The top 24 in the PDC Order of Merit automatically qualify for the tournament, with players like Luke Littler, Luke Humphries and Michael van Gerwen in attendance. Humphries was the champion last year and is looking to retain his crown, but he is not the favourite to do so this time around.
A total of 122 players will be competing for the eight places in the World Masters. These will whittle down through a group phase, last 64, last 32 and then a last 16 to play-off for the chance to make it into the main draw.
Below, we look at some of the players involved in the PDC World Masters and who are the favourites.
Players
The top 24 players in the PDC Order of Merit will feature in round one. World No. 1 Luke Littler will be the headline name after he retained his World Championship title in dominant fashion earlier in January. His beaten opponent in that final, Gian van Veen, is here as well, looking to get his year going after that disappointment on the Ally Pally stage.
World No. 2 Luke Humphries will be hoping he can defend the title that he won last year against Jonny Clayton, who is also returning. These four are joined by their 2026 Premier League of Darts cohort, Stephen Bunting, Gerwyn Price, Josh Rock and Michael van Gerwen.
Here is a full list of the top 24 players who have automatically qualified for the championship:
1. Luke Littler
2. Luke Humphries
3. Gian van Veen
4. Michael van Gerwen
5. Jonny Clayton
7. Stephen Bunting
8. Ryan Searle
9. Josh Rock
10. Danny Noppert
11. James Wade
12. Gerwyn Price
13. Chris Dobey
14. Nathan Aspinall
15. Martin Schindler
16. Ross Smith
17. Damon Heta
19. Mike De Decker
20. Rob Cross
21. Luke Woodhouse
22. Dave Chisnall
23. Daryl Gurney
24. Ryan Joyce
(Number denotes position in Order of Merit)
In the preliminary rounds, there are some massive names. Former World Champions Michael Smith and Peter Wright are part of them, as are massive names such as Dimitri Van den Bergh, Wessel Nijman, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Joe Cullen and Ricky Evans.
The preliminary rounds on Wednesday will decide the eight qualifiers who will compete in the main event.
Favourites
The favourite for the title in Milton Keynes will be no surprise. Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler is 5/4 favourite at bet365, and it is no wonder why. Littler finished 2025 taking the World No.1 crown from Humphries and won the World Championships for the second year running. He is the best player in the world and is ever so dominant in set play, especially.
The aforementioned Luke Humphries is the second favourite at 5/1, World No.3 Van Veen at 6/1. The next three favourites go on form rather than ranking. Gary Anderson, after a great showing at the Worlds, is next on the list of favourites at 14/1, followed by Josh Rock at 14/1.
Gerwyn Price, who beat Littler at the Bahrain Masters recently, is the sixth favourite at 18/1, as is Michael van Gerwen, who won the Bahrain Masters.
Draw and Format
The World Masters is played in a set format/ Each set is contested over the best of three legs, with Round One being the best of five sets, increasing gradually until the final, where it is best of 11 sets.
The draw ifor the first round is:
Luke Littler v Mike De Decker
Ross Smith v Qualifier 7
Ryan Searle v Rob Cross
Josh Rock v Qualifier 6
Michael van Gerwen v Damon Heta
Chris Dobey v Jermaine Wattimena
Jonny Clayton v Qualifier 4
Gerwyn Price v Qualifier 8
Luke Humphries v Dave Chisnall
Martin Schindler v Luke Woodhouse
Stephen Bunting v Qualifier 2
Danny Noppert v Daryl Gurney
Gian van Veen v Ryan Joyce
Nathan Aspinall v Qualifier 5
Gary Anderson v Qualifier 1
James Wade v Qualifier 3