The 2016 William Hill World Darts Championship was the 23rd
World Championship
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
organised by the
Professional Darts Corporation since it
separated from the
British Darts Organisation
The British Darts Organisation (BDO) was a darts organisation founded on 7 January 1973 by Olly Croft. Made up of 66 member counties, it oversaw professional, semi-professional and amateur darts competitions in Britain. The BDO was a founder ...
. The event was held at the
Alexandra Palace,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, between 17 December 2015 and 3 January 2016.
Gary Anderson was the defending champion, having won his first world title in the
2015 final by beating 16-times champion
Phil Taylor 7–6. He retained his title by beating
Adrian Lewis
Adrian Lewis (born 21 January 1985) is an English professional darts player currently playing in the PDC. He is a two-time PDC World Darts Champion, winning in 2011 and 2012. He is nicknamed Jackpot, as he won a jackpot gambling in Las Vegas ...
7–5. He also threw a
nine-dart finish in his semi-final against
Jelle Klaasen
Jelle Klaasen (born 17 October 1984), nicknamed The Cobra, is a Dutch professional darts player who plays in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and World Darts Federation (WDF) events. In 2006, he became the youngest darts player to win ...
to add a bonus £15,000 to his winnings, and hit two maximum checkouts of 170 in the progress.
There were 654 maximums thrown during the event, beating the record of 625 from the previous year. 34 of these were produced in the final which is a record for a professional match.
Three-time world champion
John Part
John Part (born June 29, 1966) is a Canadian former professional darts player and current commentator. Nicknamed Darth Maple, he is a three-times World Champion, having won the 1994 BDO World Darts Championship on his world championship debut, a ...
was a notable absentee in this tournament, having failed to qualify for the first time since joining the PDC in 1997.
Format
The tournament featured 72 players. The top 32 players on the
PDC Order of Merit The PDC Order of Merit is a world ranking system used by one of the darts organisations, the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). Following the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship it superseded a world ranking system based on points being awarded f ...
on 30 November 2015 (after the
Players Championship Finals
The Players Championship Finals is a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. The tournament originally featured the top 32 players from the Players Championship Order of Merit, a separate ranking system that only takes int ...
) were seeded for the tournament. They were joined by the 16 highest non-qualified players from the Pro Tour Order of Merit, based on the events played on the
2015 PDC Pro Tour The 2015 PDC Pro Tour was a series of non-televised darts tournaments organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). Professional Dart Players Association Players Championships, UK Open Qualifiers, and European Tour events were the events ...
.
These 48 players were joined by two PDPA qualifiers (as determined at a PDPA Qualifying event held in
Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...
on 30 November 2015), and 22 international players: the four highest names on the European Order of Merit not already qualified, and 18 further international qualifiers determined by the
PDC and PDPA. Some of the international players, such as the four from the European Order of Merit, and the top American and Australian players entered straight into the first round, while others, having won qualifying events in their countries, were entered into the
preliminary round
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
# One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...
.
Thanawat Gaweenuntawong became the first player from
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
to play at a World Darts Championship.
Prize money
The 2016 World Championship featured a prize fund of at least £1,500,000 – an increase of £250,000 from the 2015 tournament.
The prize money was allocated as follows:
Qualifiers
Order of Merit
Pro Tour
#
Alan Norris
#
Gerwyn Price
Gerwyn Stephen Price (born 7 March 1985) is a Welsh professional darts player and former professional rugby union and rugby league player. Nicknamed "The Iceman", he competes in events of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), where he is cu ...
#
Joe Murnan
Joe Murnan (born 28 September 1983) is an English darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation events.
Career
Murnan reached the last 40 of the 2010 Winmau World Masters, losing 3–0 to Filipino Ronald L. Briones.
Murnan quali ...
#
Daryl Gurney
Daryl Gurney (born 22 March 1986) is a Northern Irish professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Gurney is a winner of two majors, having won the World Grand Prix in 2017 in his native Ireland, and the P ...
#
Keegan Brown
Keegan Brown (born 5 November 1992) is an English professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He won the 2014 PDC World Youth Championship.
Career Early career
Brown began playing darts at the age of ni ...
#
Max Hopp
Max Hopp (born 20 August 1996) is a German professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events.
Career
Hopp reached the final of the 2011 WDF World Cup boys' singles, and won the boys' singles event at the 2012 ...
#
Rowby-John Rodriguez
Rowby-John Rodriguez (born 27 March 1994) is an Austrian professional darts player currently playing in events of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).
Career
In 2010, as a 16-year-old, Rodriguez won the Austrian National Championship by bea ...
#
Christian Kist
Christian Kist (born 21 April 1986) is a Dutch professional darts player. In 2012, he won the BDO World Darts Championship, defeating Tony O'Shea in the final. Since 2014, he has competed in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).
Career BDO
K ...
#
Cristo Reyes
Cristo Reyes Torres (born 30 July 1987) is a Spanish darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events.
Career
In October 2014, Reyes bested a field of 154 players to win the Iberian Qualifier for the 2015 PDC World Champi ...
