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The Champions League of Darts, also known as the
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Champions League of Darts for sponsorship purposes, was an annual non-ranking
darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small sharp-pointed missiles known as darts at a round target known as a dartboard. Points can be scored by hitting specific marked areas of the bo ...
tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. Featuring just the top eight players in the PDC, it was played over two days in a group stage, and then knockout format and was the smallest of the PDC's televised premier events. It was first held in September 2016 at the Motorpoint Arena in
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, the inaugural champion was Phil Taylor. The next two were then won by
Mensur Suljović Mensur Suljović (Serbian Cyrillic: Менсур Суљовић; born 5 March 1972) is an Austrian professional darts player. He plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, having previously played in the British Darts Organisation (B ...
and Gary Anderson, before the final champion was
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in 2019. Following the cancellation of the 2020 tournament, owing to the
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, the tournament was quietly shelved by the PDC. The tournament was the first PDC event to be broadcast on the
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.


History

The details of the inaugural tournament were announced by the PDC on 9 February 2016, in conjunction with the announcement of a new broadcasting deal between the PDC and the
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. With the PDC 2016 calendar having already been announced in August 2015, a Barnsley round of the PDC Player Championship was moved to accommodate it. A second Champions League tournament was duly announced as part of the August 2016 release of the 2017 calendar. A further two editions were held, before the fifth edition, which was due to be held in 2020, was cancelled as a result of the
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. The tournament was subsequently shelved by the PDC. In addition to the prize money allocated to players, the tournament was known for a £100,000 cash prize given to the crowd in the event of a nine-dart finish. This prize was believed to be the biggest crowd prize in world sport.


Eligibility

Only the top eight 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 ...
qualified for the inaugural tournament, signifying the best eight players in the PDC (in 2016 based on the order following the World Matchplay in July). Starting with 2017, the reigning champion was given a guaranteed slot, meaning only the top seven and the champion would qualify if the champion was not in the top eight.


Format

The tournament format is a group stage followed by a knockout stage. The group stage features two groups of four, who meet each other in a round-robin format, i.e. each player playing their group opponents once in a single match. The best two players in each group advance to the semi-finals, the winners meeting in the final. There is no third place play-off. Matches in the group stage are won by the first player to win 10 legs (best of 19), while the knockout stages are first to 11 (best of 21).


Champions League of Darts finals


Records and statistics


Total finalist appearances

* Active players are shown in bold


High averages


Broadcaster

The tournament was the first PDC event to be broadcast on the
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, after they ended their contract to broadcast rights of the
BDO World Darts Championship The WDF World Darts Championship is a world championship competition in darts, organised by the World Darts Federation. It would previously organised by the British Darts Organisation (BDO), who held it 43 times from 1978 to 2020. The champion ...
.


Sponsorship

In 2016 and 2017, the title sponsor of the tournament was bookmaker
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, who for the 2016 season were the pre-existing sponsors of the PDC's Masters and European Championship, and the new sponsor of the PDC's World Grand Prix. Since 2018 the tournament has been sponsored by bookmaker
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.


References


External links


Champions League of Darts on Darts Database
{{PDC Darts Tournaments Professional Darts Corporation tournaments Sports competitions in Cardiff Recurring sporting events established in 2016 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2019 Autumn events in Wales 2016 establishments in Wales 2019 disestablishments in England Annual sporting events in the United Kingdom