2015 PDC World Darts Championship

World Darts Championship
Tournament information
Dates	18 December 2014–4 January 2015
Venue	Alexandra Palace
Location	London
Country	England, United Kingdom
Organisation(s)	PDC
Format	Legs (preliminaries) Sets (from Round 1) Final – best of 13
Prize fund	£1,250,000
Winner's share	£250,000
High checkout	Raymond van Barneveld 170 (First round)
«2014 2016»

The 2015 William Hill World Darts Championship is the 22nd World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event started on 18 December 2014 and concludes on 4 January 2015. It is being held at the Alexandra Palace, London, England.

Michael van Gerwen is the defending champion, having won his first World Championship title in 2014. The draw was held on 2 December 2014.

Format and qualifiers

The tournament features 72 players. The top 32 players on the PDC Order of Merit on 2 December 2014 (after the Players Championship Finals) are seeded for the tournament. They are joined by the 16 highest non-qualified players from the Pro Tour Order of Merit, based on the events played on the 2014 PDC Pro Tour.

These 48 players are joined by two PDPA qualifiers (as determined at a PDPA Qualifying event held in Coventry on 1 December 2014), the highest ranked non-qualified player on the PDC Challenge Tour Order of Merit, and 21 international players: the four highest names on the European Order of Merit not already qualified, and 17 further international qualifiers determined by the PDC and PDPA. Some of the international players, such as the four from the European Order of Merit, and the top American and Australian players are entered straight into the first round, while others, having won qualifying events in their countries, are entered into the preliminary round.

The field was set on 1 December 2014. John Michael became the first Greek player to play in the PDC World Championship.

Order of Merit

1. Michael van Gerwen
2. Phil Taylor
3. Adrian Lewis
4. Gary Anderson
5. Peter Wright
6. James Wade
7. Simon Whitlock (First round)
8. Dave Chisnall (Second round)
9. Robert Thornton
10. Mervyn King (First round)
11. Brendan Dolan
12. Andy Hamilton
13. Wes Newton (First round)
14. Raymond van Barneveld
15. Ian White (Second round)
16. Terry Jenkins
17. Justin Pipe (First round)
18. Kim Huybrechts
19. Jamie Caven (Second round)
20. Kevin Painter (Second round)
21. Steve Beaton (First round)
22. Michael Smith
23. Vincent van der Voort
24. Ronnie Baxter (Second round)
25. Paul Nicholson (First round)
26. Dean Winstanley
27. Stephen Bunting
28. Andy Smith (First round)
29. Jelle Klaasen (Second round)
30. John Part (First round)
31. Mark Webster (Second round)
32. Stuart Kellett (First round)

Pro Tour

1. Andrew Gilding (First round)
2. Darren Webster (Second round)
3. Benito van de Pas
4. Christian Kist (First round)
5. Jamie Lewis (First round)
6. Ronny Huybrechts (Second round)
7. Wayne Jones (First round)
8. Gerwyn Price (First round)
9. John Henderson (First round)
10. Keegan Brown (Second round)
11. David Pallett (First round)
12. Joe Cullen (First round)
13. Kyle Anderson (Second round)
14. Jyhan Artut (First round)
15. Michael Mansell (First round)
16. Rowby-John Rodriguez (First round)

Pro Tour (European Qualifiers)
First Round Qualifiers

1. Mensur Suljović (First round)
2. Ron Meulenkamp (First round)
3. Max Hopp
4. Ryan de Vreede ² (First round)

PDPA Qualifier
First Round Qualifier

• Jason Hogg (First round)

Preliminary Round Qualifier

• Scott MacKenzie (Preliminary round)

International Qualifiers
First Round Qualifiers

• Dave Richardson (First round)
• Laurence Ryder (Second Round)
• John Weber (First round)

Preliminary Round Qualifiers

• Nolan Arendse (First round)
• Daryl Gurney (First round)
• Jani Haavisto (Preliminary round)
• Alex Hon (Preliminary round)
• Scott Kirchner (First round)
• Boris Koltsov (First round)
• Robert Marijanović (First round)
• Mark McGrath (Preliminary round)
• John Michael (First round)
• Haruki Muramatsu (Preliminary round)
• Christian Perez (Preliminary round)
• Cristo Reyes
• Sascha Stein (Second Round)
• Kim Viljanen (Preliminary round)
• Jermaine Wattimena (Preliminary round)

1^ Jarkko Komula, who finished second in the Scandinavian Order of Merit, is ineligible to play due to a suspension from the Finnish Darts Organisation. Kim Viljanen, who finished third, will therefore replace Komula.

