Winmau World Masters 2025 Draw | Humphries to face Cullen in Milton Keynes
The draw for the 2025 Winmau World Masters has been confirmed ahead of the Preliminary Rounds in Milton Keynes.
The new-look Winmau World Masters takes place at the Marshall Arena, with the Preliminary Rounds held on Wednesday January 29 ahead of the televised main event from Thursday January 30 to Sunday February 2.
The tournament will feature the top 24 players on the PDC Order of Merit joined by a further eight qualifiers from the Preliminary Rounds.
The revamp includes a return to the traditional sets format of best of three legs per set and will offer all non-qualified Tour Card holders, the top eight players from each of the PDC’s 2024 Secondary Tours and Global Affiliate Tours, plus four players from the Junior Darts Corporation, the chance to qualify.
The Preliminary Rounds will be streamed live and will initially be played in a round-robin phase of 32 groups, followed by a knockout phase from the Last 32 onwards to determine the eight qualifiers for the main event.
World number one Luke Humphries will launch his title challenge against 2022 Masters champion Joe Cullen in one of the stand-out ties of the First Round.
Newly-crowned World Champion Luke Littler awaits for one of the eight qualifiers, alongside five-time Masters champion Michael van Gerwen and reigning champion Stephen Bunting.
Two-time World Champion Gary Anderson faces reigning UK Open champion Dimitri van den Bergh, while Dutch number two Danny Noppert faces 2023 World Champion Michael Smith.
Jonny Clayton, the 2021 Masters winner, will go head-to-head with German number one Martin Schindler, while Chris Dobey, who won the title in 2023, meets Ryan Searle.
Ten-time major winner James Wade takes on reigning World Grand Prix champion Mike De Decker, while Australian number one Damon Heta will face former European Champion Ross Smith and Nathan Aspinall locks horns with Andrew Gilding in a battle of former UK Open champions.
Rob Cross, Dave Chisnall, Gerwyn Price, Peter Wright and Josh Rock will also discover their opponents following the conclusion of the Preliminary Rounds.
The Preliminary Rounds will see 32 players seeded through to the Last 64 (players 25-56 on the PDC Order of Merit), and they will be joined by 32 Group Winners from the round-robin group stage.
The group stage will see 32 players seeded as one per group (players 57-88 on the PDC Order of Merit), with the remaining players drawn at random to the groups.
The schedule of play for the £500,000 main event will be confirmed following the conclusion of the Preliminary Rounds.
Winmau World Masters 2025 Draw
Luke Humphries (1) v Joe Cullen
Josh Rock (16) v Qualifier 6
Damon Heta (8) v Ross Smith
Gerwyn Price (9) v Qualifier 4
Rob Cross (14) v Qualifier 8
Danny Noppert (13) v Michael Smith
Stephen Bunting (5) v Qualifier 5
Peter Wright (12) v Qualifier 1
Luke Littler (2) v Qualifier 3
James Wade (15) v Mike De Decker
Jonny Clayton (7) v Martin Schindler
Chris Dobey (10) v Ryan Searle
Michael van Gerwen (3) v Qualifier 2
Gary Anderson (14) v Dimitri Van den Bergh
Dave Chisnall (6) v Qualifier 7
Nathan Aspinall (11) v Andrew Gilding
