Winmau World Masters Tips

The first PDC Premier event of the season gets underway in Milton Keynes on Thursday night, as the Winmau World Masters returns for its second renewal in this revised format.

Since last year, matches have been played using set play, with each set decided over a best-of-three legs rather than the traditional best-of-five.

While the format caught some players out last year, the cream still rose to the top, with Luke Humphries lifting the title.

For tournament favourite Luke Littler, this is one of only two majors he has yet to add to his growing trophy cabinet, and the only one staged in the United Kingdom missing from his CV.

The teenager won the Saudi Arabia Darts Masters last week and arrives in excellent form after claiming his second world title earlier this month.

Darts tipster Ben Smith has selected an outright bet and three match bets with BetMGM, one of the leading darts betting sites.

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Nathan Aspinall to Win the Tournament (Each-way) (40/1)

He may not have reached a final in the two World Series events in the Middle East, but Nathan Aspinall was one of the standout performers for me in Sakhir and Riyadh.

The Asp posted a combined average of over 97 across those events, beat Humphries in Bahrain with a 104 average, and produced averages of 100, 99 and 96 in Saudi Arabia, narrowly losing to Michael van Gerwen in the semi-finals.

Aspinall, who was denied a place in the Premier League despite reaching the play-offs last year, may have been handed extra motivation to prove a few people wrong, something he has spoken about helping his game in the past.

Historically, he has performed well at this event, with two semi-final appearances and two further quarter-final berths, including last year under the new set-play format.

He also reached the final of the Players Championship Finals in Minehead in November, having taken his third European Tour title of the year the previous month.

There are no easy draws in this field, and he sits in the same section as Gian van Veen, but that still looks preferable to landing in Littler’s half. This price seems too big.

Gian van Veen v Ryan Joyce - Van Veen Most 180s & Over 3.5 Sets (26/25)

There were only three whitewashes across the 16 first-round ties last year, and in two of those, it was a huge gap in checkout statistics that saw one player fail to register a set.

Ryan Joyce ranks inside the world’s top 10 for checkout percentage, so it is unlikely that such a clinical finisher will squander the chances that come his way.

One area where he is not particularly strong, however, is in the 180s department. Van Veen is well clear in that respect and, if we see four or more sets here, there should be enough time for that discrepancy to start to show.

Ross Smith v Jimmy van Schie - Van Schie to Win (33/20)

Ross Smith has often been criticised for failing to replicate his floor form on television and, after making strides in 2024, he slipped back into old habits last season, winning just two ranked televised matches in 2025.

Smith missed six match darts in the fourth set against Andreas Harrysson at the World Championship, allowing the Swede to level the match before winning the deciding set.

There will be pressure moments in abundance in this format, with set-deciding legs likely given the best-of-three legs structure.

That does not suit Smith, who has not always handled pressure well, and I have no interest in backing him at this sort of price against the Lakeside world champion.

Jimmy van Schie managed the expectation of being top seed at the WDF World Championship and held his nerve to beat Mitchell Lawrie despite falling 3-0 behind.

He looks the type of player who should thrive at PDC majors, starting with his Winmau World Masters debut.

Stephen Bunting v Jeffrey de Graaf - De Graaf to Win (47/20)

Stephen Bunting has looked out of sorts in recent times and that was summed up by his performance against Van Gerwen in Riyadh, where he averaged 81. That was only the second time in the past 12 months he had posted an average below 85.

The Bullet suffered a surprise exit to James Hurrell in round three at Alexandra Palace. Prior to that, he also went out in round two of the Players Championship Finals, lost all three group matches at the Grand Slam, and has ultimately not done much of note anywhere since the end of September.

With confidence unlikely to be high, I am more than happy to take a chance on Jeffrey de Graaf, who also had a poor World Championship but has bounced back by reaching the main draw here, posting averages of 94, 103 and 98 in the preliminary play-offs.

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