2^ Ryan de Vreede qualified after Richie Burnett was remove from the field due to personal reasons. As a result, Stuart Kellett has moved into the top 32 seeds and Rowby-John Rodriguez has qualified through the Pro Tour instead of the European Tour.

Prize money

The 2015 World Championship features a prize fund of at least £1,250,000 - an increase of £200,000 from the 2014 tournament.

The prize money is allocated as follows:

Position (num. of players)		Prize money
Winner	(1)	£250,000
Runner-up	(1)	£120,000
Semi-finalist	(2)	£60,000
Quarter-finalist	(4)	£35,000
Third round losers	(8)	£18,000
Second round losers	(16)	£12,000
First round losers	(32)	£8,000
Preliminary round losers	(8)	£3,500
Nine-dart finish	(?)	£10,000

Bracket

Preliminary round

The preliminary round is played in a first to four legs format. One match is played per session with the winners playing their first round matches later on the same day. The draw was held on 30 November 2014, two days before the main draw. Gurney played the highest average in the history of the Preliminary round.

Av.	Player	Score	Player	Av.
89.90	Christian Perez	0–4	Cristo Reyes	93.94
67.11	Kim Viljanen	1–4	Sascha Stein	91.30
93.76	Scott MacKenzie	3–4	Daryl Gurney	96.11
65.09	Mark McGrath	0–4	Scott Kirchner	83.50
79.27	Boris Koltsov	4–2	Haruki Muramatsu	75.69
83.77	Jani Haavisto	1–4	John Michael	94.82
84.68	Nolan Arendse	4–0	Alex Hon	79.22
82.77	Jermaine Wattimena	3–4	Robert Marijanović	76.36

Last 64

	First round (best of 5 sets) 18–23 December					Second round (best of 7) 27–29 December					Third round (best of 7) 29–30 December					Quarter-finals (best of 9) 1–2 January					Semi-finals (best of 11) 3 January					Final (best of 13) 4 January
	1	Michael van Gerwen 96.96	3
		Joe Cullen 93.14	1
						1	van Gerwen 99.87	4
							Stein 89.09	1
	32	Stuart Kellett 73.08	1
		Sascha Stein 79.34	3
											1	van Gerwen
											16	Jenkins
	16	Terry Jenkins 98.73	3
		John Weber 79.86	1
						16	Jenkins 96.45	4
							Ryder 86.69	0
	17	Justin Pipe 86.28	2
		Laurence Ryder 83.59	3
	8	Dave Chisnall 86.08	3
		Ryan de Vreede 75.24	0
						8	Chisnall 93.08	2
							van de Pas 91.44	4
	25	Paul Nicholson 85.49	2
		Benito van de Pas 86.28	3
												van de Pas
											9	Thornton
	9	Robert Thornton 97.65	3
		Andrew Gilding 92.00	0
						9	Thornton 93.78	4
						24	Baxter 84.48	0
	24	Ronnie Baxter 94.64	3
		Daryl Gurney 88.78	1
	5	Peter Wright 98.80	3
		Gerwyn Price 93.90	0
						5	Wright 95.52	4
							R Huybrechts 87.52	1
	28	Andy Smith 86.66	0
		Ronny Huybrechts 87.75	3
											5	Wright
											12	Hamilton
	12	Andy Hamilton 91.09	3
		Dave Richardson 86.04	2
						12	Hamilton 90.06	4
							K Anderson 90.96	2
	21	Steve Beaton 82.24	0
		Kyle Anderson 85.99	3
	4	Gary Anderson 86.20	3
		Scott Kirchner 86.21	1
						4	G Anderson 103.02	4
						29	Klaasen 100.72	3
	29	Jelle Klaasen 96.97	3
		Christian Kist 93.63	1
											4	G Anderson
												Reyes
	13	Wes Newton 94.61	2
		Cristo Reyes 93.47	3
							Reyes 88.41	4
						20	Painter 90.22	3
	20	Kevin Painter 89.57	3
		Boris Koltsov 78.14	1
	2	Phil Taylor 100.57	3
		Jyhan Artut 87.47	0
						2	Taylor 101.92	4
						31	M Webster 93.09	0
	31	Mark Webster 81.91	3
		Ron Meulenkamp 77.78	1
											2	Taylor
											18	K Huybrechts
	15	Ian White 86.72	3
		John Michael 81.02	1
						15	White 93.94	3
						18	K Huybrechts 93.74	4
	18	Kim Huybrechts 99.40	3
		Michael Mansell 87.65	0
	7	Simon Whitlock 87.29	1
		Darren Webster 94.24	3
							D Webster 93.59	3
						26	Winstanley 92.68	4
	26	Dean Winstanley 93.66	3
		Wayne Jones 94.01	2
											26	Winstanley
											23	van der Voort
	10	Mervyn King 90.67	2
		Max Hopp 96.60	3
							Hopp 86.55	0
						23	van der Voort 91.48	4
	23	Vincent van der Voort 93.39	3
		John Henderson 89.13	2
	6	James Wade 97.14	3
		Jamie Lewis 87.75	1
						6	Wade
						27	Bunting
	27	Stephen Bunting 90.20	3
		Robert Marijanović 86.82	1
											22	M Smith
	11	Brendan Dolan 90.18	3
		Nolan Arendse 83.85	0
						11	Dolan 92.89	2
						22	M Smith 98.90	4
	22	Michael Smith 97.47	3
		Mensur Suljović 98.91	1
	3	Adrian Lewis 101.90	3
		David Pallett 90.05	0
						3	A Lewis 100.41	4
							Brown 93.09	2
	30	John Part 84.78	2
		Keegan Brown 88.07	3
											3	A Lewis
											14	van Barneveld
	14	Raymond van Barneveld 99.93	3
		Rowby-John Rodriguez 79.22	0
						14	van Barneveld 93.32	4
						19	Caven 94.96	3
	19	Jamie Caven 80.87	3
		Jason Hogg 83.85	2

