Schedule Friday night at Nordic Darts Masters including Humphries, Price, Wright and Michael Smith

From 7 p.m. on Friday, the television can be turned on to watch top darts again. Eight PDC stars and eight darters from Scandinavia and the Baltics will compete at the Nordic Darts Masters in the Danish capital of Copenhagen.

As with every World Series tournament, the field of participants consists of eight PDC top players and eight players from the region where the tournament is being played. Unfortunately for Danish fans, Michael van Gerwen and Luke Littler have chosen not to travel to Denmark. They have chosen to go on holiday for a week. However, there are still plenty of top players who did make the trip to the Scandinavian country.

The first two names we will see in action are Dimitri van den Bergh and Dennis Nilsson. For Van den Bergh it's a return to the place where he captured the title in 2022. The Belgian then reigned supreme in Copenhagen with comfortable victories over Benjamin Drue Reus (6-0), Gerwyn Price (10-5), Michael Smith (11-4) and Gary Anderson (11-5). 'The Dreammaker' isn't doing badly at the World Series tournaments anyway, as in his 21 previous appearances he reached the final five times and twice he got to lift the cup. Opponent Dennis Nilsson is no stranger. The former strongest man in Sweden already has a number of Euro Tour appearances to his name and was in the semifinals at Lakeside in 2023.

Nathan Aspinall will be in action in the second match of the evening. 'The Asp' won his first ever World Series tournament in 2019 at the US Darts Masters. In 2023, Aspinall reached two World Series finals, but the Englishman could not win them. The reigning World Matchplay champion will play in his first match at the Nordic Darts Masters against Marko Kantele, a five-time participant at the PDC's World Darts Championship. Former world champion

Gerwyn Price will face perhaps the best darter from the Nordic and Baltic region, namely Madars Razma. The dart player from Latvia is currently ranked No. 36 in the world. Price showed good form last week in New York by reaching the final of the US Darts Masters. Missing from that tournament was Stephen Bunting, who will make his appearance in Copenhagen. The Bullet will replace Michael van Gerwen, who is on vacation in Las Vegas, at the Nordic Darts Masters. Bunting owes his invitations to winning the Masters in February this year. He will square off with Daniel Larsson of Sweden. 

Defending champion Peter Wright will also face a darter from Sweden. The two-time world champion will face Johan Engström. Wright took the title in Copenhagen last year by defeating Dennis Nilsson (6-5), Michael van Gerwen (10-9), Michael Smith (11-8) and Gerwyn Price (11-5). It will be a tall order for "Snakebite" to continue his title defence, as Wright has been in poor form for months. The low point was a paltry last place finish in Premier League Darts with just two wins in 16 weeks.

Michael Smith meets Paavo Myller, the only Finnish entrant in this tournament. Myller made one appearance on the Euro Tour last year and is now facing his World Series debut. For Smith, it will be his 35th World Series tournament. Six times 'Bullyboy' reached the final, of which three were actually won. Rob Cross undoubtedly travelled to Copenhagen with a lot of confidence. Voltage' won the US Darts Masters last week. It is up to Cross to add a second consecutive title in Copenhagen. He will first have to deal with Jeffrey de Graaf. For the Swedish Dutchman it will be his debut at the World Series. De Graaf and Cross met in December at the World Darts Championship. Then the victory went 4-2 in sets to the Englishman;

Danish fans will no doubt be looking forward to the final match of the evening, as in it Danish Tour Card holder Benjamin Drue Reus will take on reigning world champion Luke Humphries. The first order of business for Drue Reus will be to win a leg. The Dane has competed twice in the Nordic Darts Masters but lost 6-0 each time against Dimitri van den Bergh and Gerwyn Price. Humphries will hunt for his first ever World Series title in the Danish capital. In his previous eight appearances at World Series tournaments, 'Cool Hand Luke' did not even reach the final.

First round: Best of 11 legs

Quarterfinals: Best of 11 legs

Semifinals: Best of 13 legs

Final: Best of 15 legs

The Nordic Darts Masters will be broadcast on ITV3 and PDC TV. On Friday, June 7 at 7 p.m., the first round of the Nordic Darts Masters will kick off. In this round, the eight PDC top players will take on eight players from the Nordic countries. On behalf of the PDC, Luke Humphries, Michael Smith, Nathan Aspinall, Gerwyn Price, Rob Cross, Peter Wright, Dimitri van den Bergh and Stephen Bunting will be in action. 

The eight winners of the first round may return to the Forum Copenhagen stage a day later. Then the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals will be played consecutively.

The prize fund for this event includes £60,000. This amount is the same at all regular World Series tournaments. All participants are guaranteed 1250 pounds of prize money.

This amount increases further upon winning matches. The losing finalist collects a check for 10,000 pounds, while the winner of the Nordic Darts Masters gets to take home the top prize of 20,000 pounds. By the way, the money does not count toward the PDC Order of Merit.

However, points can be taken for the World Series Order of Merit. All participants in a World Series tournament are guaranteed one point for the World Series Order of Merit. This number increases to three points upon reaching the quarterfinals, and then to five points for a semifinal place. The losing finalist receives eight points and the winner receives 12 points.

Dimitri Van den Bergh v Dennis Nilsson

Nathan Aspinall v Marko Kantele

Gerwyn Price v Madars Razma

Stephen Bunting v Daniel Larsson

Peter Wright v Johan Engstrom

Michael Smith v Paavo Myller

Rob Cross v Jeffrey de Graaf

Luke Humphries v Benjamin Drue Reus

Quarterfinal

Semifinals

Final