The Masters (also known as the
Cazoo Masters for sponsorship purposes) is a non-ranking
PDC darts tournament which features the top 24 darts players according to 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 Following the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship it superseded a world ranking system based on points being awarded f ...
as of 2021.
History
The inaugural tournament, held in 2013, was won by
Phil Taylor, who defeated
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 ...
10–1 in the final.
James Wade won the following year by defeating
Mervyn King 11–10 in the 2014 final. Michael van Gerwen became the third different champion in 3 years when he defeated
Raymond van Barneveld
Raymond van Barneveld (born 20 April 1967) is a Dutch professional darts player. Nicknamed Barney, although originally known as The Man, he is one of the most successful darts players in history. Van Barneveld is a five-time World Darts Champ ...
11–6.
In 2013 and 2014, the tournament took place in the
Royal Highland Centre in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore o ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean t ...
and was played in early November. However, the tournament was moved to early February in 2015 and had a new venue at the
Arena MK (renamed Marshall Arena in 2019) in
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary, ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
. The tournament has been held in late January/early February ever since.
Format
From 2013 to 2020, the tournament featured the top 16 of the
Order of Merit
The Order of Merit (french: link=no, Ordre du Mérite) is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by K ...
, in a fixed draw (1 plays 16, 2 plays 15 and so on). The first round and the quarter finals are played over best of 19 legs, the semi-finals and the final are played over best of 21 legs.
For the 2021 tournament, the participants increased from the Top 16 to the Top 24, with the Top 8 automatically going to the second round and the players seeded 9 to 24 playing in the best of 11 legs first round.
Masters finals
Records and statistics
Total finalist appearances
* Active players are shown in bold
* Only players who reached the final are included
* In the event of identical records, players are sorted in alphabetical order by family name
Champions by country
High averages
Media coverage
The Masters is broadcast by
ITV4
ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a line-up that consists of sports, cult clas ...
in the United Kingdom and
RTL7
RTL 7 is a Dutch free-to-cable television channel that was launched as ''Veronica'' on 1 September 1995. RTL 7 is RTL Nederland's "men's channel" with action films, reality television about crime and professions, soccer, motorsport and talk sh ...
in the Netherlands.
References
External links
Masters at Darts DatabaseThe Masters page on the PDC website
{{PDC Darts Tournaments
Professional Darts Corporation tournaments
Darts in the United Kingdom
Recurring sporting events established in 2013
2013 establishments in Scotland
Annual sporting events in the United Kingdom