European Championship (darts)

European Championship
Tournament information
Venue Ethias Arena
Location Hasselt
Country Belgium
Established 2008
Organisation(s) PDC
Format Legs
Prize fund £300,000 (2015)
Month(s) Played Various
Current champion(s)
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen

The European Championship is a PDC darts tournament which allows the top European players to compete with the highest ranked players from the PDC Order of Merit. The tournament takes place in a variety of months and features a field of 32. The inaugural tournament – the 2008 European Championship – was held at the Südbahnhof in Frankfurt, Germany and featured a prize fund of £200,000.[1] The tournament moved to the Claus Hotel & Event Center in Hoofddorp, Netherlands for 2009 featuring a similar prize fund.[2] The tournament returned to Germany in 2010, where it was held at Dinslaken. The 2011 tournament remained in Germany, only this time, it took place in Düsseldorf – the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia. From 2012 to 2014, the tournament took place in Mülheim, Germany. Since 2015, the tournament has taken place in Hasselt, Belgium.

Phil Taylor won the tournament on each of the first four stagings of the event, before Simon Whitlock took the title in 2012. Adrian Lewis gained -at that time- his third major win after beating Whitlock in the 2013 edition of the tournament. The current champion is Michael van Gerwen, who came back from 7–10 behind to defeat Gary Anderson 11–10 in the final of the 2015 tournament.

European Championship finals

Year Champion (av. in final) Legs Runner-up (av. in final) Prize Fund Champion Runner-up Venue Duration
2008 England Phil Taylor (104.35) 11–5 England Adrian Lewis (96.56) £200,000 £50,000 £25,000 Germany Südbahnhof, Frankfurt Oct 30–Nov 2
2009 England Phil Taylor (109.35) 11–3 England Steve Beaton (97.16) £200,000 £50,000 £20,000 Netherlands Claus Event Center, Hoofddorp Oct 29–Nov 1
2010 England Phil Taylor (105.74) 11–1 England Wayne Jones (94.64) £200,000 £50,000 £20,000 Germany Stadthalle Dinslaken, Dinslaken Jul 29–Aug 1
2011 England Phil Taylor (109.29) 11–8 England Adrian Lewis (98.72) £200,000 £50,000 £20,000 Germany Maritim Hotel, Düsseldorf Jul 28–Jul 31
2012 Australia Simon Whitlock (94.91) 11–5 England Wes Newton (89.47) £200,000 £50,000 £20,000 Germany RWE-Sporthalle, Mülheim Sep 20–Sep 23
2013 England Adrian Lewis (103.34) 11–6 Australia Simon Whitlock (99.59) £200,000 £50,000 £20,000 Jul 4–Jul 7
2014 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen (98.16) 11–4 England Terry Jenkins (92.90) £250,000 £55,000 £25,000 Oct 24–Oct 26
2015 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen (107.28) 11–10 Scotland Gary Anderson (102.42) £300,000 £65,000 £35,000 Belgium Ethias Arena, Hasselt Oct 30–Nov 1
2016 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen (111.62) 11–1 Austria Mensur Suljović (85.91) £400,000 £100,000 £40,000 Oct 28–Oct 30

Finalists

[3]

Player Won Runner-up Finals
England Phil Taylor404
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen303
England Adrian Lewis123
Australia Simon Whitlock112
England Steve Beaton011
England Terry Jenkins011
England Wayne Jones011
England Wes Newton011
Scotland Gary Anderson011
Austria Mensur Suljović011

Television coverage

The PDC announced on August 12, 2008 that ITV4 would broadcast the entire event.[1] This was the second PDC darts tournament that ITV4 have broadcast, after the inaugural Grand Slam of Darts – after its rating success ITV had chosen to broadcast this event as well as the 2008 Grand Slam of Darts.

The 2009 event was not televised, but the 2010 event was broadcast on Bravo, which screened live darts for the first time in its history.[4] However, Bravo ceased broadcasting at the start of 2011. On June 26, 2011, it was announced that ITV4 would broadcast the 2011 event.[5] In the Netherlands it is broadcast on RTL7 and in Germany it is broadcast on Sport1. On August 8, 2012 it was announced that ESPN would televise the event, becoming the first broadcaster to show both BDO and PDC dart tournaments. From 2013, the tournament returned to ITV4 as part of a deal between ITV and the PDC to show 4 tournaments from the PDC calendar.

List of United Kingdom Broadcasters

Sponsorship

PartyPoker.net sponsored first six editions of the tournament – they also sponsored the US Open and the Las Vegas Desert Classic, two other non-defunct televised PDC events.

In 2014, 888.com took over sponsoring of the tournament.[6]

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References

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