The PDC European Tour is a series of darts tournaments held across

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entire ...

organized 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 Worl ...

. Starting in 2012 with five events, the number of events has steadily risen with eight held in 2013 and 2014, nine in 2015, ten in 2016, twelve in 2017, thirteen in both 2018 and 2019, and thirteen once more in 2020 (although that was reduced to four, owing to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

), and only two events took place in 2021, with a return to thirteen events in 2022. These events see the top players on the PDC ProTour Order of Merit compete against players from six different regional qualifiers. Currently the prize fund for each tournament is £140,000, with £25,000 going to the winner. These events differ from others held on the Pro Tour as they are played on one board in front of an audience. They are not televised, but are streamed on the PDC's subscription service. Since 2016, the end of the European Tour marks the end of qualification for the European Championship, with the top 32 players on the European Tour Order of Merit comprising the field for the televised premier event.

Locations

Since its inception in 2012, the majority of PDC European Tour events have been held in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The only exception being in 2021, when owing to the

, the only two events held that year took place in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, C ...

and

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Prize money

Prize money for European Tour events rose to £140,000 in 2019 and sustained for 2020. The prize fund has been divided as follows:

Active tournaments

Austrian Darts Open

German Darts Championship

European Darts Open

European Darts Grand Prix

International Darts Open

European Darts Matchplay

German Darts Open

German Darts Grand Prix

Dutch Darts Championship

Czech Darts Open

Hungarian Darts Trophy

Belgian Darts Open

Baltic Sea Darts Open

Former tournaments

UK Masters

German Darts Masters

European Darts Trophy

Danish Darts Open

Austrian Darts Championship

Dutch Darts Masters

Belgian Darts Championship

Gibraltar Darts Trophy

Records and statistics

Total finalist appearances

Nine-dart finishes

Thirteen nine-darters have been thrown on the European Tour. The first one was thrown by Michael Smith in the inaugural tournament in Austria in 2012. After a gap of just over 5 years between nine-darters, the so-called "Curse of Ross Smith" hung over the European Tour, named after Smith, who got his in the 2013 Gibraltar Darts Trophy. Since

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, 20 ...

broke the curse at the 2018 European Darts Matchplay, there have been six more nine-dart finishes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pdc Pro Tour * 2012 establishments in Europe

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fi ...