Saudi Arabia Darts Masters 2026 Predictions: Cool Hand return to form?

After Michael van Gerwen's victory in Bahrain at the weekend, we're straight back into more World Series action on Monday in neighbouring Saudi Arabia for the inaugural hosting of this event.

Of course, our resident darts tipster Sean Rafferty is back with his Saudi Arabia Darts Masters Betting Tips...

History, Location and Format

The 2025 Saudi Arabia Darts Masters is the first running of this PDC event and is the second 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 being held at Global Theatre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and runs from Monday, January 19th to Tuesday, January 20th. It will be aired on ITV4 in the UK.

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.

2 units Luke Humphries @ 11/2

It’s been a while since I backed Humphries but I feel this event could be a good time to put my faith back into Cool Hand. He didn’t come out victorious in Bahrain a few days ago, exiting in the Quarter Finals against Nathan Aspinall. It was a good couple of performances to take some encouragement from though, as he averaged 103 in a whitewash win over Abdulla Saeed before losing out 6-3 to Aspinall. He lost the last five legs in that one, having led 3-1, but did still average above the 100 mark again.

If I had one weakness to pick out with Luke just now it would be that I think he’s lacking a bit of confidence. He’s still playing to a decent level, but when the going gets tough in a match of late or his opponent really ups their level, Humphries seems to weaken too easily and the head starts to go down. We saw it at the World Championship when he lost out to Gian Van Veen in the Quarter Finals, the Grand Slam final against Luke Littler and the European Championship final, against Van Veen again.

Nothing is going to fix his confidence issues more than a title win, so he’ll be hoping he can get that done as soon as possible. The good news is he has a couple of matches that I think he can navigate his way through, without a massive amount in reply from his opponents. With all due respect to him, Ryusei Azemoto is one of the easier draws to get opening round, which should be a walk in the park for Humphries. This is likely to be followed by a Quarter Final against Gerwyn Price who is suffering from a bit of “ring rust” as he openly admitted he’s barely picked up a dart since the World Championship, his performances in Bahrain were very inconsistent.

If Cool Hand Luke can build a bit of momentum in this event then I see him as one of the favourites to lift the title in Saudi. He revealed that he only had a 3-day break without practicing after the World Championship compared to his usual 7 to 10 day break, so he comes into this better prepared than most.

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

I’m going with Noppert for the second successive World Series event, as he’s not really given me a reason to go off him. He fell short against fellow countryman and World Cup partner Gian Van Veen in Bahrain, losing out 6-1 in the Quarter Finals, a scoreline that felt very harsh on Danny, having averaged 106.47 himself in the match, a few missed doubles being his only fault.

Being in this half of the draw gives him a good chance once again to go deep. He has no Van Veen, Littler or Humphries to contend with until the final if he gets there, making him a appealing bet. Van Gerwen was brilliant in Bahrain but if it’s the MVG we’ve became accustomed to in recent years, it’s hard to see him backing that title win up with another big showing here, as he’s struggled to follow a successful tournament with another in quick succession.

Man Lok Leung is one of the more capable players to ply their trade on the Asian Tour, however his more recent big stage performances have flattered to deceive to be honest. Van Veen was far from his best against him in the opening round in Bahrain, but Man Lok still came up well short in a 6-2 defeat. If Noppie gets past him then it’ll be Aspinall or Ilagan awaiting in the Quarters, Ilagan could push Aspinall close too I reckon.

Having averaged 100+ in six of his last eight matches, it’s hard to ignore the 16/1 on a player with form like that.

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