Schedule Thursday Bahrain Darts Masters 2025: First round featuring Littler, Humphries, Bunting and Price in action

The draw is complete, the schedule is confirmed and the action begins at the 2025 Bahrain Darts Masters which is the opening World Series of Darts tournament of the season and really begins the action for the new year.

It has been a few weeks off for the top names but in reality all begins again and is the start of a non stop run for a lot of them. Michael van Gerwen has decided against playing this week in perhaps a shrewd move when it comes to those involved.

A lot of criticism instead of the fact that the PDC are going to Bahrain with the sparse crowd and one or two aside a pretty low quality local talent pool has been levied instead at the line-up.

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Aside from Van Gerwen who has been replaced by Peter Wright perhaps for star quality over his form which a World Championship revival of sorts aside hasn't been great, it is the Premier League Darts line-up which is more the case also in Den Bosch next week when Van Gerwen returns.

Whilst these names are who sponsors and TV executives want, it is a group of names who for the most part were seen on the World Series last year and also were burned out in the case of Price, Wright and also Michael Smith by the middle of the year.

But despite that, all eyes of course will be on Luke Littler. The now current World Champion came in last year on his debut and produced the goods as he hit a wonderful nine-dart finish and won the title.

He returns with all of the fanfare even more so after becoming World Champion. He has been to Benidorm for the week with his family and will likely have an even more hectic year than his breakout. Picking and choosing will be the key but given the demand for the 17-year-old who will turn 18 next week when he gets home, he likely won't be able to miss too much and isn't at the stage perhaps of MVG of being able to take World Series events for holidays.

But he will not be returning to the darts he won the World Championship with he has said this week. So it will be time to test out new equipment ahead of the World Masters and Premier League also in the coming weeks.

Fresh from World Championship glory, Luke Littler returns.

It also sees the return of World No.1 Luke Humphries who went out early at the Alexandra Palace and will be ready to set his stall out likely ready and refreshed having not gone through the rigours of a latter stage run. Littler opens up against the must watch Filipino, Lourence Ilagan also known as 'The Gunner'. While Humphries takes on Abdulla Saeed. They could feasibly play the first instalment of Luke v Luke again come January 17.

They will play back-to-back on Thursday before the final two matches of the night. Opening up is Rob Cross who is third seed. He lost in the second round of the PDC World Darts Championship against Scott Williams and will open the tournament against Paolo Nebrida who ironically reached one round further having dumped out Ross Smith and was impressive at Ally Pally.

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Then Gerwyn Price who showed glimmers of hope at Ally Pally reaching the Quarter-Finals will face Lok Yin Lee who also played at the Alexandra Palace. He famously had a hoodie on under his darts shirt but let his darts do the talking in the latest player from Hong Kong after Man Lok Leung to strut his stuff on the biggest stage and also get a spot in Bahrain.

Nitin Kumar at least previously has been based in the UAE so is an obvious pick as another Asian representative also being from India and will face fan favourite Stephen Bunting who will make his return to World Series action. Bringing the Let's Go Bunting Mental movement and Titanium worldwide.

Bunting in Bahrain - Titanium to blare out in Bahrain.

Speaking of World Series debut for this year, Chris Dobey will also get the treatment of adding to his Premier League spot as he will take on the best player from Bahrain in Basem Mahmood. These two matches go in draw bracket order so the winners will face each other.

Then it is the two Luke's as alluded to with the final two matches of the night seeing Wright face Alexis Toylo who provided a nightmare of sorts for players at the PDC World Darts Championship. His slow pace may pose problems for Wright with his game also being super solid and a player that will take advantage of what opportunities are presented. If Wright is off in this tie, Toylo will take advantage.

Nathan Aspinall then ends proceedings as he takes on Xiaochen Zong, a pretty important game as the winner could face Luke Humphries so we could get that clash in the Quarter-Finals. It is a big year for The Asp as he defends a lot of his ranking money and has also received criticism for being just a walk-on in the view of some in regards to his Premier League spot. It is a make or break year as a result for him with his throw also questioned.

Action begins at 17:00 GMT in the UK and is shown on ITV4 with coverage also on DAZN and PDCTV in other territories. It then goes to the hour before on Friday with 4pm starting proceedings off with the Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and Final. Can the Asian representatives cause any shocks or will it be plain sailing for the PDC players? We will soon find out on Thursday evening.

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Format

Schedule Bahrain Darts Masters 2025

Thursday January 16

Evening session (from 17:00pm)

First round

Rob Cross v Paolo Nebrida

Gerwyn Price v Lok Yin Lee

Stephen Bunting v Nitin Kumar

Chris Dobey v Basem Mahmood

Luke Humphries v Abdulla Saaed

Luke Littler v Lourence Ilagan

Peter Wright v Alexis Toylo

Nathan Aspinall v Xiaochen Zong

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