PDC World Darts Championship

For the video game, see PDC World Championship Darts.
William Hill
World Darts Championship
Tournament information
Venue Alexandra Palace (2008–)
Circus Tavern (1994–2007)
Location London
Country England
Established 1994
Organisation(s) PDC
Format Sets
Prize fund £1,650,000 (2017)
Month(s) Played December/January
Current champion(s)
Scotland Gary Anderson

The PDC World Darts Championship, organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), is one of the two World Professional Darts Championships held annually in the sport of darts. The other is the BDO World Darts Championship organised by the British Darts Organisation (BDO). The PDC championship begins in December, overlapping in January with the start of the BDO tournament. The highest profile of the PDC's tournaments, it is held at Alexandra Palace in London and is sponsored by bookmaker William Hill; winners receive the Sid Waddell Trophy, named in honour of the legendary darts commentator Sid Waddell, who died in 2012.

The PDC championship began in 1994 as the WDC World Darts Championship as one of the consequences of the split in darts, which saw the World Darts Council 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 are now free to choose which world championship to enter (but not both in the same year), as long as they meet certain eligibility criteria.

The current PDC champion is Gary Anderson. With 14 wins from 23 appearances, Phil Taylor has dominated the competition, last winning it in 2013. Other than Taylor, there have only been six other champions. The only other players to win it more than once are John Part (2003 & 2008), Adrian Lewis (2011 & 2012) and Anderson (2015 & 2016). The one-time winners are the inaugural champion Dennis Priestley, and the Dutchmen Raymond van Barneveld (2007) and Michael van Gerwen (2014).

History

In 1992, some high profile players, including all previous winners of the BDO World Darts Championship still active in the game, formed the WDC (now PDC), and in 1994, held their first World Championship. Dennis Priestley 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. In 2016, the prize fund was increased to £1.5 million, with the World Champion receiving £300,000.[1]

Venue

The PDC World Darts Championship has been held at Alexandra Palace in London since 2008, having previously been held at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet, Essex, from 1994 to 2007.[2]

List of finals

Year Champion (average in final)[3] T. Score Runner-Up (average in final) Sponsor Prize Money Venue
Total[4] Champion Runner-Up
1994 England Dennis Priestley (94.38) 1st 6–1 England Phil Taylor (90.62) Skol £64,000 £16,000 £8,000 Circus Tavern
Purfleet
1995 England Phil Taylor (94.11) 1st 6–2 England Rod Harrington (87.15) Proton Cars £55,000 £12,000 £6,000
1996 England Phil Taylor (98.52) 2nd 6–4 England Dennis Priestley (101.48) Vernons £61,000 £14,000 £7,000
1997 England Phil Taylor (100.92) 3rd 6–3 England Dennis Priestley (96.78) Red Band £98,000 £45,000 £10,000
1998 England Phil Taylor (103.98) 4th 6–0 England Dennis Priestley (90.75) Skol £71,000 £20,000
1999 England Phil Taylor (97.11) 5th 6–2 England Peter Manley (93.63) £104,000 £30,000 £16,000
2000 England Phil Taylor (94.42) 6th 7–3 England Dennis Priestley (91.80) £110,000 £31,000 £16,400
2001 England Phil Taylor (107.46) 7th 7–0 Canada John Part (92.58) £124,000 £33,000 £18,000
2002 England Phil Taylor (98.47) 8th 7–0 England Peter Manley (91.35) £200,000 £50,000 £25,000
2003 Canada John Part (96.87) 1st 7–6 England Phil Taylor (99.98) Ladbrokes
2004 England Phil Taylor (96.03) 9th 7–6 England Kevin Painter (90.48) £256,000
2005 England Phil Taylor (96.14) 10th 7–4 England Mark Dudbridge (90.66) £300,000 £60,000 £30,000
2006 England Phil Taylor (106.74) 11th 7–0 England Peter Manley (91.72) £500,000 £100,000 £50,000
2007 Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld (100.93) 1st 7–6 England Phil Taylor (100.86)
2008 Canada John Part (92.86) 2nd 7–2 England Kirk Shepherd (85.10) £589,000 Alexandra Palace
London
2009 England Phil Taylor (110.94) 12th 7–1 Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld (101.18) £724,000 £125,000 £60,000
2010 England Phil Taylor (104.38) 13th 7–3 Australia Simon Whitlock (100.51) £1,000,000 £150,000
2011 England Adrian Lewis (99.40) 1st 7–5 Scotland Gary Anderson (99.41) £200,000 £100,000
2012 England Adrian Lewis (93.06) 2nd 7–3 England Andy Hamilton (90.83)
2013 England Phil Taylor (103.04) 14th 7–4 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen (100.66)
2014 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen (100.10) 1st 7–4 Scotland Peter Wright (95.71) £1,050,000 £250,000
2015 Scotland Gary Anderson (97.68) 1st 7–6 England Phil Taylor (100.69) William Hill £1,250,000 £120,000
2016 Scotland Gary Anderson (99.26) 2nd 7–5 England Adrian Lewis (100.23) £1,500,000 £300,000 £150,000
2017 £1,650,000 £350,000 £160,000

