The 2026 Bahrain Darts Masters was a professional darts tournament that was held at Exhibition World Bahrain in Sakhir, Bahrain, from 15 to 16 January 2026. It was the fourth staging of the tournament by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) since the inaugural edition in 2023, and was the first event in the 2026 World Series of Darts. The winner received ã30,000 from a total prize fund of ã100,000.
The tournament featured 16 players (eight PDC representatives and eight Asian representatives). Stephen Bunting was the defending champion, having defeated Gerwyn Price 8âÂÂ4 in the 2025 final. However, he lost 6âÂÂ4 to Michael van Gerwen in the quarter-finals. Van Gerwen went on to win the tournament for the first time, his 17th World Series title, by defeating Gian van Veen 8âÂÂ6 in the final.
Eight elite PDC representatives were drawn to play eight Asian representatives in the first round on Thursday 15 January; the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final took place on Friday 16 January.
The total prize fund for the event remained at ã100,000. The breakdown of prize money is shown below:
The tournament was broadcast on ITV4 and ITVX in the United Kingdom. It was the first televised tournament on ITV4 of the new multi-year broadcast deal with the PDC. It was also available for subscribers outside of Germany, Austria and Switzerland on the PDC's streaming service, PDCTV. Other broadcasters included Viaplay in the Netherlands, Iceland and Scandinavia; DAZN in Germany, Austria and Switzerland; Fox Sports in Australia; Sky Sport in New Zealand; VTM in Belgium; Nova in Czechia and Slovakia; Network 4 in Hungary; FanDuel TV Extra in the United States; BeIN Sports in the Middle East and North Africa and Arena Sport in Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia & Kosovo.
The competition hosts announced the first five PDC representatives to play as being Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Stephen Bunting, Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price, with the remaining 11 players announced on 7 January 2026.
The Asian representatives consisted of six invited players, alongside Bahraini players Abdulla Saeed and Basem Mahmood, who earned their places in the tournament through a national qualifying competition in December 2025; Saeed and Mahmood both made their third appearance at the event.
The first round took place on 15 January, where all eight PDC representatives won their opening match. Competing in his first match since winning the 2026 World Championship, 18-year-old Luke Littler faced 71-year-old Paul Lim. Littler hit six of eight attempts at double and converted a 170 checkout on his way to a 6âÂÂ1 win, recording a three-dart average of 106.50. "Paul [Lim]'s doing well. He's been doing well for many years," said Littler, who also dismissed the possibility of him playing darts once he reaches Lim's age. Gerwyn Price, the 2025 Bahrain Masters runner-up, defeated Motomu Sakai 6âÂÂ4 to set up a tie against Littler in the next round. Luke Humphries faced Abdulla Saeed for the third consecutive year, only allowing Saeed one dart at double as he claimed another whitewash victory against the Bahraini qualifier. "I want to come here and start the season a little bit better than I usually do, and I've tried my best to keep in the flow with my practice this year," stated Humphries after the match.
The defending champion Stephen Bunting beat Ryusei Azemoto 6âÂÂ2, while Michael van Gerwen overturned a 4âÂÂ3 deficit to defeat 2025 Asian Tour winner Alexis Toylo 6âÂÂ4. In a rematch of their meeting at the 2026 World Championship, Nathan Aspinall claimed a 6âÂÂ4 win over Lourence Ilagan, the reigning Asian champion. Making his third appearance at the event, Bahrain's Basem Mahmood won a leg for the first time before losing 6âÂÂ1 to Danny Noppert. World Championship runner-up Gian van Veen defeated Man Lok Leung 6âÂÂ2.
The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final took place on 16 January. Gerwyn Price defeated Luke Littler 6âÂÂ2, eliminating the reigning world champion in the quarter-finals for the second straight year. The loss marked the end of Littler's 21-match winning streak, with his last defeat being at Players Championship 34 on 30 October 2025. Stephen Bunting's title defence ended as he lost 6âÂÂ4 to Michael van Gerwen. Nathan Aspinall trailed Luke Humphries 3âÂÂ1 but won the next five legs to claim a 6âÂÂ3 victory. The last quarter-final match between Gian van Veen and Danny Noppert saw a brief halt in the action due to a power outage; Van Veen went on to beat his Dutch compatriot 6âÂÂ1. In the semi-finals, Van Gerwen defeated Price 7âÂÂ2 and Van Veen earned a 7âÂÂ4 win against Aspinall, setting up a meeting between the two Dutchmen in the final. Van Gerwen contested his 26th World Series final in his 50th event, while Van Veen reached his first World Series final in his third event.
Van Gerwen started the final with an early break of throw, capitalising on a missed double from Van Veen to take a 1âÂÂ0 lead with a 130 checkout on the bullseye. He found his second ton-plus finish of the match, a 113 checkout, to extend his advantage to 3âÂÂ0. Van Veen found a break of his own and a 111 checkout to win his first two legs of the contest, but Van Gerwen then raced into a 6âÂÂ2 lead. Although Van Veen claimed the next three legs consecutively to reduce the deficit to 6âÂÂ5, Van Gerwen converted finishes of 103 and 66 to win the match 8âÂÂ6. Van Gerwen won the Bahrain Masters for the first time, his 17th World Series title in total and his first since January 2024. "It's always special because I've never won here [in Bahrain] but everywhere I go I always want to win," said Van Gerwen after the victory. Speaking about his opponent, he stated: "What Gian [van Veen] has been producing lately, with the World Championship final and now straight away this tournament, we are going to see a lot more of him ... he is a great talent but I feel old nowâÂÂI'm only 36." Bahrain debutant Van Veen said that he had a "fantastic tournament", adding: "It's good to make two finals in the last couple of weeks, but it's two times runner-up. It's something to work on."
The draw was confirmed on 14 January. Numbers to the left of players' names show the seedings for the top four in the tournament. The figures to the right of a player's name state their three-dart average in a match. Players in bold denote match winners.