Winmau World Masters 2026 Predictions: Three tips to stop the Nuke

After winning back-to-back World Championships, Luke Littler is closing in on the full set of PDC major TV ranking titles, with the upcoming Winmau World Masters one of only two championships he needs to collect, alongside the European Championship. But can anyone stop him this week in Milton Keynes?

Of course, our resident darts tipster Sean Rafferty is back with his Winmau World Masters Betting Tips...

History, Location and Format

The 2026 Winmau World Masters is the thirteenth running of this PDC event and is the second year since being rebranded from The Masters to the iconic name first used in the BDO competition, which dates back to 1974.

The event is once again being held at Arena MK, Milton Keynes, which has hosted the Masters from 2015 and runs from Wednesday, January 28th to Sunday, February 1st, with the tournament proper beginning on Thursday, January 29th. It will be aired on ITV4 in the UK.

The top 24 players in the world following the World Championship automatically qualify for the event, with the remaining eight players decided by a preliminary qualification on the Wednesday.

Prize Money

There is a prize fund of £500,000 on offer to the 32 participants, with £100,000 to the winner.

2.5 units Gian van Veen @ 6/1 

I’ve actually stayed away from Gian in the outright market for a few months now, despite him triumphing at the European Championship for us in late October. There were a few events I was sceptical about his chances, mainly the World Championship, due to a poor record there in previous visits, but he firmly put that to bed with a brilliant run to the final at Ally Pally.

GVV did suffer a pretty demoralising defeat in the World Championship final at the hands of the ever-improving Luke Littler. However, I’ve been just as impressed by Van Veen’s reaction to that, putting in some solid displays at the recent World Series events in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The young Dutchman made the Bahrain Masters final, where he lost out to fellow countryman Michael Van Gerwen, but has already registered a few ton plus averages, showing very little rust after a couple weeks off.

Now up to third in the world rankings, The Giant looks like he’ll be a mainstay in the upper echelons of the sport as he continues to grow in experience and improve his overall game. He has plenty of belief in himself and will be confident of adding another major honour to his name in 2026.

He’ll have to overcome a tricky looking quarter of the draw this time round - first up is Ryan Joyce, who on his day can be dangerous, they’ll likely put on a clinic as far as the finishing is concerned. This is followed by a potential second round tie against in-form Nathan Aspinall, with other big hitters such as James Wade and Gary Anderson in the same section. Gian’s shown more than enough to suggest he’ll regularly be in the business end of big tournaments, regardless of the opposition and looks the best value at the top of the market.

0.75 unit Michael van Gerwen each-way (1/2 - 2 Places) @ 18/1 

I couldn’t resist having MVG on my outright card this week, given what we seen from him in the early World Series events in the Middle East last week. The Green Machine is off to a flyer this season, with victory in the opening event of the year as he won the Bahrain Masters. He made a good fist of following that up straight away, as he was stopped only by Luke Littler in the final in Saudi Arabia.

Van Gerwen’s throw, which really broke down in recent years, is continuing to improve again which I believe is helping with the upturn in form. He posted three 100+ averages across the two World Series events and is bound to have took some further confidence from his success there. Even at the World Championship, he lost out comfortably to Gary Anderson in the Last 16 but averaged around the 100-mark across his last three matches, it isn’t quite vintage MVG but it’s a vast improvement compared to some of the performances we’ve seen from him in recent years.

MVG has one of the more generous opening round ties in my opinion, as he faces Damon Heta who can’t seem to put it together on the big stages and his recent form is a concern. This would be followed by a second round tie against Chris Dobey or Jermaine Wattimena, which I’d make him favourite for too. If he can find his feet in the event with a couple of wins, then I think he’ll be a tough opponent for anyone this weekend, with a confident Mighty Mike one to be feared.

0.5 unit Danny Noppert each-way (1/2 - 2 Places) @ 25/1 

My third and final selection and guess what? It’s another Dutchman. Noppert has been a regular on my outright card for a while now, especially at these major tournaments and that’s because that’s where he’s showed so much consistency. The World Championship ended a long run of making the semi-finals of majors, but it wasn’t due to a drop in level of his performance. Danny lost out in a classic against Justin Hood in the Last 64, but averaged well above 100 himself, so shouldn’t feel too downbeat about it.

Prior to the World Championship, Noppie had made three consecutive major semi-finals. He also made the semi-finals of this event last year, the first edition of the tournament since the format was revamped and changed to sets play.

Noppert was harshly left out of the Premier League line-up, despite these consistently good showings in the major events. I’m sure he’ll be desperate to prove a point by adding a second major title to his name.

This looks a good opportunity to try and do just that as he sits in the weakest quarter of the draw in my eyes. He faces Daryl Gurney first which I’d expect him to win, followed by a potential second round tie against Stephen Bunting who’s badly struggling for form. Luke Humphries is the biggest name in this quarter and he too is struggling for form and perhaps a bit short on confidence at the moment.

Noppert looks a good bet at 25/1 and completes a nice looking all-Dutch card.

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