Records and statistics

Total finalist appearances

Rank Name Nationality Winner Runner-up Finals
1 Taylor, PhilPhil Taylor  England 14 4 18
2 Lewis, AdrianAdrian Lewis  England 2 1 3
2 Part, JohnJohn Part  Canada 2 1 3
2 Anderson, GaryGary Anderson  Scotland 2 1 3
5 Priestley, DennisDennis Priestley  England 1 4 5
6 van Barneveld, RaymondRaymond van Barneveld  Netherlands 1 1 2
6 van Gerwen, MichaelMichael van Gerwen  Netherlands 1 1 2
8 Manley, PeterPeter Manley  England 0 3 3
9 Harrington, RodRod Harrington  England 0 1 1
9 Painter, KevinKevin Painter  England 0 1 1
9 Dudbridge, MarkMark Dudbridge  England 0 1 1
9 Shepherd, KirkKirk Shepherd  England 0 1 1
9 Hamilton, AndyAndy Hamilton  England 0 1 1
9 Whitlock, SimonSimon Whitlock  Australia 0 1 1
9 Wright, PeterPeter Wright  Scotland 0 1 1

Nine dart Finishes

Nine Nine-darters have been thrown at the World Championship. The first one in 2009.

Player Year Round Result Opponent
Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld 2009 Quarter-Final Won Netherlands Jelle Klaasen
Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld 2010 2nd Round Won Northern Ireland Brendan Dolan
England Adrian Lewis 2011 Final Won Scotland Gary Anderson
England Dean Winstanley 2013 2nd Round Lost Netherlands Vincent van der Voort
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 2013 Semi Final Won England James Wade
Australia Kyle Anderson 2014 1st Round Lost England Ian White
England Terry Jenkins 2014 1st Round Lost Denmark Per Laursen
England Adrian Lewis 2015 3rd Round Lost Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld
Scotland Gary Anderson 2016 Semi-Final Won Netherlands Jelle Klaasen

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 over a hundred times.[5] compared to about 20 times in the BDO World Championship.[6]

An average of over 105 in a match in the PDC World Championship has been achieved 22 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.

