The 2025 World Matchplay gets underway at the Winter Gardens on Saturday, and we’ve got the best darts tips ahead of the weekend’s action.
32 of the world’s best darts players will battle it out at the Winter Gardens for the Phil Taylor Trophy from 19 to 27 July, with the 2025 World Matchplay getting underway on Saturday.
A prize pot of £800,000 is on offer, with the winner taking home a healthy £200,000 total.
It will be the 32nd edition of the tournament, which is held annually in Blackpool, with world No. 1 Luke Humphries looking to defend his title after beating Michael van Gerwen in the 2024 final.
Humphries and Van Gerwen are among the 16 PDC Order of Merit qualifiers, alongside the likes of Luke Littler, Gerwyn Price, Stephen Bunting, Nathan Aspinall, Gary Anderson and more.
A further 16 players have qualified via the Pro Tour Order of Merit, with Josh Rock, Gian van Veen, Mike De Decker, Joe Cullen and Raymond van Barneveld among the standouts.
Wessel Nijman and Cameron Menzies have also qualified due to their positions on the Pro Tour Order of Merit, with the pair making their respective World Matchplay debuts.
Michael Smith, who finished as runner-up in 2019, failed to qualify for the first time since 2013.
UK betting sites have Littler as the pre-tournament favourite. Having been eliminated in the first round last year, The Nuke is 15/8 to prevail this time around.
World Matchplay 2025 Outright Winner Odds
| Winner | Odds |
| Luke Littler | 15/8 |
| Luke Humphries | 4/1 |
| Gerwyn Price | 8/1 |
| Josh Rock | 14/1 |
| Gary Anderson | 16/1 |
| Michael van Gerwen | 16/1 |
| Stephen Bunting | 20/1 |
| Nathan Aspinall | 22/1 |
| Chris Dobey | 28/1 |
| Jonny Clayton | 28/1 |
Darts Tips for 2025 World Matchplay
First Round Tips
Saturday – Danny Noppert and Luke Humphries To Win Match & Most 180s @ 10.37/1
James Wade and Joe Cullen get the 2025 World Matchplay underway on Saturday, being one of four matches due to be played on the opening night of the tournament.
Danny Noppert faces Cameron Menzies in the second match, followed by Luke Humphries vs Gian van Veen and Nathan Aspinall vs Wessel Nijman to close out the evening.
Our tip for the opening day is a ‘Match Double’ double. We’re backing both Noppert and Humphries to win and to record the most 180s in their respective matches.
Noppert achieved this exact feat when he defeated Menzies 5-4 at the Grand Slam of Darts in November 2024, and we expect the Dutchman to do so again this time around.
The Freeze reached the quarter-finals at the Baltic Sea Darts Open, beating Mike De Decker and Aspinall before losing to Chris Dobey, and recorded the most 180s in all three of his matches.
Humphries also reached the quarter-finals in Kiel, beating Mickey Mansell and Ryan Searle in the first two rounds, and suffered elimination after being beaten by eventual winner Gerwyn Price.
We’re expecting Cool Hand’s class to shine through against a talented Van Veen here.
You can back the double at around 10/1.
Sunday – Rob Cross, Dave Chisnall and Jonny Clayton To Win @ 5.44/1
The busiest day of first round action is on Sunday, with a total of eight matches being played.
Our tip is a ‘Match Winner’ treble, as we’re backing Rob Cross, Dave Chisnall and Jonny Clayton to win their respective matches. Cross takes on Dirk van Duijvenbode and Chisnall meets Mike De Decker in the afternoon, and Clayton faces Martin Schindler in the evening.
Voltage and The Ferret are both favoured to win their respective matches.
Meanwhile, De Decker is narrowly favoured to beat Chizzy in their clash.
We at SportsCasting, like the bookmakers, are backing Cross and Clayton to reign supreme in their first round fixtures, but are backing Chisnall to defy the odds as he looks to advance beyond the World Matchplay quarter-finals for the first time in his career.
You can back our treble at around 5/1.
Monday – Gerwyn Price and Michael van Gerwen To Win Match & Most 180s and Josh Rock To Win @ 6.32/1
Our final tip for the first round is for Monday’s darting action, with Chris Dobey, Gerwyn Price, Michael van Gerwen, Raymond van Barneveld and Josh Rock scheduled to play.
With Price and Van Gerwen heavily favoured against Daryl Gurney and Van Barneveld, respectively, we’re backing the pair to win and to provide the most 180s in their ties.
To add value to our tip, we’re also backing Rock to beat Ross Smith in the evening’s final match.
The Iceman and Rocky have been in fine form ahead of the tournament, thus our confidence in those selections. MVG though, hasn’t, but we expect him to bounce back against his compatriot.
Van Gerwen last faced off against Barney at the Dutch Darts Masters in January 2024. That one ended 6-5 in favour of The Green Machine, as he went on to lift the title.
Our treble comes out to around 6.32/1.
Outright Tip – Gerwyn Price To Win @ 8/1
Gerwyn Price heads into the World Matchplay in blistering form, having already secured title triumphs at the Poland Darts Masters and the Baltic Sea Darts Open this month.
Additionally, he reached the final of Players Championship 21, where he lost to Bradley Brooks.
He has also won three Players Championship titles this year – more than any other player on the PDC Pro Tour.
A runner-up in Blackpool in 2022, The Iceman is aiming to go one better this time around, and based on his recent showings, he’s more than capable of doing exactly that.
Of course, Littler and Humphries are his biggest obstacles in doing that, but he cannot face the former until the semi-final and cannot face the latter until the final.
Rated as the third favourite pre-tournament, we see value in backing the Welshman to prevail. Price’s net worth, which is around £2.5m, would increase drastically with a victory.
Priced at around 8/1 by leading bookmakers, we’re backing the PDC’s form player to win an eighth major title of his career at the Winter Gardens.
