Overview
- Reigning world champion Luke Littler beat 71-year-old Paul Lim 6-1 with a 106.5 average and a 170 checkout to set up a Bahrain quarter-final against Gerwyn Price.
- All eight PDC representatives advanced on opening night, with Michael van Gerwen, Luke Humphries, Stephen Bunting, Gian van Veen, Danny Noppert and Nathan Aspinall also reaching Friday’s last eight.
- The Bahrain Darts Masters runs January 15–16 with an 8 PDC vs 8 Asian format and is being shown free-to-air on ITV4 and ITVX.
- ITV’s new multi-year PDC deal debuts with hosts Pete Graves and Gabbie Partington and pundits Wayne Mardle, Glen Durrant, Mark Webster and Chris Mason, as long-serving analyst Alan Warriner-Little publicly criticised his omission.
- Next week’s Riyadh Season Saudi Arabia Darts Masters (Jan 19–20) features a ‘Riyadh Season Bullseye’ bonus: $100,000 for a nine-darter plus one dart at the bull to double it to $200,000, the biggest nine-dart prize in PDC history.