Ten highest PDC World Championship one-match averages:[7]
Average Player Year (+ Round) Opponent Result
111.21 England Phil Taylor 2002, 2nd Round England Shayne Burgess 6–1
110.94 England Phil Taylor 2009, Final Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld 7–1
109.23 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 2016, 2nd Round England Darren Webster 4–0
109.00 England Phil Taylor 2007, 2nd Round Republic of Ireland Mick McGowan 4–1
108.80 England Phil Taylor 2009, Quarter-Final Netherlands Co Stompé 5–0
108.39 Scotland Gary Anderson 2011, 3rd Round England Andy Smith 4–0
108.31 Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld 2013, 1st Round England Michael Smith 3–0
108.30 England Phil Taylor 2006, 3rd Round England Andy Hamilton 4–0
107.46 England Phil Taylor 2001, Final Canada John Part 7–0
107.37 England Phil Taylor 2010, Quarter-Final England Adrian Lewis 5–0
Five highest losing averages
Average Player Year (+ Round) Opponent Result
105.78 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 2016, 3rd Round Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld 3–4
103.10 Scotland Peter Wright 2016, Quarter-Final England Adrian Lewis 2–5
102.95 England Adrian Lewis 2010, Quarter-Final England Phil Taylor 0–5
102.78 England Michael Smith 2015, 3rd Round England Stephen Bunting 2–4
102.26 England Dave Chisnall 2016, 3rd Round Scotland Peter Wright 3–4
Different players with a 100+ match average - updated 02/01/16
Player Total Highest Av. Year (+ Round)
England Phil Taylor 51 111.21 2002, 2nd Round
Scotland Gary Anderson 13 108.39 2011, 3rd Round
England Adrian Lewis 13 106.51 2010, 1st Round
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 10 109.23 2016, 2nd Round
Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld 9 108.31 2013, 1st Round
Australia Simon Whitlock 6 105.37 2010, Quarter-Final
Scotland Peter Wright 5 105.07 2014, 3rd Round
Netherlands Jelle Klaasen 3 102.54 2016, 1st Round
England Michael Smith 3 102.78 2015, 3rd Round
England Dave Chisnall 2 102.85 2016, 2nd Round
England Terry Jenkins 2 102.64 2012, 3rd Round
England Andy Hamilton 2 102.04 2012, Quarter-Final
Wales Richie Burnett 1 103.38 2001, 1st Round
Netherlands Co Stompé 1 102.42 2010, 3rd Round
England Stephen Bunting 1 102.34 2015, 3rd Round
Republic of Ireland Mick McGowan 1 101.82 2007, 2nd Round
Scotland Robert Thornton 1 101.49 2015, Quarter-Final
England Dennis Priestley 1 101.48 1996, Final

Records

Most titles: 14, Phil Taylor. Taylor's two BDO titles take his total to 16, a record across both organisations.[8] John Part, Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson share the second place with two PDC titles.[9]
Most finals: 18, Phil Taylor, 1994-2007, 2009-2010, 2013 and 2015.[10]
Most match wins: 100, Phil Taylor, 1994-2015. Taylor has only lost 9 matches at the tournament and reached every final from 1994 until 2008, when he was beaten in the quarter-finals by Wayne Mardle.[11][12][13]
Longest unbeaten run: 44 matches, Phil Taylor, 1995-2003, between his defeats in the 1994 and 2003 finals.
Most 180s in a tournament (total): 654 in 2016. This beat the previous record set in 2015, when the tournament total of 625.[14]
Most 180s in a tournament (individual): 64, Gary Anderson (2015)[15]
Most 180s in a single match: 21, Raymond van Barneveld (2007)[16]
Most appearances: 23, Phil Taylor. Taylor is the only player to have appeared in all 23 editions of the championship.[17]
Youngest player: Mitchell Clegg, 16 years and 37 days. Clegg qualified as a 15-year-old in 2007. He was younger than Michael van Gerwen, who set the BDO World Championship youngest player record a few weeks later
Youngest finalist: Kirk Shepherd, 21 years and 88 days In the 2008 final,[18] Shepherd was two days younger than Jelle Klaasen, who won the BDO title in 2006.
Record TV audience: 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.[19]
Both versions of World Championship: Four players. Dennis Priestley was the first player to win both versions of the World Championship,[20][21] winning the 1991 BDO Championship and the 1994 PDC Championship. Phil Taylor, John Part and Raymond van Barneveld have since matched the feat.[22][23]
Overseas World Champions: Three players. John Part was the first player from outside the UK to win the PDC World Championship with his 2003 title, followed by Raymond van Barneveld in 2007 and Michael van Gerwen in 2014. Part was also the first overseas player to win the BDO title, doing so in 1994

Media

The stage at the 2009 World Championship.

