Stephen Bunting wins Promi-Darts World Championship exhibition tournament also including Littler, Humphries and Van Gerwen
PDC
Luke Littler had barely been crowned the youngest world champion in PDC history on Friday night when the darts were already flying Sunday at the Maritim Hotel in Dusseldorf. As part of the 7th Promi-Darts World Championship, selected PDC stars played alongside German celebrities to crown a popular champion.
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The Promi-Darts World Championship has been organized and broadcast by TV channel ProSieben since 2017. Six selected top PDC players are invited to the exhibition tournament and each form a team with a celebrity. The six teams of two players will initially be divided into two groups.
The two group winners will qualify directly for the semifinals, while the second and third-placed teams will face each other in an intermediate round and compete for a place in the final four. The tournament is largely played in a best-of-3-legs format before the format is expanded to best-of-5-legs in the final. While the PDC stars will play in a double-out mode as usual, the celebrities can also go out with a treble and singles.
In 2025, the Promi-Darts World Championship once again had a high-caliber field of participants. In Group A, three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen was on stage with teammate and comedian Simon Gosejohann. They met, among others, Peter "Snakebite" Wright, who took part in the tournament together with soccer commentator Wolff-Christoph Fuss. Also invited was German number one Martin Schindler, who was in the hunt for the title with TV star Evelyn Burdecki.
In Group B, world number one Luke Humphries and German singer Vanessa Mai were cheered by fans in Düsseldorf. Stephen Bunting received as frenzied a reception Sunday night as he did in 'Ally Pally' in London. He was joined on the oche by Patrick Owomoyela, who celebrated two German championships and a DFB Cup victory with Borussia Dortmund. Last but not least, defending champion Ricardo Pietreczko returned to Düsseldorf to repeat his triumph from last year along with actor Axel Stein.
In the group stage, van Gerwen and Gosejohann got off to the best possible start and qualified directly for the semifinals with victories over the Wright/Fuss (2-1) and Schindler/Burdecki (2-0) duos. Then Schindler and Burdecki also made the German fans cheer when they defeated Peter Wright and Wolff-Christoph Fuss 2-0. Schindler also caused a stir with his darts: As he announced in an interview with our editors, the 28-year-old played for the first time with darts from his new equipment supplier BULL'S.
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Into the 2025 season with new material: Martin Schindler has been under contract with BULL'S since October.
Humphries
With an unchanged line-up and his usual scoring ability, Luke Humphries gave his doubles partner Vanessa Mai, who impressed with a surprisingly clean throwing technique and threw several finishes, the first group win with a 2-1 victory over Pietreczko/Stein. 'Pikachu' and Stein fought back, however, and shortly thereafter defeated the duo of Bunting and Owomoyela 2-0, who then also lost 1-2 to Humphries and Mai.
In the intermediate round, however, Bunting and Owomoyela gained full steam, as the 156-time Bundesliga player in particular became more and more confident. The two footballers defeated Schindler and Burdecki 2-0 and advanced to the last four. Pietreczko and Stein also advanced to the semifinals, beating Wright and Fuss 2-1.
Treasured celebrities
In the semifinals, three-time Promi-Darts World Championship champion Michael van Gerwen and comedian Simon Gosejohann were defeated 1-2 by Bunting and Owomoyela. At the end of the match, former Bundesliga professional Owomoyela provided one of the highlights of the evening when he sent Team van Gerwen home ice cold with the first matchdart on tops. "It's not Bunting who will be nominated for the Premier League Darts tomorrow, it's this guy," joked 'Mighty Mike' in the post-match interview. In the second semifinal, surprisingly, it was again the celebrity who made the decisive difference. Vanessa Mai exploited her second matchdart in the single 12 and celebrated reaching the final arm in arm with Luke Humphries.
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Team Bunting and Team Humphries finally faced each other in the final of the seventh Promi-Darts World Championship. Bunting and Owomoyela quickly stormed to a 2-0 lead, but had to concede a 2-2 comeback from Humphries and Mai. In the end, it was former BDO world champion Bunting who pinned 24 on double 12 to take the Promi-Darts World Championship trophy along with Patrick Owomoyela. "When I heard about this invitation a few days ago, I immediately got on the first plane. It is a great honor for me to be able to participate in this kind of tournament. Many thanks to all my German fans," Bunting said in his interview after the final.
