2025 World Matchplay

The 2025 World Matchplay, known as the 2025 Betfred World Matchplay for sponsorship reasons, is an ongoing professional darts tournament that is being held at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, England, from 19 to 27 July 2025. It is the 32nd annual staging of the World Matchplay by the Professional Darts Corporation. The tournament features 32 players; the top 16 players on the PDC Order of Merit are seeded, and compete in the first round against the top 16 players from the PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit who had not yet qualified. The total prize fund is £800,000, with the winner receiving £200,000. The fourth edition of the Women's World Matchplay will also take place on 27 July.

Cameron Menzies and Wessel Nijman made their debuts at the event, while Michael Smith missed out on qualification for the first time since 2013.

Luke Humphries was the defending champion, having defeated Michael van Gerwen 18–15 in the 2024 final. However, he lost 10–8 to Gian van Veen in the first round.

Overview

Background

The 2025 World Matchplay is the 32nd edition of the tournament to be staged by the Professional Darts Corporation since its inception in 1994. Held at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, England, annually with the exception of 2020, the inaugural champion was Larry Butler, who remains the only American to win a PDC major title; he defeated Dennis Priestley 16–12 in an upset victory in the final. In 2018, the World Matchplay trophy was renamed to the Phil Taylor Trophy, in honour of the sixteen-time champion who retired from PDC darts following the 2018 World Championship. The first recipient of the trophy was 2018 winner Gary Anderson.

The 2025 edition takes place from 19 to 27 July 2025 in the Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens. British bookmaker Betfred continued its sponsorship of the event, extending its partnership with the PDC until 2030. Luke Humphries entered the tournament as defending champion after defeating Michael van Gerwen 18–15 in the 2024 final to win his first World Matchplay title. Humphries and Luke Littler were considered favourites to win the tournament, with Sky Sports pundits also naming Gerwyn Price and Nathan Aspinall as likely contenders.

Format

All matches are in leg play format. All matches have to be won by two clear legs; if the scores are tied after the full distance and six extra legs, the match will be decided by a sudden death leg.

The number of legs required to win increases as the tournament progresses:

*First round: Best of nineteen legs
*Second round: Best of twenty-one legs
*Quarter-finals: Best of thirty-one legs
*Semi-finals: Best of thirty-three legs
*Final: Best of thirty-five legs

Prize money

The prize fund remained at £800,000, with £200,000 going to the winner. The winner will receive the Phil Taylor Trophy.

Broadcasts

The tournament is being broadcast on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Other broadcasters include DAZN in Germany, Austria and Switzerland; Peacock in the United States; FanDuel in the United States and Canada; Fox Sports in Australia; Sky Sport in New Zealand; Viaplay in the Netherlands, Iceland and Scandinavia; L'Équipe in France; VTM in Belgium; TV Nova in Czechia and Slovakia; and Sport1 in Hungary. It is also available on the PDC's streaming service, PDCTV, to international subscribers.

Qualification

The top 16 players on the two-year PDC Order of Merit at the cut-off point on 10 July are seeded for the tournament. The top 16 players on the one-year PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit, not to have already qualified on the cut-off date, are unseeded.

Michael Smith, who won the 2023 PDC World Darts Championship and was runner-up at the 2019 World Matchplay, did not qualify for the event for the first time since 2013. Among other notable players to not qualify were 2020 champion Dimitri Van den Bergh, 2021 semi-finalist Krzysztof Ratajski and reigning European champion Ritchie Edhouse. Cameron Menzies and Wessel Nijman made their World Matchplay debuts, while 2007 champion James Wade is making his 20th consecutive appearance at the event.

The following players qualified for the tournament:

PDC Order of Merit
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Pro Tour Order of Merit
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Summary

First round

The first round began on 19 July. Defending champion and top seed Luke Humphries was eliminated in his opening match, going out in an upset loss to Gian van Veen. Humphries took a 3–2 lead early on by hitting a 146 checkout, but Van Veen would eventually break Humphries's throw to go 8–7 ahead, before winning the match 10–8 after several missed match darts. In his post-match interview, Van Veen told Sky Sports that knocking out the defending champion was the "biggest win" of his career. 2023 champion Nathan Aspinall also suffered an early exit by losing to debutant Wessel Nijman 10–8. Nijman stated that the win was "probably more special" than winning his first match at Alexandra Palace during the 2025 World Championship. 2007 champion James Wade, making his 20th consecutive appearance at the event, recorded his highest World Matchplay average (104) in his 10–3 victory over Joe Cullen, while Danny Noppert defeated Cameron Menzies 10–2; a match that included Menzies busting 178 by hitting a 180.

Schedule

The event is held over nine days from 19 July to the date of the final on Sunday, 27 July.

Draw

The draw was announced on 10 July, conducted by Russ Bray. Numbers to the left of players' names show the seedings for the top 16 in the tournament. The figures to the right of a player's name state their three-dart average in a match. Players in bold denote match winners.

Top averages

The table lists all players who achieved an average of at least 100 in a match. In the case one player has multiple records, this is indicated by the number in brackets.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:World Matchplay
2025
2025 in English sport
2025 in darts
July 2025 sports events in the United Kingdom
World Matchplay