Domestic broadcaster

The PDC World Championship has been broadcast live and in its entirety by Sky Sports in the UK since its inception. Since 2009 the tournament has been shot 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

Co-presenters

Commentators:

Former presenters and commentators have been:

Overseas broadcasters

Dutch broadcaster SBS6, having covered the BDO World Darts Championship for many years, also covers the event until RTL7 took over broadcasting. ESPN3 (USA), TSN (Canada), Fox Sports (Australia), SuperSport (South Africa), Ten Sports (India), CCTV (China), Showtime (Middle East), Ukraine TV, Sky New Zealand, IKO (Poland), Starhub (Singapore), Sport1 (Hungary), Meersat (Malaysia), 7TV (Russia), Measat (Indonesia), J Sports (Japan), Fox Sports (Italy) now also broadcast the event.

Viewing figures

Television viewing figures for the final are as follows: [24]

Year Broadcaster
Sky Television Netherlands Germany SPORT1
2015 1.5 million peak[25] 908,000 (RTL 7)[26] 1,360,000[27]
2014 668,000 2,054,000 (RTL 7) 560,000[28]
2013 1,270,000[29] 1,748,000 (RTL 7) 810,000
2012 728,000 762,000 (RTL 7)
2011 920,000 435,000 (SBS6)
2010 888,000 854,000 (SBS6) 730,000
2009 809,000 1,441,000 (SBS6) 490,000
2008 731,000 211.000 (compilation SBS6) 340,000
2007 1,028,000 1,339,000 (SBS6)
2006 761,000
2005 530,000
2004 820,000
2003 610,000
2002 Unavailable
2001 420,000
2000 240,000
1999 200,000

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.

The tournament has been sponsored by bookmaker William Hill since 2015. Previous sponsors have been:

Trophy

Following popular darts commentator Sid Waddell'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.[30]

Notes and references

  1. http://tungstentickle.com/hearn-announces-world-championship-shake-up/
  2. "PDC championship moves to London". BBC Sport. 2 April 2007. Retrieved 2 April 2007.
  3. Each player's average score is based on the average for each 3-dart visit to the board (ie total points scored divided by darts thrown and multiplied by 3)
  4. PDC World Championship prize fund dartsdatabase
  5. http://www.dartsdatabase.co.uk/TournamentPlayerStats.aspx?tournStatKey=6&tournKey=11&pg=1
  6. http://www.dartsdatabase.co.uk/TournamentPlayerStats.aspx?tournKey=2
  7. dartsdatabase.co.uk; best winning averages
  8. http://www.dartsdatabase.co.uk/TournamentStats.aspx?tournKey=11
  9. http://www.dartsdatabase.co.uk/TournamentPlayerStats.aspx?tournKey=11
  10. http://www.dartsdatabase.co.uk/TournamentStats.aspx?tournKey=11
  11. "PDC WC Match wins page 1". Darts Database. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  12. "PDC WC match wins page 2". Darts Database. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  13. "PDC WC match wins page 3". Darts Database. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  14. dartsdatabase.co.uk; Total 180s 2015
  15. dartsdatabse.co.uk; Most 180's in a tournament
  16. http://www.dartsdatabase.co.uk/TournamentPlayerStats.aspx?tournStatKey=8&tournKey=11&pg=1
  17. dartsdatabase.co.uk; tournament appearances
  18. http://www.dartsdatabase.co.uk/TournamentStats.aspx?tournKey=11
  19. pdc.tv; Record Viewing Figures
  20. http://www.dartsdatabase.co.uk/TournamentDetails.aspx?tournKey=11
  21. http://www.dartsdatabase.co.uk/TournamentDetails.aspx?TournKey=2
  22. http://www.dartsdatabase.co.uk/TournamentDetails.aspx?tournKey=11
  23. http://www.dartsdatabase.co.uk/TournamentDetails.aspx?TournKey=2
  24. BARB viewing figures
  25. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a619350/gary-andersons-pdc-world-darts-win-pulls-in-viewers-for-sky-sports.html
  26. Kijkonderzoek. Retrieved on 2015-01-05.
  27. http://www.quotenmeter.de/n/75469/der-grosse-wurf-darts-finale-fuehrt-sport1-zu-allzeit-rekord
  28. DWDL: Darts-WM: Sport1 katapultiert sich vor Vox
  29. BARB. BARB. Retrieved on 2013-08-13.
  30. "World Darts Trophy Named After Waddell". Sky News. 13 August 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
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