Promi Darts World Championship Results
Group A
Gerwen / Gosejohann 2:1 Wright / Fuss
Gerwen / Gosejohann 2:0 Schindler / Burdecki
Schindler / Burdecki 2:0 Wright / Fuss
Group B
Humphries / Mai 2:1 Pietreczko / Stein
Pietreczko / Stein 2:0 Bunting / Owomoyela
Humphries / Mai 2:1 Bunting / Owomoyela
Intermediary round
Bunting / Owomoyela 2:0 Schindler / Burdecki
Pietreczko / Stein 2:1 Wright / Fuss
Semi-FInals
Bunting / Owomoyela 2:1 Gerwen / Gosejohann
Humphries / Mai 2:0 Pietreczko / Stein
Final
Bunting / Owomoyela 3:2 Humphries / Mai
Samuel GillChief Content Officer
Samuel Gill is the Chief Content Officer (CCO) of DartsNews.com, a role he has held since 2020. He is responsible for editorial governance across the platform, including setting content standards, overseeing accuracy and consistency, and guiding long-term editorial strategy across professional darts coverage. Since joining, he has contributed more than 10,000 articles and editorial pieces, playing a central role in the development and daily operation of the site.
Based in Leicester, Samuel has extensive experience in darts media and has been closely involved in coverage of the professional darts circuit for several years. Within the UK darts community, he is a recognised figure known for his consistent editorial output and ongoing reporting on major tournaments and developments across the PDC calendar.
In his current role, Samuel works closely with editors and writers to ensure content meets clear journalistic standards, with a focus on source verification, editorial consistency, and timely updates when new, confirmed information becomes available.
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- And why should he listen to you?Deduce635807-11-2026
- Ultimately it is a bye for whoever draws Barney. It will be another stroppy and sulky performance once he goes behind. Barney was excellent but really must completely call it a day now.richieburnettrocks07-11-2026
- I'm disappointed he was not able to secure a spot at the Grand Slam. With Carl Sneyd taking care of Daryl Gurney, he would have had to beat Andy Boulton before facing the winner of Sneyd vs Mensur Suljović for a Grand Slam spot. Unfortunately, after beating Filip Bereza comfortably, he succumbed to Boulton, and the board would ultimately be won by the highly inconsistent Carl Sneyd. Since he could instead have been drawn against the likes of Cristo Reyes, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Stephen Bunting, I think once Gurney was out of the picture he would have been favourite to win his board, and it seems like a massive missed opportunity to put 5 grand on his ranking and seal another major TV appearance ahead of the Worlds. The highs and lows of following Raymond van Barneveld!Deduce635806-11-2026
- Probably i will receive a lot of backlash and hate for this reaction, but well, so be it. I am more than sick and tired of those lies of you Barry Hearn. How dare you defend yourself over the back of Fallon’s son! He has a disability and not an illness, so let me correct that for you! I know because I have the exact same disability. I have tried to reach out to Fallon in the past, and offered her to help her and her son, because I was struggling with the same problems, and I understood the boy. I wanted him to have finally someone who understood him. However she told me that she did not want my help, and I have respected Fallon’s choice. I have never asked Fallon for money. They don’t need money in that case. I only ever wanted the best for Fallon and Rory, but I have to be honest about the situation. Fallon should tell the true story and not be forced to tell lies. I don’t hate Fallon, and I don’t begrudge or envy a single penny that she gets, but this situation/case is just not fair. I hate the lies and the dishonesty and injustice. I don’t want Fallon to be hated because there is an unfair disadvantage created. Don’t proclaim your false lies over the back of Rory! I only stand for integrity and justice. I am precisely the one who always sticks up for Fallon. And you don't, you don't give a damn about them. You were never there for them, and now you only want to save your own position! You are just trying to talk your way out of your own bad behavior at the expense of someone with a disability. And to Fallon, I don’t know if this may ever reach you, and you read it, but I want you to know I love you and I love your son Rory very much, I am sorry how things developed and went. I hope you and Harriet are still friends. I am sorry if I were too persistent to you, or you experienced it that way, but it was never my intention. Please understand I have autism as well. As Barry Hearn would say, I am only just a human being too, and I also make mistakes and misjudge things sometimes. I promise you I did everything out of the deepest love and care for you and Rory. If I were you, I should just keep all the money, only please never be dishonest or tell lies anymore for Barry Hearn, or anyone else. I hope you have the best life, and I wish nothing more than the best for you. I have always loved the two of you. Farewell.Hiddo05-11-2026
