2025 Australian Darts Masters

2025 KenoGO Australian Darts Masters
Tournament information
Dates	8–9 August 2025
Venue	WIN Entertainment Centre
Location	Wollongong
Country	Australia
Organisation(s)	Professional Darts Corporation (PDC)
Format	Legs
Prize fund	£100,000
Winner's share	£30,000
High checkout	170 Luke Littler
Champion(s)
Luke Littler
«2024 2026»

The 2025 Australian Darts Masters (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2025 KenoGO Australian Darts Masters) ^[1] was the second staging of the professional darts tournament by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), and the sixth event in the 2025 World Series of Darts. The tournament featured 16 players (eight elite PDC players and eight Oceania representatives) and was held at the WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong, Australia on 8 and 9 August 2025. ^[2]

Gerwyn Price was the defending champion after defeating Luke Littler 8–1 in the 2024 final. ^{[3] [4]} However, he lost 6–4 to Chris Dobey in the quarter-finals.

Littler won the tournament and the third World Series title of his career by defeating Mike De Decker 8–4 in the final.

Overview

Format

Eight elite PDC representatives were drawn to play eight Oceania representatives in the first round on Friday 8 August; the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final all took place on Saturday 9 August. All matches were in leg play format, with the number of legs required to win increasing as the tournament progressed: ^[5]

• First round and quarter-finals: Best of eleven legs
• Semi-finals: Best of thirteen legs
• Final: Best of fifteen legs

Prize money

The winner received £30,000. The total prize fund was £100,000. ^[6]

Position (no. of players)		Prize money (Total: £100,000)
Winner	(1)	£30,000
Runner-up	(1)	£16,000
Semi-finalists	(2)	£10,000
Quarter-finalists	(4)	£5,000
First round	(8)	£1,750

Broadcasts

The tournament was broadcast on the PDC's streaming service, PDCTV, in the United Kingdom, with delayed coverage airing on ITV4 and ITVX. Other broadcasters included Fox Sports in Australia; Sky Sport in New Zealand; DAZN in Germany, Austria and Switzerland; Peacock in the United States; FanDuel in the United States and Canada; Viaplay in the Netherlands and Scandinavia; VTM in Belgium; Nova in Czechia and Slovakia; and Sport1 in Hungary. It was also available on PDCTV to international subscribers. ^[7]

Qualifiers

The PDC announced the first six players participating as their elite representatives on 14 May, with two more players to be confirmed. Michael van Gerwen, Rob Cross and Nathan Aspinall were absent from the lineup due to family reasons. ^[8] On 15 July, 2025 World Cup winner Josh Rock and 2024 World Grand Prix winner Mike De Decker were announced as the final two PDC representatives, with both making their World Series debut. ^[9]

The seedings were based on the 2025 World Series rankings after five events:

1.   Stephen Bunting (semi-finals)
2.   Gerwyn Price (quarter-finals)
3.   Luke Humphries (quarter-finals)
4.   Luke Littler (champion)
5.   Chris Dobey (semi-finals)
6.   Damon Heta (quarter-finals)
7.   Josh Rock (quarter-finals)
8.   Mike De Decker (runner-up)

The first two Oceania representatives announced were Simon Whitlock, who has competed in every World Series event held in Oceania, and Haupai Puha, who is a PDC Tour Card holder. They were joined by five qualifiers from the Dartplayers Australia (DPA) circuit: Joe Comito, Brody Klinge, Tim Pusey, Brandon Weening and James Bailey. ^{[8] [10]} A Dartplayers New Zealand (DPNZ) qualifier was held to determine the last Oceania representative, which was won by Jonny Tata. ^[11] Klinge and Weening made their World Series debuts. ^[10]

Qualification	Player
Invitees	Simon Whitlock (first round)
PDC Tour Card holders	Haupai Puha (first round)
DPA qualifiers	Joe Comito(first round)
	Brody Klinge(first round)
	Tim Pusey(first round)
	Brandon Weening(first round)
	James Bailey (first round)
DPNZ qualifier	Jonny Tata(first round)

Summary

First round

The first round was played on 8 August. ^[12] All eight PDC representatives advanced to the quarter-finals. ^[13] Recently-crowned World Matchplay champion and reigning world champion Luke Littler narrowly defeated New Zealand's Haupai Puha 6–5, avoiding a first defeat in the opening round of a World Series event. Littler missed the bullseye for a 170 checkout to win the match, allowing Puha to level the score at 5–5 and force a deciding leg. ^[13] Littler secured victory with a 13-dart break of throw to beat the world number 94. ^[14] Australian number one Damon Heta recorded a three-dart average of 109.98 and produced four ton-plus checkouts – 121, 121, 117 and 104 – in his 6–0 whitewash against James Bailey. Heta stated that he was "forever grateful" for the support from his home crowd. ^[12] World Series debutants Mike De Decker and Josh Rock both achieved their first wins, with the latter averaging 108.16 on his way to defeating Simon Whitlock 6–1. ^[13] World number one Luke Humphries overturned a 2–0 deficit against Jonny Tata to triumph 6–4, while Chris Dobey also came back from 4–2 down to beat Tim Pusey 6–4. Defending champion Gerwyn Price and top seed Stephen Bunting also progressed to the next round. ^[13]

Quarter-finals, semi-finals and final

Luke Littler (pictured) won his third World Series of Darts title.

