The PDC World Darts Championship, known for sponsorship purposes as the

Cazoo Cazoo is a British online car retailer based in London, England which was founded in 2018 by Alex Chesterman. History Cazoo was founded in 2018 by British internet entrepreneur Alex Chesterman. It launched an online marketplace for used cars in ...

World Darts Championship, organised by the

Professional Darts Corporation The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the World ...

(PDC), is a

World Professional Darts Championship The World Professional Darts Championship is one of the most important tournaments in the darts calendar. Originally held as an annual event between 1978 and 1993, players then broke off into two separate organisations after a controversial split ...

held annually in the sport of

darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, missiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dar ...

. The PDC championship begins in December and ends in January and is held at

Alexandra Palace Alexandra Palace is a Grade II listed entertainment and sports venue in London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. It is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and the later Tottenham Wood Farm. Origi ...

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and has been held there since 2008. It is the most prestigious of the PDC's tournaments, with the winner receiving the Sid Waddell Trophy, named in honour of the darts commentator

Sid Waddell Sid Waddell (10 August 1940 – 11 August 2012) was an English sports commentator and television personality. He was nicknamed the 'Voice of Darts' due to his fame as a darts commentator, and worked for Granada, Yorkshire, BBC and Sky Sports. D ...

, who died in 2012. Along with the

Premier League Darts Premier League Darts is a darts tournament which launched on 20 January 2005 on Sky Sports. Now played weekly from February to May, the event originally started as a fortnightly fixture in small venues around the United Kingdom. The tournament ori ...

and World Matchplay, it is considered part of the

Triple Crown Triple Crown may refer to: Sports Horse racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United States) ** Triple Crown Trophy ** Triple Crown Productions * Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Tri ...

. The PDC championship began in 1994 as the WDC World Darts Championship as one of the consequences of the

split in darts The split in darts refers to the acrimonious dispute between top professional darts players and the game's governing body, the British Darts Organisation (BDO), in 1993, leading to the formation of the World Darts Council (WDC). Between 1994 and ...

, which saw the

World Darts Council The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the Worl ...

break away from the BDO. As a result of the settlement between the BDO and the WDC in 1997, the WDC became the PDC, and players were thenceforth free to choose which world championship to enter (but not both in the same year), as long as they met certain eligibility criteria. Both organisations continued to organize their own world championship until the 2020 editions, after which the BDO folded. There have been ten different winners since the tournament's inception. With 14 wins from 25 appearances, Phil Taylor has dominated the competition, last winning it in 2013. The other players to win it more than once are

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 ...

(2003 & 2008),

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 ...

(2011 & 2012), Gary Anderson (2015 & 2016),

Michael van Gerwen Michael van Gerwen (; born 25 April 1989) is a Dutch professional darts player. He is currently ranked number 3 in the world, having been number 1 from 2014 to 2021. He is also a three-time PDC World Champion, having won the title in 2014, 2 ...

(2014, 2017 & 2019) and Peter Wright (2020 & 2022). The one-time winners are the inaugural champion

Dennis Priestley Dennis Priestley (born 16 July 1950) is an English former professional darts player. He has won two world championships, and was the first player to win both the BDO and WDC (now PDC) world championships, in 1991 and 1994 respectively. He is ...

(1994),

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 ...

(2007), Rob Cross (2018) and

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 ...

(2021),

History

In 1992, some high-profile players, including all previous winners 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 champio ...

still active in the game, formed the WDC (now PDC), and in 1994, held their first World Championship.

won the inaugural competition. The players who broke away were taking a significant gamble – the tournament was broadcast on satellite television rather than terrestrial, and from 1994 to 2001, the prize fund for the players in the WDC/PDC World Championship was lower than the prize fund in the BDO version, although the 1997 PDC World Champion received £45,000 compared to that year's BDO World Champion receiving £38,000. In 2002, the PDC prize fund overtook that of the BDO for the first time, and the PDC event now boasts the largest prize fund of any darts competition. In 2010, the prize fund reached £1 million for the first time, with the World Champion collecting £200,000. The 2014 and 2015 PDC World Champions collected £250,000 for their respective wins. For the next, winner's share increased to £50,000 each year culminating in a 2018 prize fund of £1.8 million. The current prize fund for the tournament is £2.5 million with £500,000 to the winner, as set since the 2019 edition. In 2020, 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 ...

