The arrows are already flying in Amsterdam, and if you blinked on Thursday night you missed the shock of the week. Michael van Gerwen, the man who owns this tournament like nobody else, is already packing his bags. Daryl Gurney took him out 6-5 in a last-leg scrap that had the AFAS Live bouncing. The defending champion is gone. The circus has barely started.
Tonight the rest of the first-round field steps up, and the biggest name left on the board is Luke Littler. The Nuke walks on against Danny Noppert with the whole weekend still in front of him. UK fans do not need a subscription or a plane ticket. ITV4 and ITVX have the lot from 6pm BST.
That is the hook. A six-time World Series Finals winner is out. The favourite is on later. And you can watch every dart for nothing.
What happened on Thursday still matters
The opening night delivered eight first-round matches, best of 11 legs. Luke Humphries did what Luke Humphries does and beat Jermaine Wattimena 6-4. Gian van Veen looked sharp in a 6-2 win over Chris Dobey. Ryan Searle, Ross Smith, Josh Rock, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Karel Sedlacek all came through. Then came the headline. Van Gerwen, on home soil, dropped a decider to Gurney. The 170 checkout Gurney posted earlier in the night was the high finish of the tournament so far. The Dutch crowd felt it.
This event has always been Van Gerwen’s playground. He won the first one. He has six titles. Last year he beat Littler 11-7 in the final. Seeing him leave after one match changes the temperature of the whole weekend. It also hands Gurney a second-round date with Ross Smith on Saturday afternoon. That is a proper scrap.
Tonight’s card and when it starts
Coverage on ITV4 begins at 6pm BST. The same feed is on ITVX if you prefer the sofa and the phone. PDC TV carries it too, subject to the usual restrictions.
The eight remaining first-round ties are:
Adam Leek v Jim Long
Motomu Sakai v Callan Rydz
Wessel Nijman v Simon Whitlock
Nathan Aspinall v Raymond Smith
James Wade v Damon Heta
Gerwyn Price v Brody Klinge
Luke Littler v Danny Noppert
Jonny Clayton v Maik Kuivenhoven
Littler against Noppert is the one most people will circle. Noppert can score and he can freeze a favourite when the legs get tight. Price against Australia’s Brody Klinge is another one that could get noisy. Wade versus Heta always feels like a throwback to the days when both men were picking up silverware for fun.
How the weekend unfolds from here
Saturday splits into two sessions. Afternoon from 12pm BST: Gurney v Ross Smith, Josh Rock v Ryan Searle, Humphries v van Duijvenbode, van Veen v Sedlacek. Evening from 6pm: the winners of tonight’s ties meet in the other half of the last 16. Sunday is the business end. Quarter-finals from 12pm, then semis and the final from 6pm. First round is best of 11. From the last 16 onwards it stretches to best of 19, then best of 21 for the last four and the final.
The prize fund is £450,000. The winner takes £100,000. That is a serious cheque for an event that still feels like the World Series roadshow’s after-party rather than a major in its own right. Players earned their spots across six far-flung Masters events this year: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Nordic, US, New Zealand and Australia. The field mixes the usual PDC heavyweights with Oceanian qualifiers who earned their keep Down Under.
Why this weekend still feels important
Littler has spent 2026 collecting titles like they were going out of fashion. A clean sweep of the biggest prizes is the conversation that follows him into every press conference. This is not one of the traditional majors, but it is another televised trophy and another chance to prove the rest of the field cannot live with him over four days. If he goes deep here, the talk heading into the World Grand Prix later this month only gets louder.
Humphries is the other man who can spoil that story. He already has a win on the board. Van Veen looks like the home hope now that Van Gerwen is gone. Price, Clayton and Wade are the sort of players who can still produce a session that makes you sit up. The format rewards the players who find their scoring early. A 6-5 first-round exit, as Van Gerwen just discovered, is brutal.
ITV having the rights is a gift for casual fans. You do not need Sky. You do not need to hunt around for a stream that might cut out. Gabbie Partington is presenting, Glen Durrant and Chris Mason are in the analysis seats. It is proper Friday-night darts without the paywall.
The bigger picture
Amsterdam has hosted this finals since 2021 and the AFAS Live suits the event. It is loud enough to feel like a proper night out and small enough that every 180 still lands with a thud. The World Series circuit itself keeps growing. New venues, new qualifiers, more players from outside the usual European circuit getting a crack at the big names. That is healthy for the sport even if it makes the first-round draw look messy.
Van Gerwen’s early exit will dominate the chat tonight, and it should. Form comes and goes, but this is the one tournament where you expect him to be dangerous until the last day. Gurney’s win is a reminder that nobody is safe over a short distance. Littler will be favourite whenever he walks to the oche. That does not mean Noppert will roll over.
The darts are on. The channel is free. The defending champion is already watching from the stands. If you care about this sport even a little, that is enough reason to clear the evening.
Who do you fancy to go all the way now that Van Gerwen is out? Is Littler simply too good, or does someone in the other half of the draw have a week in them? Drop your shout below and argue it out. The arrows are live from 6pm.