When the Betfred World Matchplay gets underway in Blackpool, it’s little surprise that the two Lukes dominate the betting and the headlines. Defending champion Littler arrives looking to retain the Phil Taylor Trophy, while Humphries once again enters the Winter Gardens as one of the most consistent and formidable players in the world.
Yet the World Matchplay has never been a tournament that simply follows the script. It has a long history of surprise runs, dramatic upsets and players finding their very best form on one of the sport’s most iconic stages.
If either Littler or Humphries is to be denied this year, there are several names more than capable of mounting a serious challenge.
Here are six players who could make a deep run in Blackpool, and perhaps even lift the title.
Gian van Veen – No.3 seed
At just 24, the Dutchman has already replaced his mentor Michael van Gerwen as the Netherlands’ number one, and this year he’s given the sport every reason to believe the hype is real. Van Veen’s breakthrough arrived at the 2025 European Championship, where he stunned Luke Humphries in a last-leg decider to claim his maiden major.
He followed it in stunning fashion at Alexandra Palace, once again beating Humphries and Gary Anderson on his way to a first World Championship final, a run that pushed him to a career-high third in the world rankings. Now seeded in that same position for Blackpool, ‘The Giant’ arrives with a pedigree to trouble anyone in the draw.
Jonny Clayton – No.5 seed
The Ferret has never been short of nerve on the big stage, and at 51 he shows no sign of slowing down. A four-major winner in 2021, Clayton has quietly built one of the most consistent CVs in the game, and Blackpool has been kind to him before. He reached the Matchplay final in 2024, only to be denied by a rampant Nathan Aspinall.
This year he arrives in brilliant form, having gone within a missed match dart of reaching the Premier league final against Luke Humphries in May. Seeded fifth, Clayton was within touching distance of reaching last year’s final at the Winter Gardens having pushed James Wade to a sudden death tiebreak, after many had written him off before the tournament had started.
Few players in the field know how to grind out a Blackpool shootout better than he does.
Wessel Nijman – No. 14 seed
No player arrives in Blackpool in a hotter run of form. The Dutch slinger has been utterly relentless on the floor in 2026, racking up eight ranking titles and topping the European Tour standings, a run good enough to see him seeded for the first time at a major.
Nijman’s one previous Matchplay appearance, in 2025, brought a statement win over former champion Nathan Aspinall before a second-round exit to James Wade. The question now isn’t whether Nijman can win titles, his floor record settles that. But rather whether that form finally translates to the bright lights on stage. The Winter Gardens will be the perfect place to find out.
Luke Woodhouse – ProTour No.1
At 37, Woodhouse is proof that darts careers don’t always follow a straight line. After years as a respected but rarely-decisive player, this year brought his breakthrough: a maiden ranking title at Players Championship 18, followed just twelve days later by his first European Tour crown at the Baltic Sea Darts Open.
That surge in form carried him to Blackpool as the top-ranked ProTour qualifier, a position that reflects a player finally delivering on long-standing promise rather than a one-off hot streak. He’s shown he can go deep at the majors too, reaching the last-16 of the World Championship in back-to-back years. His only previous Matchplay appearance ended in an agonising 10-8 first-round defeat to Nathan Aspinall.
‘Woody’ will believe he has unfinished business on that stage, and on current form, he looks better equipped than ever to put it right.
Kevin Doets – ProTour No.3
Nicknamed ‘Hawkeye’, the Dutchman makes his World Matchplay debut in Blackpool having already announced himself on the big stage. At Alexandra Palace in 2025, Doets produced one of the standout upsets of recent World Championships, edging out former champion Michael Smith in a deciding-set tiebreaker, then following it up this January with another notable scalp in Nathan Aspinall.
Those runs have taken him to the last-16 of the World Championship in consecutive years, and this season, as for so many others, brought a first maiden ranking title at Players Championship 13. He’s shown he doesn’t wilt against bigger names, and with nothing to lose on his debut at the Winter Gardens, Doets could be exactly the kind of unseeded floor player who turns a difficult first-round draw into a genuine problem for whoever he faces.
Rob Cross – ProTour No.5
Few players in the field know Blackpool’s rewards better than ‘Voltage’. Cross won the World Matchplay in 2019, beating Michael Smith in the final, and across nine appearances at the Winter Gardens he’s built one of the best win-rates in the tournament’s modern history.
Four last-16 finishes and a title from a player who turned professional less than a year before winning the World Championships itself. This year he arrives having had to qualify through the ProTour rather than the main rankings, a reflection of a stop-start couple of seasons, but the signs heading into Blackpool are promising for the electrician-turned-thrower.
A title on the floor and a European Tour final in the fortnight before the cut-off point suggest his radar is returning at exactly the right time.
Images: PDC