— which had held a separate version of the world championship since the split in 1994 — went into liquidation. As a result, the PDC version was briefly the only recognised world championship in darts until the

2022 WDF World Darts Championship The 2022 Lakeside WDF World Championship was the first World Championship organised by the World Darts Federation. The tournament was held at the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Surrey, which hosted the now-defunct BDO World Darts Champio ...

was held.

Venue

The PDC World Darts Championship has been held at

since 2008, having previously been held at the

Circus Tavern The Circus Tavern is an entertainment venue in Purfleet, Essex, England which hosts functions, cabaret acts and is also a nightclub venue. First opened in 1974, it is most famous as having been a long-time venue of the PDC World Darts Champion ...

Purfleet Purfleet-on-Thames is a town in the Thurrock unitary authority, Essex, England. It is bordered by the A13 road to the north and the River Thames to the south and is within the easternmost part of the M25 motorway but just outside the Greater Lon ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, from 1994 to 2007.

List of 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

Nine-dart finishes

Thirteen nine-dart finishes have been thrown at the World Championship. The first one was in 2009.

Averages

Since the breakaway of the PDC players, there has been much debate about the relative merits of the players within each organisation. The debate often focuses on the three-dart averages of players in matches. An average over 100 in a match in the PDC World Championship has since been achieved 195 times. This is compared to 21 times in the BDO World Championship, following the 2019 event. In

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Phil Taylor became the first player to average over 100 in all six rounds of the tournament. He repeated this feat (though lost the final) in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

and

achieved it in 2017 and 2019. An average of over 105 in a match in the PDC World Championship has been achieved 40 times. The highest match average ever in the BDO World Championship is 103.83 by Raymond van Barneveld in his quarter-final victory over John Walton in 2004.

Records

:Most titles: 14, Phil Taylor. Taylor's two BDO titles take his total to 16, a record across both organisations. :Most finals: 19, Phil Taylor, 1994–2007, 2009–2010, 2013, 2015 and 2018. Taylor's two BDO finals take his total to 21, a record across both organisations. :Most match wins: 110, Phil Taylor, 1994–2018. Taylor has only lost 11 matches at the tournament and reached every final from 1994 until 2007, before being beaten in the quarter-finals by

Wayne Mardle Wayne Elliot Mardle (born 10 May 1973) is an English former professional darts player who played in events of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and British Darts Organisation (BDO). He was runner-up in three PDC majors, losing to Phil ...

in 2008. :Longest unbeaten run: 44 matches, Phil Taylor, 1995–2003, between his defeats in the 1994 and 2003 finals. :Most 180s in a tournament (total): 828 in 2019. This was the first tournament to feature a 96 player field. :Most 180s in a tournament (individual): 83, Michael Smith (2022) :Most 180s in a match: 24, Peter Wright (2022 semi-final) and Michael Smith (2022 final) :Most 180s in a match (both players): 42, Gary Anderson (22) and

(20) (2017 final) :Longest streak of 100+ averages: 19 matches,

, 2016–2019 :Most appearances: 25, Phil Taylor. :Youngest player:

Mitchell Clegg Mitchell Clegg (born 12 November 1990) is an Australian professional darts player. He lives in Newcastle, New South Wales Newcastle ( ; Awabakal: ) is a metropolitan area and the second most populated city in the state of New South Wales, ...

, 16 years and 37 days in 2007. Clegg had qualified as a 15-year-old. He was younger than

, who set the BDO World Championship youngest player record a few weeks later. :Youngest finalist:

Kirk Shepherd Kirk Shepherd (born 5 October 1986) is an English former professional darts player who competed in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) tournaments. He was the youngest player ever to reach the final of the World Professional Darts Championshi ...

, 21 years and 88 days In the 2008 final, Shepherd was two days younger than

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 the ...

, who won the BDO title in 2006. :Record TV audience UK: 1,500,000 (2015 Final). The 2007 final was the first time that Sky Television achieved a viewing figure of over 1 million for a darts match. The 2013 final had a 1.2 million average, with 10 million viewers over the course of the tournament. :Record TV audience: 2,170,000 (2017 Final). The record was set during the Dutch broadcast (RTL7) of the 2017 final between Dutchman

and Gary Anderson. The 2018 final holds the record for highest combined audience in the UK, Netherlands and Germany with over 4.4 million viewers. :Won both World Championships: Four players.

was the first player to win both versions of the World Championship, winning the 1991 BDO Championship and the 1994 PDC Championship. Phil Taylor,

and

have since matched the feat. :Overseas World Champions: Three players.

was the first player from outside the UK to win the PDC World Championship with his 2003 title, followed by

in 2007 and

in 2014. Part was also the first overseas player to win the BDO title, doing so in 1994. :Youngest World Champion:

was 24 years and 9 months old when he won the title in 2014. :Oldest World Champion: Phil Taylor was 52 years and 5 months old when he won his last world title in 2013.

