PDC World Darts Championship
| Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship | |
|---|---|
| Tournament information | |
| Venue | Alexandra Palace |
| Location | London |
| Country | England |
| Established | 1994 |
| Organisation(s) | PDC |
| Format | Legs (preliminaries and 3rd/4th place play off) Sets (from first round) |
| Prize fund | £1,000,000 (2010) |
| Month(s) Played | December/January |
| Current champion(s) | |
 Adrian Lewis | |
The PDC World Darts Championship is a world championship competition for the sport of darts, organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). It was introduced following a dispute in 1994 with the British Darts Organisation, which has run its own world championship since 1978. The biggest of the PDC tournaments, it traditionally begins in late December, finishing in early January just as the BDO's version gets underway.
The tournament is currently sponsored by Ladbrokes.com and is now staged at the Alexandra Palace in London after being held the Circus Tavern in Purfleet for its first 14 years.[1]
Only 5 players have won this championship: Dennis Priestley, Phil Taylor, John Part, Raymond van Barneveld and Adrian Lewis. Of these, only Taylor and Part have won it more than once. In addition, Lewis is the only PDC World Champion never to have won the BDO World Championship. Taylor has dominated the tournament, winning 13 titles and reaching 16 of the first 17 finals.
Origins
In 1994 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 began to organise their own World Championships. 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 the prize fund for the early WDC World Championships was lower than the BDO version. In 2002, the PDC prize fund overtook the BDO for the first time and the PDC event now boasts the largest prize fund of any darts competition, the PDC and sponsors Ladbrokes have announced that prize money will reach £1 million by 2010 with the winner set to collect £200,000.
Sponsors
Sponsored by Skol 1994 and 1998-2002
Proton 1995
Vernons 1996
Red Band 1997
Ladbrokes.com 2003–present
Venues
| Venue | Years |
|---|---|
| Circus Tavern, Purfleet | 1994–2007 |
| Alexandra Palace, London | 2008–present |
Final Results and statistics
| Year | Champion (average in final)[2] | Score | Runner-Up (average in final) | Sponsor | Total Prize Money[3] |
Champion | Runner-Up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Dennis Priestley (94.38)
|
6–1 | Phil Taylor (90.62)
|
Skol | £64,000 | £16,000 | £8,000 |
| 1995 | Phil Taylor (94.11)
|
6–2 | Rod Harrington (87.15)
|
Proton Cars | £55,000 | £12,000 | £6,000 |
| 1996 | Phil Taylor (98.52)
|
6–4 | Dennis Priestley (101.49)
|
Vernons | £61,000 | £14,000 | £7,000 |
| 1997 | Phil Taylor (100.92)
|
6–3 | Dennis Priestley (96.78)
|
Red Band | £98,000 | £45,000 | £10,000 |
| 1998 | Phil Taylor (103.98)
|
6–0 | Dennis Priestley (90.75)
|
Skol | £71,000 | £20,000 | £10,000 |
| 1999 | Phil Taylor (97.11)
|
6–2 | Peter Manley (93.63)
|
Skol | £104,000 | £30,000 | £16,000 |
| 2000 | Phil Taylor (94.42)
|
7–3 | Dennis Priestley (91.80)
|
Skol | £110,000 | £31,000 | £16,400 |
| 2001 | Phil Taylor (107.46)
|
7–0 |  John Part (92.58)
|
Skol | £124,000 | £33,000 | £18,000 |
| 2002 | Phil Taylor (98.47)
|
7–0 | Peter Manley (91.35)
|
Skol | £200,000 | £50,000 | £25,000 |
| 2003 | John Part (96.87)
|
7–6 | Phil Taylor (99.98)
|
Ladbrokes | £200,000 | £50,000 | £25,000 |
| 2004 | Phil Taylor (96.03)
|
7–6 | Kevin Painter (90.48)
|
Ladbrokes | £256,000 | £50,000 | £25,000 |
| 2005 | Phil Taylor (96.14)
|
7–4 | Mark Dudbridge (90.66)
|
Ladbrokes | £300,000 | £60,000 | £30,000 |
| 2006 | Phil Taylor (106.74)
|
7–0 | Peter Manley (91.72)
|
Ladbrokes | £500,000 | £100,000 | £50,000 |
| 2007 |  Raymond van Barneveld (100.93)
|
7–6 | Phil Taylor (100.86)
|
Ladbrokes | £500,000 | £100,000 | £50,000 |
| 2008 | John Part (92.86)
|
7–2 | Kirk Shepherd (85.10)
|
Ladbrokes | £605,000 | £100,000 | £50,000 |
| 2009 | Phil Taylor (110.94)
|
7–1 | Raymond van Barneveld (101.18)
|
Ladbrokes | £740,000 | £125,000 | £60,000 |
| 2010 | Phil Taylor (104.38)
|
7–3 |  Simon Whitlock (100.51)
|
Ladbrokes | £1,000,000 | £200,000 | £100,000 |
| 2011 | Adrian Lewis (99.40)
|
7–5 |  Gary Anderson (99.41)
|
Ladbrokes | £1,000,000 | £200,000 | £100,000 |
Television coverage
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). The tournament has become more and more popular in recent years with the 2007 World Final achieving a viewing figure in excess of 1 million for the first time. Sky's contract to cover the event has been extended until 2013, which will be the 20th year of the tournament.[4]
Sky Television World Final viewing figures:[5]
- 2011 920,000
- 2010 888,000
- 2009 809,000
- 2008 731,000
- 2007 1,028,000
- 2006 761,000
- 2005 530,000
- 2004 820,000
- 2003 610,000
- 2002 Unavailable
- 2001 420,000
- 2000 240,000
- 1999 200,000
Holland SBS6
- 2009 1,441,000
- 2008 Unavailable
- 2007 1,339,000
Germany SPORT1 (until 2010 DSF)[6]
- 2010 730,000 (Peak of 1 mio)
- 2009 490,000 (Peak of 910,000)
Dutch broadcaster SBS6, having covered the BDO World Darts Championship for many years, now also covers the event. DSF (Germany), Fox Sports (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) now also broadcast the event.