The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final were played on 9 August. ^[15] Stephen Bunting opened the quarter-finals by whitewashing Josh Rock 6–0, while Luke Littler ended the crowd's hopes for a home winner as he defeated Damon Heta 6–3 – his sixth consecutive win against the Australian. ^[16] Chris Dobey reached his first World Series semi-final after eliminating defending champion Gerwyn Price 6–4. ^[15] Mike De Decker also progressed to the semi-finals by whitewashing Luke Humphries, who was playing through an illness. ^[17] In the semi-finals, Littler achieved the highest checkout of the tournament, a 170 finish, in his 7–4 win against Bunting. ^[18] De Decker booked his place in the final by defeating Dobey by the same scoreline, setting up a match between De Decker and Littler for the title. Littler looked to better his result at the previous year's event, where he was beaten 8–1 by Price in the final, and also aimed for his first World Series title of the 2025 season, while De Decker looked to win the tournament on debut. ^[17]

In the final, Littler took a 2–0 lead but De Decker levelled the contest at 2–2. ^[17] Littler took control of the match by winning the next two legs, pinning a 143 checkout in the first before claiming the second in 11 darts. ^[18] His Belgian opponent kept within close distance at 6–4 but Littler eventually secured the 8–4 victory, winning six of the last eight legs. ^{[15] [17]} Littler averaged 99.10 and threw five scores of 180, bringing his total number of maximums during the tournament to 19. ^{[16] [17]} It was his first World Series title of the year and his third overall, after winning the Bahrain Masters and Poland Masters during the 2024 season, in addition to winning the 2024 World Series of Darts Finals. ^{[15] [16]} Speaking after the final, Littler admitted that it had "not gone to plan this year in the World Series" but said that it "feels very good" to have "another one [he] can tick off". De Decker joked in defeat that Littler "needs to retire because it’s not fun any more". ^[18]

Draw

The draw was announced on 7 August. ^[5] Numbers to the left of players' names show the seedings for the top four in the tournament. The figures to the right of a player's name state their three-dart average in a match. Players in bold denote match winners. ^[19]

	First round (best of 11 legs) 8 August					Quarter-finals (best of 11 legs) 9 August					Semi-finals (best of 13 legs) 9 August					Final (best of 15 legs) 9 August
	1	Stephen Bunting 101.29	6
		Brody Klinge 95.10	1
						1	Stephen Bunting 93.94	6
							Josh Rock 94.17	0
		Josh Rock 108.16	6
		Simon Whitlock 93.26	1
											1	Stephen Bunting 102.35	4
											4	Luke Littler 98.86	7
	4	Luke Littler 91.80	6
		Haupai Puha 88.29	5
						4	Luke Littler 102.84	6
							Damon Heta 95.75	3
		Damon Heta 109.98	6
		James Bailey 76.44	0
																4	Luke Littler 99.83	8
																	Mike De Decker 89.66	4
	2	Gerwyn Price 100.45	6
		Joe Comito 83.91	3
						2	Gerwyn Price 101.42	4
							Chris Dobey 98.08	6
		Chris Dobey 89.49	6
		Tim Pusey 88.60	4
												Chris Dobey 90.27	4
												Mike De Decker 94.82	7
	3	Luke Humphries 92.04	6
		Jonny Tata 83.85	3
						3	Luke Humphries 91.63	0
							Mike De Decker 103.66	6
		Mike De Decker 80.33	6
		Brandon Weening 75.81	2

References

1. Allen, Dave (4 March 2025). "KenoGO to sponsor Australian Darts Masters in new partnership". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 16 July 2025.
2. "PDC Darts 2025 season: Tournament calendar, fixtures and results". Sporting Life. Retrieved 16 July 2025.
3. "Gerwyn Price demolishes Luke Littler 8-1 to win Australian Darts Masters". Sky Sports. 10 August 2024. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
4. "Price thrashes Littler 8-1 in Australian Masters final". BBC Sport. 10 August 2024. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
5. Gorton, Josh (7 August 2025). "2025 KenoGO Australian Darts Masters draw confirmed". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
6. "Australian Darts Masters 2025". Mastercaller. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
7. Gorton, Josh (8 August 2025). "Where to watch the 2025 KenoGO Australian Darts Masters". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
8. Gorton, Josh (14 May 2025). "Humphries & Littler to headline World Series double-header Down Under". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
9. Gorton, Josh (15 July 2025). "Rock & De Decker to make World Series debuts Down Under". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
10. "Winmau DPA Pro Tour Delivers as World Series of Darts Spots Decided". dartplayersaustralia.com. 13 July 2025. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
11. Gorton, Josh (7 July 2025). "DPNZ trio secure World Series of Darts qualification". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
12. Gorton, Josh (8 August 2025). "Heta and Rock deliver devastating displays on Day One in Wollongong". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
13. "Luke Littler advances at Australian Darts Masters after coming through deciding-leg shoot-out against Haupai Puha". Sky Sports. 9 August 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
14. Sutcliffe, Steve (8 August 2025). "Littler snatches last-leg win to avoid upset". BBC Sport. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
15. Gorton, Josh (9 August 2025). "Impressive Littler wins Australian Darts Masters in Wollongong". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
16. "Luke Littler: 'The Nuke' wins first World Series title of 2025 and fourth of career with victory at Australian Darts Masters". Sky Sports. 9 August 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
17. Fletcher, Alex (9 August 2025). "Littler beats De Decker to take title in Australia". BBC Sport. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
18. "Luke Littler lights up Wollongong with Australian Darts Masters victory". The Guardian. Australian Associated Press. 10 August 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
19. "Results of Australian Darts Masters 2025". mastercaller.com. Retrieved 9 August 2025.