The Winmau World Masters will return to the darts calendar in 2025, and sees one of the Professional Darts Corporation’s TV events undergo a radical and significant change in format and importance.
2025 PDC Winmau World Masters- All you need to know
The Masters as it was previously known, becomes the Winmau World Masters from 2025 onwards, taking the name of an event previously operated in the BDO darts system. As a BDO event the Winmau World Masters was won by a host of darts legends, including Eric Bristow, Dennis Priestley and Phil Taylor.
Huge impact on the darts world rankings
For players the importance of this tournament increased dramatically with the PDC announcing that the ITV4-televised tournament – introduced to the calendar in 2013 – is now a full ranking event counting towards the World rankings and order of merit. Previous editions of the Masters were all invitational events and as such winners like 2024 champion Stephen Bunting didn’t see a jump in ranking. Players who have seen themselves drop down the rankings in dramatic fashion such as Michael Smith and José de Sousa will be hoping this tournament where they aren’t defending any ranking money will see an upturn in their fortunes.
Darts Rankings rich get richer?
The new-look Winmau World Masters will feature the top 24 players on the PDC Order of Merit following the 2024/25 World Darts Championship, who will be joined in the expanded field by eight further players who progress from Preliminary Rounds, while all games will be played in a sets format over the best of three legs of 501 per set, in keeping with the tournament’s traditional structure. With the top 24 players in the world exempt from qualifying this tournament is yet another opportunity for the PDC elite to pull away from the rest of the tourcard holders in the world rankings. Combined with further changes in the PDC Eurotour structure this event adds another layer of inequality with the ranking rich getting richer and making it harder for players to break into the top 16 in the world.
2025 PDC Winmau World masters schedule
Taking place at the Marshall Arena on Wednesday January 29, the Preliminary Rounds will see players from the PDC circuits around the world competing for eight places in the televised stages.
The Preliminary Rounds will be open to all non-qualified PDC Tour Card Holders, the top eight players from each of the PDC’s 2024 Secondary Tours and Global Affiliate Tours, plus four players from the Junior Darts Corporation.
The full schedule for the event is:
Wednesday January 29 (1300 GMT)
Preliminary Rounds
Thursday January 30 (1900 GMT)
First Round x8
Friday January 31 (1900 GMT)
First Round x8
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
Where you can watch the darts world masters
The Preliminary Rounds will be streamed live on PDCTV and will initially be played in a round-robin phase of 32 groups followed by a knockout phase from the last 32 onwards to find the eight players who will progress to the main event. The televised stages of the tournament will be broadcast on ITV in the UK and around the world on PDC partner broadcasters such as Viaplay and DAZN.
Winmau 10 year deal as event sponsor
If you needed any confirmation that the recent sale of Winmau to private equity should be seen as a positive sign, the fact that they signed an initial 10 year deal to sponsor this event should be seen as commtiment enough. Already commited to a long term deal as the official dartboard manufacturer of PDC events this sponsorship shows they are in it for the long-haul.
2025 PDC Winmau World Masters Prize money- what the dart players can earn
The breakdown of the prize money on offer shows that the majority of the field will not earn any money or ranking points. Those who fail to make it through to the knockout stages
Prize Fund
Winner £100,000
Runner-Up £50,000
Semi-Finalists £30,000
Quarter-Finalists £17,500
Second Round Losers £10,000
First Round Losers £5,000
Preliminary Round Last 16 Losers £2,500
Preliminary Round Last 32 Losers £1,000
Preliminary Round Last 64 Losers £750
Total £500,000
Format of play darts world masters
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 set
Final – Best of 11 sets, best of three legs per set
2025 Winmau World Masters Entries
Top 24 players from PDC Order of merit exempt to last 32 all accepted entry:
Luke Humphries
Luke Littler
Michael van Gerwen
Rob Cross
Stephen Bunting
Dave Chisnall
Jonny Clayton
Damon Heta
Gerwyn Price
Chris Dobey
Nathan Aspinall
Peter Wright
Danny Noppert
Gary Anderson
James Wade
Josh Rock
Michael Smith
Dimitri Van den Bergh
Ryan Searle
Andrew Gilding
Ross Smith
Martin Schindler
Joe Cullen
Mike De Decker
Knockout and group stage entries see only one player missing as Raymond van Barneveld has withdrawn due to illness.
