Preview Saturday afternoon World Series of Darts Finals - Littler opens title defence with Price, Aspinall and Wright also in action

From Friday, September 12 to Sunday, September 14, the World Series of Darts Finals 2025 is scheduled to be held at AFAS Live, Amsterdam. This tournament is the finale of all World Series of Darts tournaments played over the past year.

After the previous World Series of Darts events, the top eight players are seeded via the Order of Merit. Behind them follow the unseeded participants who made an appearance during the season but did not accumulate enough points to secure seeded status. The remaining spots will be filled by players from the Order of Merit and via the PDC Tour Card Qualifier.

Last year it was Luke Littler who claimed the title. In the final, the 18-year-old cleared 11-4 against Michael Smith, who will not even be present this year. 'The Nuke' will be one of the big favorites again this year. Saturday afternoon the last eight matches from the first round are on the schedule, and here you can read which players will be in action.
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The afternoon session at AFAS Live will kick off with the duel between Chris Dobey and Luke Woodhouse. Dobey starts this tournament as the sixth series leader and is in good shape this year considering his two titles at the Players Championship. He is now firmly in the top ten in the world rankings. Hollywood', who reached the quarterfinals of the World Series of Darts Finals last year, starts this match as the favorite. Yet he will not underestimate Woodhouse, who is also having a good year. Woody, who qualified through the qualifying tournament, will make his debut at the World Series of Darts Finals this year.

After an all-English duel, we get an all-Scottish duel with Cameron Menzies against Peter Wright. Despite the fact that he is a bit lower in the world rankings, Menzies starts this match as the favorite. Wright may have an impressive list of honors, but this year he is performing dramatically. For Wright to attempt to match (or even improve on) his best performance at this tournament - finals in 2015 and 2016 - a miracle seems to be needed. Nothing seems to indicate that "Snakebite" can suddenly raise his level now, or will he once again manage to collectively stun the darts world?

Ross Smith starts his duel with Jonny Tata as the clear favorite. The New Zealander does not have a PDC Tour Card, but is still allowed to compete in this tournament because of his appearance at the World Series of Darts tournaments in Oceania. A surprise is never out of the question, but basically Smith has experience and class enough to make this duel relatively easy to his liking.

With Cor Dekker versus Raymond van Barneveld, two Dutch-born darters are taking on each other. However, Dekker has been living in Norway for quite some time and also plays for that country. He captured his PDC Tour Card early this year and after a hesitant start, he has been on an excellent run in recent weeks. Dekker could make things difficult for Van Barneveld, although 'Barney' can of course count on the support of the home crowd in front of his own people. But Van Barneveld has been pretty much on the dole in recent weeks and hardly seems to radiate pleasure during his matches.

Gerwyn Price won the World Series of Darts Finals in 2020 and 2022 and is also one of the top favorites for the final victory this year. 'The Iceman' has already won four Players Championships this year and was also the best at the Poland Darts Masters. In addition, he also won the Baltic Sea Darts Open. Only a major title is still missing on the 40-year-old Welshman's record this year. Against Danny Lauby, he should not have many problems. The American makes his appearance this weekend thanks to his performance at the US Darts Masters, but his performance this year was not impressive.

Next it is Luke Littler's turn to make his appearance at AFAS Live. 'The Nuke' won last year's World Series of Darts Finals by defeating Michael Smith 11-4 in the final. Littler has already made a big impression this year, after becoming world champion in early January, he added the UK Open and the World Matchplay. With Simon Whitlock, Littler meets a player who has not had a PDC Tour Card this year for the first time in a long time. Whitlock, however, has plenty of experience and on a good day can still win over anyone.

In the penultimate match of the afternoon session, Jonny Clayton and Jason Brandon take on each other. Clayton already won the World Series of Darts Finals once in 2021 and is itching for another final victory. 'The Ferret' is also on an excellent run this year, as evidenced by his final place at the Masters and semifinal place at the UK Open. He also won a Players Championship and the Dutch Darts Championship. With Brandon, Clayton meets a player without a PDC Tour Card. The American has experience mainly within the WDF circuit and was also recently active at the MODUS Super Series. That he makes it difficult for Clayton, however, seems too much to ask.

The afternoon session concludes with an all-English duel. Nathan Aspinall starts this match as a slight favorite. 'The Asp' has dropped out of the top 20, yet he is not having a bad year. He has already won two Euro Tours. Dave Chisnall can only dream of that this year. Chizzy', in recent years always good for one or more titles, is seriously lacking this year and could use a good result. Maybe this weekend?