The Winmau World Masters 2026 will be held at Milton Keynes’ Arena MK from January 29 to February 1, 2026. It was renamed to reflect the BDO/WDF version from its previous name, the Masters. It included sets that, for many years, were the oldest outside of the World Championship and a former focal point of the most prominent competition.
Taking place after World Series sojourns in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, it is the second edition since the rebrand. The main tournament features a 32-player field. The top 24 players on the PDC Order of Merit following the PDC World Championship automatically qualify for the main tournament. They will be joined by eight qualifiers who advance from the preliminary round, which features players outside the top 24 and players from the PDC affiliate tours.
Luke Humphries is the defending champion having defeated Jonny Clayton 6-5 in the 2025 final and will return alongside the likes of Luke Littler, Gian van Veen and Michael van Gerwen who will move straight through to the TV rounds.
The qualifiers from the preliminary rounds which are now set will face off against the designated players left in from the top 24.
All matches are played in a set format, with each set decided by a best-of-3 legs system. In the preliminary rounds, matches are played over a maximum of three sets. From the first round onwards, the format is expanded.
In the first round, matches are played as best-of-5 sets. The second round and quarter-finals move to best-of-7 sets, followed by best-of-9 sets in the semi-finals. The final is played over best-of-11 sets, meaning a player must win six sets to lift the trophy on Sunday evening.
Field Winmau World Masters 2026
Pre-Qualified Players
(Top 16 seeded for Round One draw; positions 17–24 also directly qualified)
| No. | Player |
| 1 | Luke Littler |
| 2 | Luke Humphries |
| 3 | Gian van Veen |
| 4 | Michael van Gerwen |
| 5 | Jonny Clayton |
| 6 | Gary Anderson |
| 7 | Stephen Bunting |
| 8 | Ryan Searle |
| 9 | Josh Rock |
| 10 | Danny Noppert |
| 11 | James Wade |
| 12 | Gerwyn Price |
| 13 | Chris Dobey |
| 14 | Nathan Aspinall |
| 15 | Martin Schindler |
| 16 | Ross Smith |
| 17 | Damon Heta |
| 18 | Jermaine Wattimena |
| 19 | Mike De Decker |
| 20 | Rob Cross |
| 21 | Luke Woodhouse |
| 22 | Dave Chisnall |
| 23 | Daryl Gurney |
| 24 | Ryan Joyce |
Preliminary Round Qualifiers
(Wednesday, January 28)
| Qualifier | Player |
| Q1 | Niels Zonneveld |
| Q2 | Jeffrey de Graaf |
| Q3 | Madars Razma |
| Q4 | Wessel Nijman |
| Q5 | Shane McGuirk |
| Q6 | Connor Scutt |
| Q7 | Jimmy van Schie |
| Q8 | James Hurrell |
Predictions
Samuel Gill, Head Editor for DartsNews.com sees Luke Littler adding the final piece.
Quite easy one for me. I think the format itself should be changed so that the top players have less protection but to be honest, that would defer from the broadcasters getting Littler et al.
So while they get the protection, I would plump for Littler to add the final piece of the darting puzzle to the collection. While I also see good runs for Josh Rock to establish himself prior to the Premier League as well as Danny Noppert and Nathan Aspinall to prove a point.
Gerwyn Price to no doubt will want to be on his A game to start the new year.
Favourites
Luke Littler
Josh Rock, Danny Noppert
Nathan Aspinall, Gerwyn Price
Mats Leering, Editor for DartsNieuws.com sees Gerwyn Price as the champion in MK.
With the World Masters, the first major of 2026 is already on the schedule. And somehow I have a feeling that it won’t be one of the two Lukes who will prevail. Although both Littler and Humphries are always among the favourites in advance, I have a feeling that someone else will come out on top this time.
I’m thinking of names like Gerwyn Price, Jonny Clayton or perhaps even Gary Anderson. Price has been in good form for months and came up against an unstoppable Wesley Plaisier at the World Championship. Still, I have a feeling he’s about to finally win another major.
Jonny Clayton and Gary Anderson played a strong World Championship and could continue that form at the Masters. Clayton was in the final here last year, so he knows what it takes. And when Anderson is on form, he is capable of beating anyone, as he showed at the World Championship.
As a Dutchman, I am also curious to see how the Dutch players Michael van Gerwen, Gian van Veen and Danny Noppert will perform. Van Veen is now number 3 in the world and can therefore be counted among the favourites in every tournament.
Van Gerwen is a question mark. He played well against Anderson at the World Championship, but still lost relatively easily. I am curious to see how he approaches this tournament and whether we will see his hunger to win tournaments again. And finally, Noppert: he wasn’t in the Premier League squad, so he’ll be keen to show that he should have been.
Favourites
Gerwyn Price
Luke Littler, Jonny Clayton
Luke Humphries, Gary Anderson, Danny Noppert
There is no escaping the starting point. The 2026 Winmau World Masters revolves around Luke Littler, the all-conquering favourite and the clear benchmark after another dominant World Darts Championship run. His Ally Pally performance underlined not just brilliance, but control. In a short-set format that punishes hesitation, Littler’s growing strength is his ability to impose order on chaos.
That shifts the intrigue away from whether he can win, and firmly onto who is capable of standing up to him, particularly in the latter stages.
One of the most compelling challengers is Gian van Veen. His World Championship final run was built on sustained elite output rather than isolated spikes, and it elevated him to Dutch number one. The Masters now becomes a test of confirmation rather than surprise, but his ability to strike early and overwhelm opponents makes him naturally suited to short sets.
Motivation is also a major factor for Stephen Bunting, whose Premier League inclusion sparked significant debate online. Few players feed off proving points better than Bunting, and the Masters offers a quick, unforgiving platform to answer that criticism on the board.
There is similar edge running through Danny Noppert, James Wade and Nathan Aspinall, all omitted from the Premier League line-up. Each has pedigree in set play, and each arrives knowing that strong form here would immediately reframe their early-season narrative.
The most pressure-laden storyline, however, surrounds Michael van Gerwen. A disappointing World Championship and the loss of his Dutch number one status for the first time in over a decade have inevitably raised questions. The Masters feels like the kind of event where Van Gerwen either reasserts authority or invites further scrutiny.
Defending champion Luke Humphries sits somewhere between those narratives. His quarter-final World Championship exit fell short of expectations, but returning to a venue where he lifted silverware last year offers a clear route back to winning ways. His power game remains tailor-made for this format, provided he starts quickly.
In the end, this competition seems more about reaction than opportunity. Littler establishes the standard. When the stakes are at their highest, the true struggle is over: who gets to meet him?
