STAR DARTS PREVIEW: World Matchplay 2026

Major darts action is finally back as the World Matchplay kicks off on Saturday at the iconic  in Blackpool, writes EMILY WALLIS.

It’s definitely a highlight of the darting season as it’s a longer format throughout the whole tournament, something we don’t often get to see.

It’s made the Players Championship and Euro Tour events even more interesting in the past couple of months with players desperately trying to win enough prize money to qualify for the Matchplay. It’s not an easy one to qualify for with just the top 16 in the world and the top 16 on the Pro Tour Order of Merit taking part but it does provide us with a very classy field.

In the first round, the matches are the first to get 10 legs and, in the final, they will eventually have to be the first to win 18 legs to secure the trophy.

There’s one player that’s been almost unbeatable in these longer format games over the last couple of years and that is defending champion, Luke Littler. He beat James Wade in the final 18-13 last year to secure his first World Matchplay title.

If Littler was to win it again this year, he will be the first player to win it back-to-back since Michael van Gerwen in 2016 and, as usual in the big majors, he is the hot favourite to do just that.

All players will be heading to Blackpool with plenty of belief though and it’s sure to be an interesting week of brilliant darting action.

The final will take place on Sunday 26th July and we’ll have a whole day of darts to enjoy that day as we also have the Women’s World Matchplay taking place too.

Talking of short priced favourites, Beau Greaves is priced at 1/8 in the outright winner’s market for this! That leaves plenty of value to be found elsewhere, she did get beat in the semi-finals last year 5-3 by fellow women’s darts legend, Lisa Ashton, who was the eventual winner.

However, now with a tour card and having already won a Players Championship event, Greaves’ game has come on a bundle and she will be the one to beat.

Before we find that out though, we have a whole week of games to watch to find out who will be in the World Matchplay final later that evening.

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Outright

As I have said, Luke Littler has been pretty much unbeatable over long format games since he burst onto the scene a couple of years ago and it’s really hard to look past him in the outright market.

He’s been boosted into 11/10 with Star Sports to win a second successive World Matchplay title which seems a very fair price.

Littler hasn’t played too much since lifting the Premier League title back in May. Since, he has played in just two World Series events, the Nordic and US, in which Luke Humphries beat him in both.

He’ll be hungry to win over the next week though and I think he will progress nicely as the competition goes on.

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3rd Quarter:

Luke Humphries won this tournament two years ago when on a brilliant run of form. He has perhaps struggled to get over the line against Littler in a few of them since though.

I do think there have been signs of him coming back to play some of his best stuff recently. As mentioned, he won the US Darts Masters in New York at the end of June, winning in a last leg decider against Luke Littler in the final, something that has proved hard for him to do many times before.

He also beat Littler in the Nordic Darts Masters before that and just narrowly lost out in the final to Michael van Gerwen. He went very close to retaining his Premier League title in May and the last time he played in a Players Championship event he won it very comfortably.

These are all big positives for Humphries going into the third major of the year and I think he should win his quarter of the draw.

He may have a slightly tough draw in the first round against Cameron Menzies who is very hard to predict but I think Humphries’ composure and professionalism should see him through that game.

After that, the danger in that quarter would have to be Gerwyn Price. However, since winning a Euro Tour back in April, he hasn’t had too many good results, and he has been playing more events than some of the other top players too.

Humphries is 5/4 to win his quarter with Star Sports, however they have boosted Littler and Humphries to both win their quarters into 5/2, which seems very appealing.

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4th Quarter:

I think it’s fair to say that no player is having a better year so far than Wessel Nijman! He has already won six Players Championship titles this season, becoming the first player in 14 years to win six of these in a calendar year.

There were perhaps doubts about if he could also do it on the stage but he’s making good progress at putting those to bed having also already won two Euro Tour titles so far this year.

He does still have to prove he can do it on a major stage but the confidence he is walking into the Winter Gardens with this weekend could make a huge difference.

He is priced at 13/8 to win his quarter of the draw. The main danger looks to be Gian van Veen, however I feel he is perhaps not playing his best and seems to have lost a bit of momentum in the last couple of months.

You also can’t discount James Wade in the quarter either who is a former winner of this tournament and was runner-up last year.

I do like Wessel Njman’s draw in the first round against Dave Chisnall, I think that should be a comfortable enough win for him. Should he win, no one will particularly want to play him at any stage of the tournament with the form he’s in and the way he can smash in those big scoring visits.

Overall, it should be a great week of action in Blackpool. Perhaps whoever wins this tournament could set the tone for the other exciting majors we are creeping closer to towards the end of the year!

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