Players Championship Finals – Can Luke Humphries make it Three in a Row?

The draw has just been released for the 2025 Darts Players Championship Finals. Current title holder Luke Humphries is looking for his third consecutive Finals win after victories over Michael van Gerwen and Luke Littler in 2023 and 2024 respectively. He’s in for some tough competition, though, with Littler currently the favourite to win the tournament outright. Read on to find more details about the tournament along with our Players Championship Finals prediction.

The Players Championship Finals features the top 64 players in the Players Championship Order of Merit. There have been 30 Championship events this year, with the top 64 invited to take part in this prestigious competition. Players are then seeded based on their final positions in the Order of Merit, with the highest placed players facing the lowest placed for the Finals. For example, the top seed Gerwyn Price is taking on 64th place Max Hopp.

Luke Humphries begins his defence of his Players Championship Finals title against Gian van Veen. Van Veen is amongst the favourites to win the tournament outright, so it’s a tough start for the reigning Champion.

As with every darts tournament in recent years, many are predicting Luke Littler to be successful in this competition and pick up his first Players Championship Finals trophy. He begins with a match against Jeffrey de Graaf, who is currently Sweden’s number one –  a difficult start but one where Littler should prevail without too much trouble.

The Round One fixtures for the Players Championship Finals are as follows. In brackets, you’ll find each player’s seeding for this tournament.

1. Gerwyn Price v (64) Max Hopp
2. Wessel Nijman v (63) Richard Veenstra
3. Damon Heta v (62) Justin Hood
4. Ross Smith v (61) Niko Springer
5. Chris Dobey v (60) Keane Barry
6. Jermaine Wattimena v (59) Wesley Plaiser
7. Gian van Veen v (58) Luke Humphries
8. Stephen Bunting v (57) Ritchie Edhouse
9. Cameron Menzies v (56) Adam Lipscombe
10. Josh Rock v (55) Gabriel Clemens
11. Ryan Searle v (54) Darren Beveridge
12. Jonny Clayton v (53) James Hurrell
13. William O’Connor v (52) Ricardo Pietreczko
14. Joe Cullen v (51) Peter Wright
15. Danny Nopert v (50) Ricky Evans
16. Martin Schindler v (49) Michael Smith
17. Niels Zonneveld v (48) Nick Kenny
18. Dirk van Duijvenbode v (47) Madars Razma
19. James Wade v (46) Mickey Mansell
20. Gary Anderson v (45) Mario Vandenbogaerde
21. Luke Woodhouse v (44) Alan Souter
22. Kevin Doets v (43) Callan Rydz
23. Scott Williams v (42) Ian White
24. Bradley Brooks v (41) Martin Lukeman
25. Brendan Dolan v (40) Daryl Gurney
26. Krzysztof Ratajski v (39) Raymond van Barneveld
27. Dave Chisnall v (38) Ryan Joyce
28. Mike De Decker v (37) Cam Crabtree
29. Jeffrey de Graaf v (36) Luke Littler
30. Andrew Gilding v (35) Dom Taylor
31. Karel Sedlacek v (34) Nathan Aspinall
32. Rob Cross v (33) Sebastian Bialecki

As you can see in the fixtures above, there are some tasty Round One fixtures in store for opening day. For our Players Championship Finals prediction, we’ve taken the draw and field into consideration. With some heavyweights facing each other in the first round, they’ll be some big names missing out on the final day.

Who are the Darts Players Championship Finals players to watch out for?

Luke Littler heads into this one as the favourite to win the tournament outright. If he’s successful, it will be the first Darts Players Champions Finals victory of his career. However, Luke Humphries will be very keen to achieve a third consecutive title. He does, though, have a tough first round game against van Veen, with the World Number 7 already picking up the European Championship title this year.

For our Players Championship Finals prediction, we’ve analysed the likely outcomes of each fixture, which players are in good form and who is likely to reach the Final on Sunday 23rd November.

Luke Humphries – Looking for his Third Straight Title

• World Ranking: 1
• Best Performance: Winner (2023, 2024)

The current PDC number one has a tough start against Gian van Veen. However, Humphries has won this title twice before and will be keen to become only the second player to win the Players Championship Finals three times in a row, with Michael van Gerwen achieving the feat between 2015 and 2017. It’s difficult to look past Cool Hand to do just that, he certainly comes into our thoughts for our Players Championship Finals prediction.

Luke Littler – Favourite for many darts punters

• World Ranking: 2
• Best Performance: Runner Up (2024)

Another player who is difficult to look past for our Players Championship Finals prediction is, of course, Luke Littler. There are very few who would bet against Luke the Nuke to add this title to the UK Open, World Matchplay and World Grand Prix he’s already picked up this year. After reaching last year’s Final, Littler lost out to Luke Humphries, getting beat 11-7, but many believe he’ll go one step further this time around.

Gian van Veen – Can the youngster cause a stir?

• World Ranking: 7
• Best Performance: Last 32 (2023)

The World Number 7 has had an impressive 2025, which is why we’re considering him for our Players Championship Finals prediction. Van Veen won the European Championships this year, as well as reaching the Quarter Finals of the World Matchplay and UK Open. It doesn’t get much tougher than having to face Luke Humphries in Round One. However, van Veen already has two victories over Cool Hand this year, beating Humphries in the World Matchplay as well as the European Championships Final. A force to be reckoned with, If van Veen can repeat the feat here, he’ll fancy his chances of going all the way.

Gian van Veen will also be taking part in the World Youth Championship Final against Beau Greeves on the final day of the competition.

Gerwyn Price – Number One seed looking dangerous

• World Ranking: 14
• Best Performance: Runner Up (2019)

Gerwyn Price has had an incredible Players Championship campaign. The World Number 14 heads into the Finals as top seed, after winning four Players Championship events across the season. The Welshman starts the Finals with a Round One game against Max Hopp, which in truth he’s more than likely to come through unscathed. While reaching the Final for the first time since 2019 might be a challenge, Price certainly is someone we’re thinking about for our Players Championship Finals prediction.

Chris Dobey – Can the outsider make an impact?

• World Ranking: 8
• Best Performance: Semi Final (2019)

For our Players Championship Finals prediction, we think World Number 8 Chris Dobey is certainly worth considering. Dobey has won three Players Championship events this year and has looked in excellent form in recent weeks. Whether he can go a step further than his Semi Final appearance in 2019 is yet to be seen, but we wouldn’t rule out Dobey having a major impact on this years’ Finals.

Where to watch the Darts Players Championship Finals – LIVE

To see whether our Darts Players Championship Finals prediction comes to fruition, there are many ways in which to watch the tournament live. Official broadcasters include ITV for viewers in the UK, along with Viaplay and DAZN for viewers in Europe and beyond. The official PDC website, PDCTV, will also show every match in the tournament, though this requires a paid subscription for most viewers.

Online betting sites will also be broadcasting the event live. Some sites will require a funded account or a bet placed on the event in order to activate the live stream.

Betting sites can also provide updated commentary, statistics and graphics displays which could help you with your in-play wagers.

• ITV
• Viaplay
• DAZN
• PDCTV
• Betting Sites

Prediction for the Players Championship Finals

Our Players Championship Finals prediction will sound like an obvious choice, but it’s very difficult to look past Luke Littler adding this title to the titles he’s already won this year. There’s some tough competition, but Round One will inevitably see some heavyweights knocked out, including the potential exit of current title holder Luke Humphries who faces a tough task against Gian van Veen. An obvious prediction perhaps, but odds on Littler to win the tournament outright are reasonably attractive and we think are certainly worth considering.