Betfred World Matchplay 2025 Betting Tips: Preview of Sunday’s final

Sunday sees the final of the Betfred World Matchplay Darts at Winter Gardens in Blackpool, and our tipster Sean Rafferty has previewed the contest between Luke Littler and James Wade.

Read on for his Betfred World Matchplay 2025 Betting Tips and his reasoning below.

*You can check out all of our Betfred World Matchplay Odds over on betfred.com

Littler v Wade - it all comes down to this...

Two very different situations here for both players - Littler on the rise, looking to win his first-ever World Matchplay title in just his second appearance here. Then you have Wade, in his 20th consecutive year at the Winter Gardens, in his seventh Matchplay final, looking to win his first title here since 2007.

They may be at opposite ends of their careers but they’ve had many similarities in their routes to the final this week. Both have been through an emotional rollercoaster and survived their fair share of scares to get this far.

Wade had to rely on all his experience to fight off a brave Jonny Clayton comeback last night - The Machine looked to be cruising his way to the finishing line when he led 16-10, that was until The Ferret reeled off six legs on the spin to level at 16-16.

Showing off his vast experience, Wade didn’t panic and continued to play his game, eventually seeing off Jonny 20-18. It was yet another impressive performance from Wadey, averaging just shy of 102 and once again showing his prowess on the doubles, hitting 55.56% of his targets on the outer ring.

Littler himself was involved in a great battle, defeating Josh Rock 17-14 in an absolute classic in what was their first-ever meeting in the PDC, it’s safe to say it lived up to all the hype.

Luke looked to be in trouble as he trailed Rocky 6-1, then he found his top gear and pushed on the accelerator pedal to win 13 of the next 17 legs, not to mention hitting a nine-darter in amongst it in an incredible leg of darts. The Nuke was pushed all the way but eventually got the better of his good friend Josh 17-14. A 107.5 average from Littler, despite only hitting 35% of his doubles, shows how spectacular the scoring phase of his game was last night.

Wade is 51.8% on his doubles for the tournament, he’s going to have to rely on that finishing and a similar if not better level of scoring than he’s showed so far this week, just to give himself a chance tonight.

I am wary of what that marathon match against Clayton may have taken out of James as he arguably approaches the twilight years of his career. I have to give the advantage to the younger man who has played the better stuff this week and has dominated their most recent head-to-head.

Luke Littler -5.5 legs handicap @ 10/11 - 3.5 units

-5.5 legs handicap for Littler looks a solid bet at 10/11, considering The Nuke hammered Wade 11-2 in the UK Open final this year, as well as a 4-0 win in sets over The Machine at the World Masters and a 7-3 legs win in the semi finals of a European Tour event in March.

I also touched on what both have left in the tank, stamina is definitely on Littler’s side which could play a pivotal role in the latter stages of the match.

Luke Littler -5.5 most 180s handicap @ 4/5 - 3.5 units

Littler -5.5 in the 180s handicap market looks equally as appealing - Luke has hit 47 180s in 87 legs this week (0.54 180s per leg), Wade has hit 25 180s in 96 legs (0.26 180s per leg), which suggests Littler will hit at least double the amount of 180s of his opponent tonight.

On top of the fact that across their three matches against each-other in 2025, Littler leads 20-2 on the maximums count.

Fingers crossed we get a good match and see another blockbuster performance from Luke The Nuke - good luck to both players!

*You can check out all of Betfred's Darts Odds for the Betfred World Matchplay and all tournaments throughout the year over on betfred.com

You can find all Sean's latest Darts Betting Tips on our main Insights content hub