Media

Domestic broadcaster

The PDC World Championship has been broadcast live and in its entirety by

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

in the UK since its inception. Since 2009 the tournament has been presented in High Definition (HD). Their coverage is currently presented from a studio overlooking the interior of the Alexandra Palace venue. The current presenting team is as follows: Presenters: * Emma Paton: (2020–present) *

Anna Woolhouse Anna Woolhouse (born in 1984) is a British sports journalist and presenter, who has been working for Sky Sports since 2012. She is the lead boxing presenter for the network, and has covered many high-profile fights, such as Anthony Joshua vs. A ...

: (2022–present) Commentators: * Stuart Pyke: (2003–present) * Rod Studd: (2009–present) * Dan Dawson: (2022–present) Co-commentators/pundits: *

: (2010–present) *

: (2013–present) * Mark Webster: (2018–present) * Laura Turner: (2019–present) *

Corrine Hammond Corrine Hammond is an Australian darts player who plays in events of the World Darts Federation (WDF). Career Hammond qualified for the 2016 BDO World Darts Championship and lost to Deta Hedman in the first round 2–0. In 2016, she reached t ...

: (2022–present) Former presenters and commentators have been: *

Dave Lanning Dave Lanning (24 March 1938 – 29 October 2016) was an English sports commentator and journalist, best known for his coverage of Professional Darts. He was brought up in Poole and educated at Poole Grammar School. Broadcasting career He was o ...

: (1993–2010 & 2013) * John Gwynne: (1993–2013, 2016) *

: (1994–2012) *

Jeff Stelling Robert Jeffrey Stelling (born 18 March 1955) is an English television presenter. He currently presents '' Gillette Soccer Saturday'' for Sky Sports and hosted coverage of the Champions League between 2011 and 2015. He also presented the Chann ...

: (1993–2002, 2005) * David Bobin: (1994, 2002–2003) * Helen Chamberlain: (2003–2009) * Jonathan Green: (2000) * Laura "Laure" James (2014–2016) *

Eric Bristow Eric John Bristow, (25 April 1957 – 5 April 2018), nicknamed "The Crafty Cockney", was an English professional darts player. He was ranked World No. 1 by the World Darts Federation a record five times, in 1980, 1981 and 1983–1985. He was ...

: (1993–2016) * Dave Clark: (2001–2020) * Colin Lloyd: (2020) * Rod Harrington: (2005–2020) * Nigel Pearson (2006-2022) * David Croft: (2013–2021) * Laura Woods: (2018–2022) *

Devon Petersen Devon Petersen (born 4 June 1986) is a South African professional darts player and a pundit for Sky Sports. He has qualified for the PDC World Championship on seven occasions with his best result coming in 2014, 2019 and 2021 when he reached th ...

: (2019–2022) * Adam Smith: (2020–2022)

Overseas broadcasters

Dutch broadcaster

SBS6 SBS6 is a Dutch free-to-air, free-to-cable commercial television channel, TV channel and is a part of Talpa TV, formerly known as SBS Broadcasting B.V. and now owned by Talpa Network. Other channels of the group in the Netherlands are Net5, Vero ...

, having covered the BDO World Darts Championship for many years, also covered the event until RTL7 took over broadcasting.

TV3 Sport TV3 Sport is a Danish sports television channel, owned by Viaplay Group and operated by TV3 SPORT. The channel originally broadcast as TV 2 SPORT and was a joint-venture between TV 2 and Modern Times Group. MTG launched a dedicated Danish version ...

(Denmark),

Fox Sports (Australia) Fox Sports Australia Pty Limited (formerly Premier Media Group Pty Limited) is the division of Foxtel that owns and operates the Fox Sports television networks and digital properties in Australia. The group operates nine Fox Sports Channels as w ...

, TSN (Canada), SuperSport (South Africa),

Sky Sport (New Zealand) Sky Sport is a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by New Zealand's satellite pay-TV company, Sky. History Sky Sport 1 is the original Sky Television sport channel in New Zealand. It was first introduced in 1990 as Sky Spo ...

