Sam Hart previews the 2025 World Darts Championship. Giving us his best bets.
That is right; Christmas is here, and there is no better sign of that than the crowds of darts lovers in fancy dress heading into the iconic Alexandra Palace. We start this Sunday on the 15th of December with 3 weeks of action at the oche, for what looks like one of the most competitive World Darts Championships in years.
I will be giving my thoughts on each day of the tournament with the best bets of each day, but for now here is an outright look at this year's competition.
The market currently has young 17-year-old sensation Luke Littler as the 2/1 favourite, Luke Humphries, last year's champion, 3/1, Gary Anderson 10/1, Michael Van Gerwen 12/1, Wessel Nijman is 30/1, Michael Smith and Mike De Decker 33/1, and bigger about the rest of the players.
This has been the year of Luke Littler, hasn't it. Poland Darts Masters, Bahrain Darts Masters, Austrian Darts Open winner, Belgian Darts Open winner, Grand Slam Winner, World Series Finals winner, and the 2024 Premier League Champion. Luke has had some year; he is currently the second favourite to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year ahead of some supreme athletes, which tells you enough about the year he has had.
In the World Championships last year, he was runner-up to world number one Luke Humphries. Littler was an unseeded player; however, he comes into this year's tournament seeded 4, with Luke Humphries being seeded 1. This means their routes are very different this year, with the two finalists from last year only being able to meet in the semifinal on their side of the draw.
Luke Humphries has been brilliant all year, and ever so consistent in the big tournaments. He hasn’t quite had the run-up to the worlds that he had last year when he won almost every major tournament leading up to the big one. He has however shown that he is still the man to beat, and seems to step up his game when playing some of the big guns in big games. We last saw Luke Humphries on a major stage in Minehead taking down Luke Littler 11-7 in the Players Championship final. We know that these two can put on a show, but since the World Championship Final last year, Littler leads 8-5 in the head-to-heads.
This is the side of the draw that no players want to be on, with arguably the best two players in the world right now fighting to get to that big matchup in the semi-finals. Players like Rob Cross, James Wade, Peter Wright, Nathan Aspinall, and Gian Van Veen must be feeling hard done by in this half of the draw.
The latter of those players Gian Van Veen has to be the one of interest though. He is the World Youth Championship winner this year, which was the tournament that Luke Littler won before going on to shock the darting world last year. I have been a fan of Gian this year, and the more experience he gains, the better he is going to get, and I can see him creeping into the world top 10 in the coming years. In his last 7 matches, he's averaged 104.46, which is hard to do for any darts player, but he is a big scorer who can lack it in the finishing game on occasions, but if he can pull out his doubles throughout the tournament, he is dangerous. He is 9/1 to win his quarter with Sky Bet, with Luke Littler 4/7 to win that quarter, but if these two were to meet in a quarterfinal, I wouldn’t have Van Veen as a 9/1 shot to beat Littler. I would have him a lot shorter. The main thing to note with Gian Van Veen is that he is a big scorer and is great for some of the most 180 handicap markets during his matches.
The other half of the draw includes a favourite of many, Gary Anderson, who is currently 10/1 with tournament sponsors Paddy Power. A back-to-back World Championship winner and a man with more experience than most in this event. Gary has been averaging close to 100 in most of his matches in recent months and has seemed to come back to World Championship-winning form. If you had told me at the start of the year that Gary Anderson would be winning a World Championship, I may have laughed, but this resurgence of Gary Anderson and this draw that he has, you have to give him a massive chance. Michael Van Gerwen is in his quarter, but with the form of Mighty Mike, you would probably just have Gary as the favourite based on recent form. I think a win bet for the tournament at 10/1 each way with half the odds isn’t the worst bet in the world on Gary. Those odds with Paddy Power
The player that does excite me is the young Dutchman Wessel Nijman, who is a massive price in the third quarter. He is currently 5/1 with Sky Bet to win his quarter. The only danger for me is Michael Smith, who he could meet in a quarter-final, but Wessel will have what I like to call an advantage of being unseeded sometimes, as he has to play a first-round match prior to his potential second round in Joe Cullen. He will gain experience on the stage and in the atmosphere and should build confidence. He has been throwing huge averages, especially at the Grand Slam. 106 vs Stephen Bunting, 105 vs Josh Rock, and 107 vs Gian Van Veen. It baffles me how he didn’t win any of these matches with averages like this, but I know he can string a group of wins together, and if he can get his doubles together, he is a massive player at 30/1 for this tournament.
So my prediction for this year's tournament will be a Luke Humphries vs. Gian Van Veen semi-final on one side of the draw. A Gary Anderson vs. Wessel Nijman semi-final on the other side of the draw. Then a Humphries vs. Anderson final with Humphries going back to back and winning the tournament at 3/1 with sponsors Paddy Power.
I will be previewing every day of the World Darts Championships with daily trebles and best bets for each day. So stay tuned to betting radio for all the top World Darts Championships previews.