World Masters predictions and darts betting tips: Bullet taking aim at another title win

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When is the World Masters?

The World Masters will be held at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes from Thursday, January 30 to Sunday, February 2, 2025.

Where to watch the World Masters

The World Masters will be shown live on ITV4.

World Masters best bets

S Bunting to win World Masters
1pt 10-1 general

M Smith to beat D Noppert
2pts 4-5 general

R Searle to beat C Dobey
2pts 11-10 bet365

World Masters predictions

The new-look PDC World Masters has reverted to a format that Stephen Bunting knows well, and given the form he's in he should be looking forward to this weekend.

Bunting was twice a winner of the World Masters in his BDO days, a competition that the PDC have recreated in Milton Keynes this weekend.

The world's top 24 and eight qualifiers - culled from a Wednesday bunfight featuring over 120 players - will compete over three days at the Marshall Arena in set-play rather than legs.

And, doffing hats to the original, the sets are a quickfire best-of-three legs rather than the best-of-five format used at the World Championship, for example.

That adds a bit more jeopardy to the first big televised event of 2025 and Bunting, the Masters champ in 2012 and 2013, has to fancy his chances.

The Bullet says he has never thrown better and he has reached the world semis and two World Series finals, winning one in Bahrain less than a fortnight ago.

He beat Luke Humphries on his way to glory in the desert and Luke Littler in the Dutch Masters in Den Bosch last weekend before he ran out of gas against Rob Cross in the final.

Littler and Humphries make the market with the Nuke no bigger than 2-1 despite two misses over the past two weekends. He is still throwing well enough and looks a cut above anyone in the bottom half.

There are some fascinating first-round contests being played over the first two days. All are best-of-five set affairs, so brief enough to make the formbook questionable.

Michael Smith, for example, was a let-down at Ally Pally, but only has to click for a few legs to leave Danny Noppert in his wake.

James Wade will love the opportunity to show Mike de Decker there is life in the old machine while Ryan Searle can see off Chris Dobey.

Dobey had a good worlds, reaching the semis whereas a 100 average wasn't good enough for Searle against Ryan Joyce in the last 32.

But Heavy Metal crashed into 2024 by reaching the first three Players Championship finals, so maybe he can ping the lids in 2025 too.

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