Exempt to Last 64
Daryl Gurney
Dirk van Duijvenbode
Gian van Veen
Ritchie Edhouse
Ryan Joyce
Ricardo Pietreczko
Brendan Dolan
Krzysztof Ratajski
Luke Woodhouse
Jermaine Wattimena
Scott Williams
Gabriel Clemens
Martin Lukeman
Cameron Menzies
Callan Rydz
Kevin Doets
Madars Razma
Mickey Mansell
Ricky Evans
José de Sousa
Kim Huybrechts
Richard Veenstra
Niels Zonneveld
Ian White
Keane Barry
Jim Williams
William O’Connor
Florian Hempel
Matt Campbell
Wessel Nijman
Alan Soutar
Dylan Slevin
Players Seeded for Group Stage
Robert Owen
Ryan Meikle
Stephen Burton
Connor Scutt
Mensur Suljović
Jeffrey de Graaf
Nick Kenny
Thibault Tricole
James Hurrell
Dom Taylor
Chris Landman
Mario Vandenbogaerde
Rhys Griffin
Andy Baetens
Berry van Peer
Nathan Rafferty
Steve Lennon
Radek Szagański
Lukas Wenig
Patrick Geeraets
Matthew Dennant
Darren Beveridge
Jitse van der Wal
Danny Lauby
Robert Grundy
George Killington
Owen Bates
Brett Claydon
Martijn Dragt
Adam Hunt
Haupai Puha
Jelle Klaasen
All players entered into the Group Stage
William Borland
Joshua Richardson
Michele Turetta
Wesley Plaisier
Christian Kist
Niko Springer
Sebastian Białecki
Tom Bissell
Viktor Tingström
Kai Gotthardt
Justin Hood
Tavis Dudeney
Dennie Olde Kalter
Bradley Brooks
Cor Dekker
Greg Ritchie
Karel Sedláček
Tytus Kanik
Maik Kuivenhoven
Oskar Lukasiak
Adam Paxton
Dominik Grüellich
Darryl Pilgrim
Cameron Crabtree
Adam Warner
Adam Lipscombe
Pero Ljubić
Max Hopp
Maximilian Czerwinski
Andy Boulton
Marvin van Velzen
Leon Weber
Thomas Lovely
Darius Labanauskas
Andreas Harrysson
Ivan Springborg
Ryusei Azemoto
Tomoya Goto
Haruki Muramatsu
Brandon Weening
Jeremy Fagg
James Bailey
Wayne McRae
Leonard Gates
Adam Sevada
Alex Spellman
Jake Womack
Henry Coates
Charlie Manby
Nathan Girvan
Jimmy van Schie
John Henderson
Stefan Bellmont
Aden Kirk
Lee Cocks
Jamie Atkins
Fallon Sherrock
Mikuru Suzuki
Lisa Ashton
Robyn Byrne
Lorraine Winstanley
Ryan Branley
Daniel Stephenson
Kieran Thompson
Aidan O’Hara
2025 Winmau World Masters Draw
Draw Bracket
(1) Luke Humphries v Joe Cullen
(16) Josh Rock v Qualifier 6
(8) Damon Heta v Ross Smith
(9) Gerwyn Price v Qualifier 4
(4) Rob Cross v Qualifier 8
(13) Danny Noppert v Michael Smith
(5) Stephen Bunting v Qualifier 5
(12) Peter Wright v Qualifier 1
(2) Luke Littler v Qualifier 3
(15) James Wade v Mike De Decker
(7) Jonny Clayton v Martin Schindler
(10) Chris Dobey v Ryan Searle
(3) Michael van Gerwen v Qualifier 2
(14) Gary Anderson v Dimitri Van den Bergh
(6) Dave Chisnall v Qualifier 7
(11) Nathan Aspinall v Andrew Gilding