Records
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2011) |
Since the split in darts two versions of the world championship have existed since 1994, this record section relates specifically to achievements in the PDC version
- Most titles: Phil Taylor 13 (2 BDO titles takes total to 15). John Part is in second place with two PDC titles
- Most finals: Phil Taylor 16 (1994-2007 & 2009-2010)
- Most match wins: Phil Taylor 97 matches (1994 - 2011). Taylor has only lost five matches at the tournament and reached every final until the 2008 tournament when he was knocked out in the Quarter Final by Wayne Mardle then in the same position in 2011 by Mark Webster.
- Longest unbeaten run: Phil Taylor 44 matches between his loss at the 1994 final and his next defeat the final of 2003
- Most 180s in a tournament: 554 in 2011[7]. This beat the previous record set in 2010, when the tournament total of 507[8] was achieved
- Most 180s in a tournament (individual): Adrian Lewis 60 (2011)[9]
- Most appearances: Phil Taylor and Dennis Priestley have appeared in all 18 editions of the championship.[10]
- 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, Shepherd was two days younger than when Jelle Klaasen won the BDO version.
- Record TV audience: 1,028,000. The 2007 final was the first time that Sky television achieved a viewing figure of over 1 million for a darts match.
- Nine-dart finishes: Raymond van Barneveld and Adrian Lewis are the only persons to have thrown a nine-dart finish at the championships, while the former achieved it twice (2009 Quarter Finals vs. Jelle Klaasen and 2010 Second Round vs. Brendan Dolan) and the latter once (2011 Final vs. Gary Anderson)
- Both versions of World Championship: Dennis Priestley was the first player to have won both versions of the World Championship. He won the 1991 BDO Championship and 1994 PDC Championship. Phil Taylor, John Part and Raymond van Barneveld have also matched the feat.
- Overseas World Champions: John Part was the first player from outside the UK to win the PDC World Championship with his 2003 title, with Raymond van Barneveld the second overseas champion in 2007. Part was also the first overseas player to win the BDO title in 1994
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.
Prior to the split there had been only three occasions when a player had managed to achieve an average of 100 for a match:
- 102.63 Dennis Priestley (1993, 1st Round) v Jocky Wilson
- 100.80 Phil Taylor (1990, Semi-Final) v Cliff Lazarenko
- 100.29 Keith Deller (1985, Quarter-Final) v John Lowe (lost match)
An average over 100 in a match in the PDC World Championship has since been achieved 58 times, compared to 20 times in the BDO World Championships, despite the BDO tournament's longer history. 9 different men have achieved an average of over 100 in the PDC tournament, compared to 8 different men in the BDO tournament since the split in 1994. However, it must be noted that the PDC darts boards having scoring areas (trebles and doubles) that are larger in size than dart boards used in the BDO.
Highest PDC one-match averages:[11]
- 111.21 Phil Taylor (2002, 2nd Round) v Shayne Burgess
- 110.94 Phil Taylor (2009, Final) v Raymond van Barneveld
- 109.00 Phil Taylor (2007, 2nd Round) v Mick McGowan
- 108.80 Phil Taylor (2009, Quarter Final) v Co Stompé
- 108.39 Gary Anderson (2011, 3rd Round) v Andy Smith
Notes and references
- ^ New venue announcement BBC Sport
- ^ 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)
- ^ PDC World Championship prize fund dartsdatabase
- ^ Sky Sports hits 20 with World Darts Championship planetdarts.tv
- ^ BARB viewing figures
- ^ Phil "The Power" Taylor ist der Pfeil-König Welt Online, 5 January 2009
- ^ dartsdatabase.co.uk; Total 180s 2011
- ^ dartsdatabase.co.uk; Total 180s 2010
- ^ dartsdatabse.co.uk; Most 180's in a tournament
- ^ dartsdatabase.co.uk; tournament appearances
- ^ dartsdatabase.co.uk; best winning averages