- She is a professional. If darts is her income, she is a professional. Same as Adrian Lewis, Martin Adams. A tour card just means someone can play on the PDC tour. You could even make a case that Clayton wasn't a professional (until recently I believe) because he had employment elsewhere.BandB04-11-2026
- She's technically not a professional though as she doesn't hold a pro tour card.mr-pablo04-11-2026
- Such a shame that lakeside has been reduced to this. Fantastic venue,and previously a great tournament. Not any morerick6703-11-2026
- Seems to me that the top 16 players pick and choose whatever they want to play. Good,all the money will get spread out more. They get more money from exhibitions than tournaments so let them all withdrawrick6703-11-2026
- Play all legs and the winners split the pot. Luke gets the lot of he wins them all. If your occupation is darts player you can't enter, regardless of ability.BandB01-11-2026
- I'm quite a jaded person all things considered, but to be honest I found Beat Luke Littler to be pretty entertaining. It certainly wasn't seamless, which is to be expected given the lack of precedence, but I actually think the pacing was pretty good, the production was impressive, and there was a good sense of humour and levity to it. I think it was a very ambitious undertaking but one that, for the most part, paid off. I liked the system with the four pots and I think it added to the drama and intrigue. I enjoyed seeing the diverse range of entrants and learning about their backstories. I think the interactivity was pretty clever and well-integrated. The panel was a little incoherent at times; Lee Mack shone however, and his improvisational skills were appreciated during some more awkward interstitial moments. As far as the darts is concerned, it was a shame that the format didn't allow Littler to get into full flow. You obviously don't want him to steamroll everyone but you want to feel like you're getting the full Littler package rather than seeing him struggling to get out of first gear. I will say that his leg against Jayden Walker was very impressive, but it was mostly downhill from there. The attraction revolves around Littler being this untouchable, indomitable force, yet the format doesn't really allow him to fulfil that characterisation. As for Fallon Sherrock, she was mightily impressive and deserved the victory. It is a testament to her unshakeable character that she was able to bang in a 14-darter under such mind-bending pressure. Everything that has been said about the misleading marketing is valid, though they were clear about their eligibility criteria and were able to offload the responsibility somewhat by bringing the viewers into the decision-making process in real time. What is clear though, is that Fallon played the game according to the rules, and she should not be criticised for that, much less abused. I will admit though that it is a kick in the teeth for those true amateurs who committed time and money to the course, and I would also question those who think pub players would have no chance, given that some of Littler's winning legs were dispatched in 7 visits to the board! The great thing about darts is that it isn't so much that amateurs cannot replicate the feats of brilliance pulled off by professionals of the sport, than it is that they simply cannot replicate the consistency of their output, something that this format almost entirely removes from the equation. It should also be noted that, financially, Fallon certainly stands to benefit much less in relative terms from the paycheque than would your average pub thrower, as I'm sure she nets a fair income from the lucrative exhibition circuit alone. What I do hope is that she might use this as an opportunity to really build up a head of steam heading into the new season, as it seems long overdue that she come through Q-School and really take it to the pros on a week-in week-out basis, but whatever she chooses to do, she has certainly achieved enough already for one if not several lifetimes, so who am I to dictate terms? To conclude though, I will state once again that I found Beat Luke Littler to be a pretty enjoyable evening of entertainment. I do feel for the contestants who never actually had the chance to try their luck against the world #1, although I suppose it comes with the format, but all which inevitably raises the question: will Netflix be tempted to do it all again next year? It's hard to say. Whether it would be financially viable, I can't weigh in there. One point I have been making though, and which I touched on earlier, is that the entire concept relies on a public perception that Littler is more or less unbeatable, and that certainly hasn't been the case of late. If the execs had been trying to pitch the show in recent months while Littler has seemed vulnerable, rather than when he was mopping up almost every major title on the calendar, it would certainly be a tougher sell. We will have to see in about 6 months' time whether Littler can still reliably command perception as a near-unstoppable force in darts, and then we'll have a clearer idea about whether we should expect a second helping. Even as a one-off experiment though, and with all the controversy taken into account, I still don't think they disgraced themselves by any means, and that will probably be my lingering assessment of the event when all is said and done.Deduce635801-11-2026