The World Professional Darts Championship is one of the most important tournaments in the

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 ...

calendar. Originally held as an annual event between 1978 and 1993, players then broke off into two separate organisations after a controversial split in the game. Each organisation, 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 ...

(BDO) and the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) then arranged their own World Championships, the former in January the latter in December. As a result, there was no longer was an unified world champion in the sport for nearly three decades. The BDO version dated back to 1978, when it was held at the Heart of the Midlands nightclub,

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

. The following year it moved to the Jollees Cabaret Club, Stoke, where it stayed until 1985. From then until 2019 it was held at the

Lakeside Leisure Complex The Lakeside Leisure Complex is a hotel, conferencing, entertainment and associated leisure complex in Frimley Green in west Surrey. It hosted in January the open/men's and women's BDO World Darts Championship from 1986 to 2019. History The comp ...

Frimley Green Frimley Green is a large village and ward of in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately southwest of central London. It is south of the town of Frimley. Lakeside Country Club was the national venue for the BDO int ...

, Surrey. In 2020 the tournament was held at

The O2 Arena The O2 Arena, commonly known as the O2 (stylised as The O2 arena), is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the centre of the O2 entertainment complex on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London. It opened in its present form in 2007. It has the s ...

in London. The BDO went into liquidation in 2020 and the

World Darts Federation The World Darts Federation (WDF) is a sport governing body and (along with the PDC) a tournament organiser for the game of darts. It was formed in 1974 by representatives of the original fourteen founding members. Membership is open to the nati ...

announced later that they would be creating their own version of a World Championship, returning to the Lakeside Leisure Complex. Due 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 identi ...

, their version didn't get underway until

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

. Since qualification for the BDO version was always based on WDF rankings, most of the player pool and legacy of this new version of the World Championship is based on the old BDO system. The PDC version has been running since 1994 after " the split", with a field of players containing all active previous World Champions from the BDO. It was originally staged at

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 ...

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 ...

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 Grea ...

, before moving to its current home 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 ...

, for the 2008 World Championship.

Men's winners

British Darts Organisation World Darts Federation Professional Darts Corporation Philtaylor

By player

The following sortable table lists all winners of both versions of the World Championship (correct as of 10 April 2022).

Highest average progression

Women's winners

British Darts Organisation (current sponsors: Lakeside) Professional Darts Corporation (sponsors: Unicorn) World Darts Federation

By player

The following sortable table lists all winners of both versions of the World Championship (correct as of 10 April 2022).

Youth winners

World Darts Federation (boys) World Darts Federation (girls) Professional Darts Corporation (current sponsors: Winmau)

References

{{Main world championships Darts tournaments Recurring sporting events established in 1978