Preview Saturday night Hungarian Darts Trophy including Humphries-Aspinall, Littler and Humphries

The Hungarian Darts Trophy is scheduled from September 19-21, 2025, at the imposing MVM Dome in Budapest. The tournament is the twelfth of 14 PDC European Tour events this season and is an important hurdle toward the European Darts Championship later in October.

The field features 48 players and a total prize pool of £175,000 is up for grabs, with the winner alone taking home £30,000. Title holder Michael van Gerwen won the tournament last year after a blood-curdling 8-7 victory over compatriot Gian van Veen.

Previously Dave Chisnall and Joe Cullen, among others, won the trophy in the Hungarian capital. This time, besides Van Gerwen, top names such as Luke Humphries, Luke Littler, Stephen Bunting and Gerwyn Price will also appear on the oche. Below we preview the final eight matches from the second round scheduled for Saturday night.
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The evening session at the MVM Dome kicked off with the duel between Damon Heta and Niko Springer. Heta, the ninth set head this weekend, might have been counting on a duel with Gian van Veen. The Dutchman, however, somewhat surprisingly lost to Springer in the opening round. The 25-year-old German has been known as a great talent for some time, so Heta will certainly not underestimate him. Heta has already won two Players Championships this year, but he just can't seem to get it right on the majors. On the European Tour, he only won one title in 2022, when he won the Gibraltar Darts Trophy.

Richard Veenstra lost in the decisive qualifying round for this tournament, but due to the cancellation of several players was still allowed to appear in Budapest. In the opening round he defeated Cam Crabtree by a clear 6-3 score. Against Gerwyn Price, Veenstra will probably have a much harder time. After all, 'The Iceman' is on a roll this year and already won a European Tour tournament with the Baltic Sea Darts Open, in addition to four Players Championship titles.

Michael van Gerwen will enter the MVM Dome with the second Dutchman this evening. Van Gerwen comes to Budapest brimming with confidence after winning the World Series of Darts Finals in his home country last weekend. 'Mighty Mike' once again showed his absolute class the old-fashioned way. It remains to be seen if he can follow that up this weekend. With Matthew Dennant he meets a player who was allowed to play as reserve this weekend. Dennant - just like Veenstra - took advantage of that and beat Andrew Gilding 6-4 in the opening round. But make it really difficult for Van Gerwen, no, that seems impossible.

Luke Littler had to settle for defeat in the final of the World Series of Darts Finals last weekend. After all, Michael van Gerwen proved too strong for the 18-year-old Englishman in front of his own crowd, 11-7. The honorable Littler may want to take revenge as early as this weekend and Joe Cullen could well be the victim of that. The Rockstar' is in form, as he recently won a Players Championship and defeated Lukas Wenig 6-5 in the first round.

The previous European Tour tournament - the Czech Darts Open - was a triumph for Luke Humphries. Will the current world number one make it two in a row this weekend? If so, he must first get past his compatriot Nathan Aspinall. 'The Asp' - now slipping out of the top 20 in the world rankings - is yearning for another success. Both men have often guaranteed great duels between them in the past, if they both reach their best level, we might get a duel to lick thumbs and fingers at.

Stephen Bunting has been in excellent form all year. 'The Bullet' has already won two tournaments of the World Series of Darts, two Players Championships and a Euro Tour. He is fourth in the world rankings. Bunting starts his duel with Thibault Tricole as high favorite. The French Touch' somewhat surprisingly defeated Jermaine Wattimena in the previous round, but he did not really impress.

In the penultimate match of the evening session, Josh Rock makes his first appearance this weekend. 'Rocky' is one of the men of the moment, especially after winning World Cup of Darts alongside Daryl Gurney he seems to be playing on a cloud. Rock has come up against an even stronger Luke Littler and Michael van Gerwen a few times in recent weeks. But it seems only a matter of time before a big win is on the horizon. Rock takes on Ricardo Pietreczko in his opening match. 'Pikachu' was too strong for Jim Williams in the first round, 6-1. To make things difficult for Rock, however, he will have to shift up a few gears.

Rounding out the evening session in Budapest will be Mike De Decker and Tom Bissell. De Decker is slowly growing into his best form with the important majors coming up this fall. Last weekend he reverted to his old flights and it suited him particularly well. 'The Real Deal' starts his match against Bissell as the favorite. The Englishman - who only captured his PDC Tour Card early this year - beat Dirk van Duijvenbode 6-5 in his opening match. For Bissell, it was his first win in a match on the European Tour.