Liverpool’s Stephen Bunting is one of 128 players set to compete for the prestigious PDC World Darts Championship title at the Alexandra Palace from next Thursday.
While the stakes are always high at Ally Pally, this year see’s the prize money doubled, with the winner taking home an incredible £1million of the £5million pot, a credit to the growth of the game.
The same £1million prize that the winner will receive in January was distributed between all 72 players back in 2013.
Ranked as the world number four, Bunting will fancy his chances at taking home a good chunk of that prize money, with 2025 marking one of the finest years of his career to date.
While he hasn’t taken home a major title, the £505,750 worth of Prize money accumulated throughout the year has kept his name near the top of the PDC order of merit throughout.
This impressive form has earned Bunting a place in a different quarter of the draw to the world’s top three. This means The Bullet cannot meet Luke Littler until the semi-finals, and he won’t face Michael Van Gerwen or Luke Humphries before the final.
However, all Bunting’s focus will be on avoiding a first round defeat to Sebastian Bilecki.
Despite being one of the the world’s best for a number of years, Bunting hasn’t been immune to early exits, with his record on darts’ ultimate stage very inconsistent.
So, could this year be different?
His 2025 average suggests so. The Bullet is putting up his best yearly average to date, ranking fourth amongst all players in the PDC.
However, the expansion of the tournament to 128 players and the frightening form of Luke Littler will make it one of the hardest tournaments ever to win.
The bookmakers are currently offering 40/1 on the Liverpudlian to win the main prize, despite the numbers suggesting he should be one of the front runners.
Only the two Lukes, Humphries and Littler, and Josh Rock have been scoring at a higher average than Bunting this year.
But his inability to get over the line in recent years may be what threatens to hold him back again.
Since joining the PDC in 2014 bunting has qualified for 81 PDC ranked televised events, making just seven semi-finals and winning just one, the 2024 World Masters.
His form when the Sky cameras come on has often failed to correlate with the type of performances we see from him elsewhere.
While the level of performances bunting will deliver may be uncertain, the support he will receive at The Palace is one thing that’s guaranteed. The Bullet will have an army of fans cheering him on in London as he looks to Bring darts’ top prize back to Merseyside.
