Bahrain Darts Masters 2026 Predictions: Noppie to open year in style

After the amazing drama of the World Championship, we're back into the meat and drink of the regular season darts calendar and we start with the Bahrain Darts Masters, the first event of the World Series. Back-to-back World Champion Luke Littler leads the eight-strong PDC line-up, who are joined by eight regional qualifiers.

Of course, the return of the darts means the return of our star tipster Sean Rafferty who had another 200+ points return last season. Here are his Bahrain Darts Masters Betting Tips...

History, Location and Format

The 2025 Bahrain Darts Masters is the fourth running of this PDC event, having been first held in 2023 and is the first of six regular season events on the World Series of Darts, ahead of the finals which are held in Amsterdam in September.

The tournament is once again held at Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain and runs from Friday, January 15th to Saturday, January 16th. It will be aired on ITV4 in the UK.

The defending champion is Stephen Bunting, who defeated Gerwyn Price 8-4 in last year's final.

Prize Money

There is a prize fund of £100,000 on offer to the 16 participants, which is made up of eight invited PDC representatives and eight from the PDC Asian Tour.

Bahrain Darts Masters Odds

1 unit Danny Noppert each-way (1/3 - 2 Places) @ 14/1 

I felt Noppert was probably the unluckiest of the lot in terms of who missed out on a spot in the upcoming Premier League. It’s a decision from the PDC that I certainly didn’t agree with, considering he made four major semi-finals last year. Perhaps his face doesn’t fit, but either way I think he’s been very hard done by.

Noppie more than played his part in one of, if not the best, match of the latest World Championship. Noppert lost out 3-2 in sets to the brilliant debutant Justin Hood, in a match that neither player deserved to be on the losing side of. Noppert averaged over 102 and played well against Jurjen Van der Velde in his opening match too, so hopefully shouldn’t be too disheartened by an earlier than expected exit from the Ally Pally.

In what feels like a bit of a token gesture, Danny has at least got the call-up for the next couple of World Series events. He’s got one of the easiest opening round draws, as he faces one of the Bahraini representatives, Basem Mahmood. A win in that could result in a quarter final battle against fellow countryman, Gian Van Veen, who may need a couple events to find his feet again after the disappointment of being hammered 7-1 in the World final against Luke Littler.

If Noppert continues his recent form and consistency then I see no reason why he can’t at least threaten another deep run and start off his year with a bang. At very generous odds of 14/1, he offers great each way appeal.

1 unit Nathan Aspinall each-way (1/3 - 2 Places) @ 16/1 

I can’t quite believe how good these odds are for Aspinall, especially when you consider he’s in the more open half of the draw which doesn’t contain a certain Mr Luke Littler. I often feel Aspinall is slightly underestimated in the outright markets, luckily for us that seems to be the case again.

It’s a quick rematch for Aspinall in the opening round as he faces the exuberant Lourence Ilagan. The two just played each-other in the opening round of the recent World Championship. It was a tense tussle but Nathan eventually ran out a 3-1 winner. The two also met in the opening round in the 2024 edition of this tournament, Aspinall narrowly edging that one 6-5.

Doubles were a slight concern for Aspinall at both the Grand Slam and World Championship, so he’ll be hoping to sort out those issues as the heavy scoring is most definitely still there, which was at the forefront in his run to the final of the Players Championship Finals in Minehead last November.

Aspinall is another one who’s definitely shown enough form to be capable of making the final of this, which would see us make decent profit given the odds. But he also has the bottle to get the job done in the final if he makes it there. He’s had plenty joy on the Euro Tour this past year but he’s overdue to taste some silverware elsewhere.

Click the link for all the latest Darts Odds

Find more Darts Betting Tips here at Betfred Insights