"The WDF didn't seem to care about the World Masters and its tradition" - Paul Nicholson excited to see 'ruthless' Winmau World Masters return under PDC banner

This weekend the legendary Winmau World Masters makes a return to TV screens. For the first time ever, it will be a PDC tournament too, kicking off the 2025 season's ranking events. One man delighted to see the uniquely ruthless format return, is ex-pro turned expert analyst Paul Nicholson.

"I absolutely love how the PDC have revamped and rebranded the Winmau World Masters, which will give us the most fascinating start to a new season in years," writes the former PDC major winner in his column for Sporting Life. "Of course there's already been a couple of World Series events in January but this is where the whole tour can get their campaigns under way, with a ranked title up for grabs."

The PDC has long held a Masters event to open the season, but this year brings a change in format to completely switch the tournament up. "This time, the highest-ranked 24 players go straight through to the ITV4-televised stages, which will take place at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes from January 30 to February 2, while there are another eight spots up for grabs for those who come through the preliminary rounds on January 29," Nicholson explains.

"I like how they've still given the top 24 an advantage by giving them an automatic passport to a televised event - like they would have in previous years - but it is going to be tricky for everyone else to get one of the other eight places," Nicholson adds. "The other big change is that the World Masters becomes the PDC's third set-play event of the calendar - but unlike the other two, each set is just best of three legs with no tie-breaks."

The decision to make the Masters a ranking event is also one that had been met with almost unanimous agreement. "I can imagine they had a meeting where they felt the time had come to give the Masters a shake-up. It wasn't a bad tournament by any means and the triumphs of Jonny Clayton, Joe Cullen, Chris Dobey and Stephen Bunting in recent times were great stories and gave their respective careers a springboard even though it wasn't ranked," Nicholson assesses. "But the growing consensus was that the first big tournament of the season had to become ranked. And to do that legitimately, you'd have to make it available for the whole tour rather than an elite group."

And whilst this may be the first Winmau World Masters event under the PDC banner, the tournament and the unique format has a long a storied history in the sport of darts. "It was the fitting choice to partner up with Winmau considering their brand was synonymous with the original World Masters in the BDO era from 1976 to 2018," Nicholson notes.

"The WDF didn't seem to care about the World Masters and its tradition, which dates back to the inaugural edition in 1974," he continues. "Following the demise of the BDO in 2020, the WDF didn't host another World Masters until 2022 when they ditched the set-play format in favour of legs and moved it to the Netherlands. Wesley Plaisier lifted the trophy but he'd have to wait another two years to get the chance to defend his title, which he did successfully in Budapest. But it wasn't even televised."

"I've got no sympathy for the WDF. They do a good job holding tournaments around Europe and the world but when it comes to the World Masters, they've dropped the ball," Nicholson concludes. "The PDC picked it up and have run with it properly. I don't see any negatives about this tournament being created and the PDC have got this very, very close to perfect."