33.33%
  31. Dimitri Van den Bergh: 21.05%

Bunting is top of the charts thanks to winning a staggering 65% of his deciding legs, while he also pinched three of the four sets that required all five legs during his run to the World Championship semi-finals before losing all three deciders in a 6-1 drubbing at the lands of Luke Littler.

Since then, Bunting has won four last leg deciders out of four on the World Series tour, including 7-6 victories over both Luke Littler and Luke Humphries to reach the finals of the Bahrain Masters and the Dutch Masters, so we can't ignore all this historical and recent evidence in his favour.

Arguably more importantly, he picked up a title in Bahrain off the back of a superb season which saw him rise to a career-high five in the world rankings and he's clearly feeling more confident than ever.

CLICK HERE to back Stephen Bunting to win the title with Sky Bet

He's in the opposite half of the draw to Littler which also strengths his chances of reaching the final and I'd fancy his chances more than any others in his section, including Luke Humphries who is currently enduring a sticky patch in terms of results, statistics and confidence.

Gerwyn Price is enjoying a revival and will be a threat for the big titles this year if his confidence continues to grow but I'm not sure he has the consistency to deal with Bunting if they meet in the latter stages. They're both 10/1 so I'll side with the Bullet.

Rob Cross will be earmarked as a potential threat in the top half having made a welcome return to form during the Dutch Masters, where he beat Bunting 8-5 in the final with his third average around the 100 mark in a row.

These performances were so much better from what we've seen from him in recent months but we've got to bare in mind that his track record in set play tournaments since winning the 2018 World Championship is pretty poor apart from a run to the Ally Pally during the 2024 edition and the quarter-finals at last year's World Grand Prix.

My big priced selection in the top half is Danny Noppert, whose deciding leg percentage of 59.46% does compliment his reputation of being an ice cool customer.

Noppie may not have had the most sparkling of 2024 when it comes to titles but he was still among the top 10 for overall matches won and the same for seasonal average. This format may well play to his strengths and could be a dangerous outsider.

CLICK HERE to back Danny Noppert to win the title with Sky Bet

As for the bottom half of the draw, Littler's unbelievable abilities clearly tick all the boxes for any kind of event and this one is no different.

That said, backing him at 2/1 would feel slightly precarious given the nature of this format - particularly in the early rounds. If he gets through to the quarter-finals then I'd be fully expecting him to go the distance but for now I'd rather look at bigger prices.

If Littler is to fall, it's probably more likely to happen in the first couple of rounds, where either Mike de Decker and James Wade will be lurking.

De Decker has given Littler scares before whereas this kind of format is a leveller for an experienced canny operator like Wade, even though he lacks the explosiveness of the Nuke.Should either of them take him out, then Jonny Clayton could be a viable contender in the bottom half of the draw.

The Ferret admitted during the World Championship that his time at the top is 'running out' due to the amount of youngsters coming through while he also said his motivation suffered after losing his dad in July 2023

He may not have been at his best in 2024 but he held his nerve brilliantly during a couple of extremely close victories against Mickey Mansell and Daryl Gurney during the World Championship and those qualities will be key in Milton Keynes.

He's won 63.33% of his deciding legs over the past 12 months and while his averages weren't exactly sparklingly high at the Ally Pally, he was starting to reach three figures on a regular basis towards the end of the campaign.

Gary Anderson and Michael van Gerwen obviously have stronger claims in the bottom half but they are on course to meet each other in round two and that really could go either way.

CLICK HERE to back Jonny Clayton to win the title with Sky Bet

World Masters Schedule

Thursday January 30 (1900 GMT)
TV Coverage: ITV4
First Round x8

  • Josh Rock v Jermaine Wattimena
  • Damon Heta v Ross Smith
  • Rob Cross v William O'Connor
  • Gerwyn Price v Florian Hempel
  • Peter Wright v Kevin Doets
  • Luke Humphries v Joe Cullen
  • Stephen Bunting v Willie Borland
  • Danny Noppert v Michael Smith

Friday January 31 (1900 GMT)
TV Coverage: ITV4
First Round x8

  • James Wade v Mike De Decker
  • Dave Chisnall v Cameron Menzies
  • Jonny Clayton v Martin Schindler
  • Nathan Aspinall v Andrew Gilding
  • Chris Dobey v Ryan Searle
  • Luke Littler v Andy Baetens
  • Michael van Gerwen v Bradley Brooks
  • Gary Anderson v Dimitri Van den Bergh

Saturday February 1
Afternoon Session (1245 GMT)

  • Second Round x4

Evening Session (1900 GMT)

  • Second Round x4

Sunday February 2
Afternoon Session (1245 GMT)

  • Quarter-Finals

Evening Session (1900 GMT)

  • Semi-Finals
  • Final

Format

  • Preliminary Rounds - Best of three sets, best of three legs per set
  • First Round - Best of five sets, best of three legs per set
  • Second Round - Best of seven sets, best of three legs per set
  • Quarter-Finals - Best of seven sets, best of three legs per set
  • Semi-Finals - Best of nine sets, best of three legs per sets
  • Final - Best of 11 sets, best of three legs per set

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