StarHub StarHub Limited, most commonly known as just Starhub, is a Singaporean multinational telecommunications conglomerate and one of the major telcos operating in the country. Founded in 1998, it is listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). History ...

(Singapore), Ten Sports (India), CCTV (China), Showtime (Middle East), Ukraine TV, TVP Sport (Poland), NOVA Sport (Czech Republic and Slovakia), Sport1 (Hungary), Meersat (Malaysia), 7TV (Russia), Measat (Indonesia),

J Sports J Sports is a group of four sports satellite TV channels in Japan produced and broadcast by Jupiter Sports. They are owned by Coverage Football Soccer * FIFA ** National teams *** Men's: **** FIFA U-17 World Cup *** Women's : **** F ...

(Japan),

DAZN DAZN ( "da zone") is a global sports entertainment platform. Different to traditional linear and satellite broadcasting, DAZN is an over-the-top (OTT) streaming service meaning that it is delivered directly to viewers via the internet. The ...

(USA, Italy), GOL TV (Spain)

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, its international sports unit, it operates two ...

(Romania) and VTM4 (Belgium) now also broadcast the event.

Viewing figures

Television viewing figures for the final are as follows:

Webcasting

The PDC world championship events are now broadcast on www.livepdc.tv which shows the events live, highlights and also classic matches. This website is a subscription only viewing and is limited to certain territorial restrictions.

Video games

The PDC have worked with various

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

s since 2006 to create a number of darts-themed titles based on the World Darts Championship tournament. Their first game ''

PDC World Championship Darts ''PDC World Championship Darts'' is a sports video game published by Oxygen Interactive and developed and designed by Mere Mortals. It was released for the PlayStation 2 and PC. The game features ten professionals from the Professional Darts Co ...

'' was developed by

Mere Mortals Established in 1999, Mere Mortals was a British video game developer based in Newcastle upon Tyne. It announced its withdrawal from games in 2010 and confirmed that decision the next year, intending to work with internet, television and film. In a ...

for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

and PC. The second game in the series was '' PDC World Championship Darts 2008'' developed by Mere Mortals for the PlayStation 2, PC,

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

. A year later Rebellion Developments took over development of the series, releasing PDC World Championship Darts 2009 for the Wii and

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

. The most recent PDC World Darts Championship console game to be released was '' PDC World Championship Darts Pro Tour'' a darts video game for the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

, Wii and Xbox 360. This game is the most comprehensive of the series featuring ten professional players and five official PDC tournaments including the PDC World Grand Prix,

Las Vegas Desert Classic The Las Vegas Desert Classic was a darts tournament, organized by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and was held each year in July from 2002 until 2009. Its original venue was the MGM Grand Casino and Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada from 2002 to ...

, PDC UK Open and the Holland Open. In 2021 the PDC collaborated with Blueprint Gaming to develop ''PDC World Darts Championship'', an officially licensed slots game available to play on mobile devices and PC, the game was released in February 2021.

Sponsor

The tournament has been sponsored by online car retailer

in 2023. Previous sponsors have been: *

Skol Skol Lager was developed originally by Ind Coope breweries in Alloa, Central Scotland. In 1958, Graham's Continental was launched (based upon a local brew called Graham's Golden) and quickly changed to Graham's Skol to give a Scandinavian impre ...

(1994) *

Proton Cars Proton Holdings Berhad (PHB; informally Proton) is a Malaysian automotive company and automobile corporation active in automobile design, manufacturing, distribution and sales. Proton was established in 1985 as Malaysia's sole national badged ...

(1995) * Vernon's Pools (1996) * Red Band (1997) *

(1998–2002) *

Ladbrokes Ladbrokes Coral is a British gambling company founded in 1886. Its product offering includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. The business is split into two divisions, UK and International. UK operations are c ...

(2003–2014) * William Hill (2015–2022) *

(2023–)

Trophy

Following popular darts commentator

's death on 11 August 2012, the decision was made to rename the champion's trophy to the Sid Waddell trophy from the 2013 tournament onwards.

Notes and references

External links

World Championship page on the PDC website

PDC World Darts Championship on Darts database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pdc World Darts Championship

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, ...

Alexandra Palace PDC Recurring sporting events established in 1994 1994 establishments in England Annual sporting events in the United Kingdom International sports competitions hosted by England