STAR DARTS PREVIEW: World Series of Darts Finals

The darts is back on our TV on Thursday evening with the World Series of Darts Finals kicking off in Amsterdam, writes EMILY WALLIS.

This is the first big event coming up towards the end of the year where we have so much more to look forward to with the Grand Prix also just around the corner.

The World Series of Darts Finals has a slightly loose qualifying criteria, especially with players taking part who haven’t actually competed in any World Series events this year. However, it’s going to be an interesting weekend and it’s good that we’re going to see a few different players from around the world.

This event is also going to have a big bearing on events coming up as Luke Littler is looking for a clean sweep of major titles in 2026. He is 4/6 favourite to win this weekend and, as always, will take some stopping! If he is to win it, he’ll go straight to Den Bosch for the Players Championship events next week as he still has work to do to qualify for the Players Championship Finals in November after only attending just two out of 28 of these events so far this year! If he is unsuccessful in Amsterdam, we most likely won’t see him attempt to qualify for Minehead.

It is not all about Littler though, our defending champion is Michael van Gerwen who beat Littler in the final last year to claim the trophy for the sixth time! He is also the only player to hit a nine-darter in the event so it’s certainly a tournament he seems to enjoy and his win in it last year was a much needed boost.

MVG has also won two of the six World Series events this year including the Bahrain Darts Masters all the way back in January and another in Denmark in June.

As the events are spread across the year, here is a reminder of those who were successful in them this year.

Bahrain Darts Masters – Michael van Gerwen

Saudi Arabia Darts Masters – Luke Littler

Nordic Darts Masters – Michael van Gerwen

US Darts Masters – Luke Humphries

New Zealand Darts Masters – Jonny Clayton

Australian Darts Masters – James Wade

A couple of the other players I am looking forward to seeing include Australia’s Brody Klinge who had a fantastic run to the final in Wollongong, he took out some big names and played very well to do so, only falling at the last hurdle in the final against James Wade.

Many will be looking forward to seeing Japan’s Motomu Sakai too who made a name for himself in the World Championship last year winning his first-round match and being very entertaining in doing so too, plenty of dancing on his walk on which I’m sure we can expect to see tomorrow evening!

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Outright

When Luke Littler has his mind on something like a clean sweep of Major titles, it’s even harder to look past him in the outright market.

However, there’s definitely value to be had in others. James Wade won the last World Series event in Australia as mentioned. He also won the most recent European Tour last weekend in Belgium and played brilliantly throughout that.

He does have a tough half of the draw and even in the first round where he’ll face Damon Heta who also had a good run in the Euro Tour last weekend. He got to the semi-finals where he was beaten by Wade so that could be fresh in their minds.

It doesn’t get easier after that as he’ll most likely face Wessel Nijman if he comes through his first round match against Simon Whitlock, Nijman also seems like he’s knocking on the door for a big TV win after winning multiple Pro Tour and Euro Tour events this year.

However, Wade has been in this good form for a while now, he’s consistently making the semi-finals of Majors and at 22/1 could be worth a small each-way play.

The same can be said for Michael van Gerwen who we have already said so much about and I feel he has a slightly nicer section of the draw compared to Wade. He loves this competition and, I’m confident, will have his mind set on winning this weekend as well. He is also priced at 22/1 and 3/1 to win his quarter.

Make sure to check out the Star Sports specials for each session this weekend. Tonight I like the look of Dirk van Duijvenbode, Michael van Gerwen and Gian van Veen all to win which has been boosted into 9/4. They all have great chances to come through their matches and they’re also all playing in their home country so they won’t be short of supporters cheering them on!

I can’t wait for the rest of the year where the majors start to come thick and fast and that starts in Amsterdam this weekend.

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