The 2025 World Grand Prix (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2025 BOYLE Sports World Grand Prix) was a professional darts tournament that was held at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester, England, from 6 to 12 October 2025. It was the 28th staging of the World Grand Prix by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). The total prize fund was £600,000, with the winner receiving £120,000.
The tournament, sponsored by BoyleSports and played in the "double in, double out" format, featured 32 players: the top 16 players on the two-year PDC Order of Merit and the top 16 players from the one-year PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit who had not yet qualified. Wessel Nijman and Niko Springer made their debuts at the event, while two-time runner-up Dave Chisnall missed out on qualification for the first time since 2011. Mike De Decker was the defending champion, having defeated Luke Humphries 6–4 in the 2024 final, but he lost 3–0 to Luke Littler in the second round.
Littler won the tournament and the first World Grand Prix title of his career by defeating Humphries 6–1 in the final. Gian van Veen broke the record for the highest three-dart average in World Grand Prix history, averaging 106.47 in defeat as he lost 2–0 to Littler in the first round.
Overview Background
The 2025 World Grand Prix was the 28th edition of the tournament to be staged by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) since the 1998 edition. The tournament is unique as it is the only event in the darts calendar that uses the "double in, double out" format, in which players must start on a double or the bullseye to start scoring and do the same to win a leg. The inaugural edition in 1998 featured matches consisting of sets played to the best of three legs, with Phil Taylor winning the final 13–8 against Rod Harrington. After first serving as host venue for the 2001 event, the Citywest Hotel in Dublin became the regular home of the tournament. In 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Grand Prix was relocated to England due to the Citywest being used for health services, with the event being held in Leicester since 2021. Brendan Dolan became the first player to hit a double-start nine-dart finish, achieving the feat in his match against James Wade at the 2011 World Grand Prix; Wade and Robert Thornton both hit nine-darters in their match at the 2014 event.
The 2025 edition took place from 6 to 12 October 2025 at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester. Irish gambling company BoyleSports continued its sponsorship of the event, having extended its partnership with the PDC until 2027. Mike De Decker entered the tournament as defending champion after defeating Luke Humphries 6–4 in the 2024 final to win his first PDC major title. De Decker looked to become the third player to retain the World Grand Prix, after Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen. Reigning world champion Luke Littler and world number one Humphries were seen as the pre-tournament favourites to win the title.
Format The tournament featured 32 players; the top 16 players on the PDC Order of Merit were seeded and were drawn to compete against the 16 qualifiers from the PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit in the first round. All matches were in set play format, with each set being played to the best of five legs (first to three); it is one of three PDC tournaments that uses set play, along with the World Championship and the World Masters. As per the "double in, double out" format, players had to begin a leg by hitting a double or the bullseye and do the same to win a leg. The amount of sets required to win a match increased as the tournament progressed:
RoundBest of (sets)First to (sets)First 3 2Second 5 3Quarter-finals 5 3Semi-finals 9 5Final 11 6
Prize money The prize fund remained at £600,000, with £120,000 going to the winner. The prize fund breakdown was:
Position (num. of players) Prize money(Total: £600,000)Winner (1) £120,000Runner-up (1) £60,000Semi-finalists (2) £40,000Quarter-finalists (4) £25,000Second round (8) £15,000First round (16) £7,500
Broadcasts The tournament is broadcast on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Other broadcasters include DAZN in Germany, Austria and Switzerland; Viaplay in the Netherlands and Scandinavia; Fox Sports in Australia; Sky Sport in New Zealand; VTM in Belgium; Peacock in the United States; FanDuel in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Brazil; Nova in Czechia and Slovakia; L'Équipe in France; AMC Sport in Hungary; Zonasport in Croatia and Arena Sport in the Balkans. It was also available on the PDC's streaming service, PDCTV, for international subscribers.
Qualification
The 32 participants comprised two qualification routes. The top 16 players on the two-year PDC Order of Merit at the cut-off point on 29 September were seeded for the tournament. The top 16 players on the one-year PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit, not to have already qualified through the main ranking, were unseeded. The final tournament before the cut-off date for qualification was the 2025 Swiss Darts Trophy.
Two-time runner-up Dave Chisnall failed to qualify for the event for the first time since 2011, having been overtaken by Raymond van Barneveld on the Pro Tour Order of Merit and by Martin Schindler on the PDC Order of Merit during the Swiss Darts Trophy. 2023 world champion Michael Smith, 2024 European champion Ritchie Edhouse, 2011 World Grand Prix runner-up Brendan Dolan and 2024 World Grand Prix semi-finalist Dimitri Van den Bergh also missed out on qualification. Wessel Nijman and Niko Springer made their tournament debuts, with the latter winning his first PDC ranking title at the 2025 Hungarian Darts Trophy to enter the field in his first year as a professional player. 2007 and 2010 champion James Wade qualified for his 21st consecutive World Grand Prix, a tournament record.
