The World Masters is one of the longest-running and most prestigious of the BDO/WDF tournaments, which began in 1974. The tournament is sponsored by darts board manufacturer,

Winmau Winmau, pronounced "win more", is a Welsh manufacturer of dartboards, other darts equipment and title sponsor of the oldest darts tournament still running, the Winmau World Masters. Founded in 1945, Winmau was acquired by rival dartboard manufac ...

. The World Masters was unusual in darts in that its sets are the best of 3 legs (first to 2) rather than the standard best of 5 legs (first to 3). It was previously the final leg of the BDO's Grand Slam title of televised majors, along with 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 ...

International Darts League The Topic International Darts League was a darts tournament held at the Triavium in Nijmegen, Netherlands. Raymond van Barneveld dominated the tournament, held in his home country, winning it on three of the five occasions it was held. Gary Anders ...

and

World Darts Trophy The Bullit World Darts Trophy was a professional darts tournament run by the British Darts Organisation and the World Darts Federation. Held each September from 2002 to 2007, it took place at the De Vechtsebanen in Utrecht, Netherlands. The tou ...

, until the latter two tournaments were axed in 2008. The champion is referred to as the World Master. After the collapse of the British Darts Organisation in September 2020, 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 plans to launch the WDF World Masters. In December 2020, it was announced that the 2021 tournament will be held at

De Bonte Wever De Bonte Wever (formerly De Smelt) is a sports arena located in Assen, Netherlands. De venue opened in the 1970s with a 400-meter speed skating track. Later an ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates ...

Assen Assen () is a municipality and a city in the northeastern Netherlands, and is the capital (politics), capital of the province of Drenthe. It received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in 1809. Assen is known for TT Circuit Assen, the ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. This was then pushed back to 2022 due to ongoing coronavirus restrictions. The new WDF version of the event changed the format from setplay to legplay for the first time, with significantly shorter matches.

List of tournament finals

Men's World Masters

Women's World Masters

World Youth Masters

Boys' World Masters

Girls' World Masters

Records

Most men's tournament wins 5 -

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 ...

. Bob Anderson and

Martin Adams Martin Adams (born 4 June 1956) is an English professional darts player who plays in World Darts Federation (WDF) events. Nicknamed "Wolfie", he is a three-time BDO World Champion and three-time World Masters champion. He represents Cambridges ...

have both won 3 times (also both achieving 'hat tricks' by winning in three consecutive years), while

Dave Whitcombe David Whitcombe (born 27 June 1954) is an English former professional darts player who won several major tournaments and reached two World Championship Finals between 1980 and 1992. Biography Whitcombe was twice a winner of the Winmau World M ...

John Lowe John Lowe may refer to: Sports * John Lowe (darts player) (born 1945), English darts player. * John Lowe (footballer) (1912–1995), Scottish football player * John Lowe (rugby league), English rugby league footballer * John Lowe (cricketer) (18 ...

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 ...

Stephen Bunting Stephen Bunting (born 9 April 1985) is an English professional darts player who competes in events of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). Nicknamed The Bullet, Bunting won the 2014 BDO World Darts Championship and is a twice former Wor ...

and

Glen Durrant Glen Durrant (born 24 November 1970), nicknamed "Duzza", is an English former professional darts player who played in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He previously won the BDO World Darts Championship three times consecutively fr ...

have all won the Masters twice. Youngest champion

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 ...

(2006) aged 17 years, 174 days, who eclipsed the record of

Double Champion Leeanne Maddock (1992) aged 17 years won both the youth title and the women's title. Joint World Championship & Masters Champions Only seven players have ever won the World Masters and the World Championship in the same season. Eric Bristow achieved the feat three times (1979 Masters 1980 World, 1983–84 and 1984–85). Bob Anderson (1987–88), Richie Burnett (1994–95), John Walton (2000–01), Martin Adams (2009–10 and 2010–11), Stephen Bunting (2013–14) and Glen Durrant (2016–17) were the others. There have been two other instances of players holding both championships at the same time (Phil Taylor 1990 and Raymond van Barneveld 2005) - but these were not during the same season which is considered to end with the World Championship. Not Dropping A Set Stephen Bunting's 2013 win was achieved without dropping a set. There are 15 players who have won the Masters and the BDO World Championship during their careers: John Lowe, Eric Bristow, Bob Anderson, Phil Taylor, Dennis Priestley, Richie Burnett, Steve Beaton, Raymond van Barneveld, Les Wallace, John Walton, Andy Fordham, Martin Adams, Scott Waites, Stephen Bunting, and Glen Durrant. Additionally, Michael van Gerwen won the Masters in 2006 and has since won the PDC World Championship three times, but not the BDO World Championship.

Media coverage

*1974–1988

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

*1989 Not broadcast *1990

The Sports Channel 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 ...

(part of the short-lived satellite TV service BSB) *1991–1992

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 ...

*1993–1994

Wire TV Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm A wire is a flexible strand of metal. Wire is co ...

*1995

L!VE TV L!VE TV was a British television station that was operated by Mirror Group Newspapers on cable television from 12 June 1995 until 5 November 1999. It was later revived for Sky from 2003. In 2006, L!VE TV's name was changed to Babeworld to r ...

(highlights on the ITV night time programme 'Sport AM' as well as on the

HTV Wales ITV Wales and West, previously known as Harlech Television (HTV), was an ITV franchise area in the United Kingdom until 31 December 2013, licensed to a broadcaster by the regulator Ofcom. There is no channel, past or present, named "ITV Wales ...

programme 'Top Sport') *1996–2000

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 ...

*2001–2010

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

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