#
David Pallett
#
Ronny Huybrechts
Ronny Huybrechts (born 20 July 1965) is a former Belgian professional darts player.
Career
Ronny and his brother Kim Huybrechts became the first brothers to play in the World Cup of Darts in February 2013 and advanced from Group H courtesy of a ...
#
Dirk van Duijvenbode
Dirk van Duijvenbode (born 30 June 1992) is a Dutch professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He is known for his energetic walk-on, combined with hardstyle music. More recently, he has become known for ...
#
Jeffrey de Zwaan
Jeffrey de Zwaan (born 26 March 1996) is a Dutch professional darts player who plays in events of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).
Career
De Zwaan progressed through to the last 16 of the 2014 World Masters, where he lost 3–0 to Gle ...
#
Kyle Anderson
#
Joe Cullen
#
Darren Webster
Darren Michael Webster (born 10 June 1968) is an English darts player nicknamed Demolition Man.
Career
Webster won the 2005 Open Oust Nederland, beating Co Stompé in the final.
Originally nicknamed The Sniper, Webster reached the quarter-fina ...
European Pro Tour
#
#
Jan Dekker
Jan Dekker (born 25 June 1990) is a former Dutch professional darts player. He twice reached the semi-finals of the BDO World Darts Championship, in 2011 and 2014.
Career
Dekker qualified for the televised stages of the 2010 Winmau World Ma ...
#
Jyhan Artut
#
Jermaine Wattimena
Jermaine Wattimena (born 9 March 1988) is a Dutch darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) tournaments.
Career
Wattimena won the first event he entered as he claimed the 2008 Malta Open by beating Vincent Busuttil in t ...
PDPA Qualifier
''First Round Qualifier''
*
Ricky Evans
''Preliminary Round Qualifier''
*
Andy Boulton
Andy Boulton (born 22 February 1973) is a Scottish professional darts player who plays in events of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). He is nicknamed X-Factor.
Career
Boulton made his televised debut in the PDC UK Open in 2005 startin ...
International Qualifiers
''First Round Qualifiers''
*
Koha Kokiri
Koha Kokiri (born 7 June 1976) is a New Zealand-born Australian professional darts player.
Career
Kokiri won the men's singles at the 2010 WDF Asia-Pacific Cup in Tokyo, seeing off Morihiro Hashimoto 4–1 in the final.
Kokiri defeated Warre ...
*
Laurence Ryder
*
Darin Young Darin may refer to
Places
*Darin, Anbarabad, a village in Kerman Province, Iran
*Darin, Jebalbarez-e Jonubi, a village in Kerman Province, Iran
*Darin, Sistan and Baluchestan, a village in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran
*Darin, Yazd, a villa ...
''Preliminary Round Qualifiers''
*
René Eidams
*
*
Sven Groen
*
Per Laursen
Per Laursen (born 16 April 1966) is a Danish professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and British Darts Organisation (BDO) tournaments.
BDO career
Laursen reached the final of the WDF World Cup in both singl ...
*
Paul Lim
*
Mick McGowan
Michael McGowan (born 1 February 1973) is an Irish professional darts player who last played in events for the British Darts Organisation (BDO).
Career
McGowan last played on the PDC pro tour in the Killarney Pro Tour 1 in October 2013 and his ...
*
John Michael
*
Keita Ono
*
Aleksandr Oreshkin
Aleksandr Lvovich Oreshkin (russian: Александр Львович Орешкин; born 15 July 1961) is a Russian former professional darts player who played in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events.
Career
Oreshkin qualified for the ...
*
Michael Rasztovits
Michael Rasztovits (born 16 February 1984), nicknamed "Rasto", is an Austrian darts player.
Career
Since 2011, Rasztovits has taken part in PDC events. He has played in Qualifying School from 2013 onwards but has never won enough games to win a ...
*
Warrick Scheffer
*
Sun Qiang
*
Rob Szabo
Robert "Rob" Szabo (born 29 October 1965 from Wellington) is a former professional darts player from New Zealand.
Career
Szabo claimed the 2010 New Zealand National Championship by beating Koha Kokiri 4–0 in the final.
He qualified for the ...
*
Alex Tagarao
*
Kim Viljanen
Results
Preliminary round
The format in the preliminary round was extended from a best-of-seven legs to a best-of-three sets format. One match was played in the first eight sessions with the winners playing their first round matches at the end of the session.
Main draw
Final
Statistics
Representation from different countries
This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the preliminary round.
Broadcasting
The tournament was available in the following countries on these channels:
†
Sky Sports F1
Sky Sports F1 is a television channel created exclusively for Sky's UK and Ireland coverage of Formula One, with Sky having a package of rights from the 2012 season to the 2029 season. From 2012 to 2029, Sky Sports F1 has the exclusive rights ...
was renamed as Sky Sports Darts for the duration of the tournament.
References
External links
Official siteNetzone Schedule, Results
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pdc World Darts Championship 2016
2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...
World Championship
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
World Championship
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
2015 sports events in London
2016 sports events in London
December 2015 sports events in the United Kingdom
January 2016 sports events in the United Kingdom
2015 in British sport
2016 in British sport
International sports competitions in London
Alexandra Palace