The following players qualified for the tournament:
PDC Order of Merit (runner-up) (champion) (first round) (second round) (first round) (semi-finals) (quarter-finals) (first round) (second round) (second round) (first round) (quarter-finals) (semi-finals) (first round) (first round) (first round)
Pro Tour Order of Merit (first round) (first round) (quarter-finals) (first round) (first round) (quarter-finals) (second round) (first round) (second round) (second round) (first round) (first round) (second round) (second round)
(first round)
Summary First round
The first round was played on 6 and 7 October. World number one and 2023 World Grand Prix champion Luke Humphries began his campaign with a victory against Nathan Aspinall by 2–0 in sets. Aspinall achieved a 170 checkout in the second leg of the match but went on to lose the first set 3–2. Humphries opened the next set with a 156 finish before claiming the next two legs to win the match. Humphries commented afterwards that his starting doubles helped him, as his scoring was "a bit strange" and his darts "just didn't want to drop in". Krzysztof Ratajski set up a meeting with Humphries in the second round by defeating 16th seed Martin Schindler 2–0, only dropping one leg during the match. Stephen Bunting recorded the highest three-dart average of the opening night—97.02—in his 2–0 win over German debutant Niko Springer. Danny Noppert lost the first four legs of his match against Dutch compatriot Jermaine Wattimena but managed to take a 2–1 victory, surviving a match dart from Wattimena before completing the comeback with a 158 checkout. Debutant Wessel Nijman also missed a match dart to progress to the next round as he lost a deciding leg to Rob Cross. Two-time champion and fifth seed James Wade was eliminated by Joe Cullen in a 2–0 defeat. Cameron Menzies earned his first World Grand Prix win by beating eighth seed Chris Dobey 2–0, while 2016 runner-up Gary Anderson held off a comeback from Raymond van Barneveld as he prevailed in a deciding leg.
Reigning world champion Luke Littler achieved his first win at the World Grand Prix by defeating Gian van Veen, the reigning World Youth Champion, 2–0. Despite only winning two legs, Van Veen broke the record for the highest three-dart average in tournament history by averaging 106.47 in defeat, besting Alan Warriner-Little's 106.45 average at the 2001 event. On the match, Littler said that Van Veen "played his part in a brilliant game" and that getting his first win at the event "feels amazing". World number three and six-time champion Michael van Gerwen exited in the first round for the second year in a row, losing 2–0 to Dirk van Duijvenbode. Defending champion Mike De Decker came back from one set down to beat 15th seed Peter Wright 2–1, while 2017 champion Daryl Gurney defeated 14th seed Ross Smith 2–0. 2020 champion Gerwyn Price was whitewashed in the first set of his match against Ryan Searle but rallied to take a 2–1 win. 2021 champion Jonny Clayton defeated Andrew Gilding 2–0 and Josh Rock beat Ryan Joyce in a deciding leg. Luke Woodhouse missed his first seven darts at starting doubles in the deciding leg of his match against Damon Heta but hit back-to-back maximums before winning the decider with a 90 checkout, extending Heta's streak of losses at the World Grand Prix to five matches.
Second round
The second round was played on 8 and 9 October. Luke Humphries advanced to the quarter-finals by defeating Krzysztof Ratajski 3–1. Despite the scoreline, Humphries revealed that he went off stage at the interval unhappy with how he was playing and started throwing slower, which helped him improve. He explained: "On the practice board I am hitting everything and then I am going out there and not so I needed to change something." Cameron Menzies took the first set in his match against ninth seed Rob Cross in a deciding leg and whitewashed Cross in the second. Menzies missed a total of eight match darts before winning the match 3–1 with his ninth. Progressing to his second major quarter-final, having previously reached the last eight of the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts, Menzies lamented that his missed match darts "weren’t really badly thrown. They were all on the wire". Danny Noppert led fourth seed Stephen Bunting 2–1 when they went to a deciding leg in the fourth set, where Noppert converted a 100 checkout to win 3–1; Bunting disclosed on social media that he was suffering from an injured back. Gary Anderson eased his way into the quarter-finals with a 3–0 victory against Joe Cullen, who claimed one leg and ended the match with a three-dart average of 68.05. Anderson believed that Cullen was "miles off" his usual standard.
Luke Littler ended Mike De Decker's reign as World Grand Prix champion as he defeated the defending champion 3–0, winning the match with a 170 checkout. De Decker missed 41 doubles in 11 legs, resulting in Littler calling the match "a bit boring at times" as he "expected something from the reigning champion". Gerwyn Price, who won eight consecutive legs and completed a 10-dart leg, beat Josh Rock 3–0 to set up a quarter-final tie with Littler. Price opted to start on double 13 during the match, explaining that he hit it "all the time" in practice and thought it, or double 6, was easier than going for double 20. Jonny Clayton reached his third World Grand Prix quarter-final by defeating Luke Woodhouse 3–1, while Dirk van Duijvenbode converted a 158 checkout to complete a 3–0 victory against Daryl Gurney, reaching the quarter-finals of the tournament for the first time since he made the final of the 2020 edition.
Quarter-finals