Statistics

Player	Eliminated	Played	Sets Won	Sets Lost	Legs Won	Legs Lost	100+	140+	180s	High Checkout	Checkout Av.%	Average
Phil Taylor		2	7	0	21	6	37	22	5	96	51.22	101.25
Adrian Lewis		2	7	2	24	17	48	34	12	134	38.10	101.16
Michael van Gerwen		2	7	2	24	16	40	34	16	104	36.92	98.42
Terry Jenkins		2	7	1	22	4	26	25	12	164	43.14	97.59
Peter Wright		2	7	1	22	13	47	35	5	144	47.83	97.16
Kim Huybrechts		2	7	3	23	19	46	33	7	146	37.70	96.57
Robert Thornton		2	7	0	21	6	37	22	11	144	36.84	95.72
Gary Anderson		2	7	4	26	21	50	33	17	126	35.14	94.61
Dean Winstanley		2	7	5	31	22	67	42	14	136	43.66	93.17
Cristo Reyes		3	7	5	32	28	73	44	13	142	41.03	91.07
Andy Hamilton		2	7	4	26	16	54	23	7	116	44.01	90.58
Benito van de Pas		2	7	4	22	20	58	24	7	127	32.84	88.86
Raymond van Barneveld		1	3	0	9	2	16	9	3	170	50.00	99.93
Michael Smith		1	3	1	11	9	20	13	9	124	50.00	97.47
James Wade		1	3	1	11	5	13	17	4	96	36.67	97.14
Max Hopp		1	3	2	13	12	37	19	10	161	37.84	96.60
Vincent van der Voort		1	3	2	12	9	22	14	7	157	40.00	93.39
Stephen Bunting		1	3	1	10	3	15	7	2	124	58.82	90.20
Brendan Dolan		1	3	0	9	0	13	6	2	108	42.86	90.18
Jamie Caven		1	3	2	11	8	19	8	4	77	23.91	80.87
Jelle Klaasen	Second round	2	6	5	22	24	60	35	8	127	30.99	98.85
Darren Webster	Second round	2	6	5	25	23	82	41	6	136	47.83	93.92
Keegan Brown	Second round	2	5	6	26	21	54	32	9	124	37.68	90.58
Ian White	Second round	2	6	5	24	20	51	32	13	113	35.82	90.33
Kevin Painter	Second round	2	6	5	24	18	51	28	6	141	41.38	89.90
Dave Chisnall	Second round	2	5	4	21	15	50	19	8	116	37.50	89.58
Ronnie Baxter	Second round	2	3	5	15	19	36	15	7	106	31.91	89.56
Kyle Anderson	Second round	2	5	4	19	18	41	27	6	156	35.19	88.48
Ronny Huybrechts	Second round	2	4	4	17	15	40	20	4	104	41.03	87.64
Mark Webster	Second round	2	3	5	13	19	41	19	8	125	23.64	87.50
Sascha Stein	Second round	2	4	5	22	21	61	28	7	120	34.92	86.58
Laurence Ryder	Second round	2	3	6	10	19	38	21	3	101	30.30	85.14
Mensur Suljović	First round	1	1	3	9	11	40	10	3	120	60.00	98.91
Wes Newton	First round	1	2	3	13	13	38	18	4	130	34.21	94.61
Wayne Jones	First round	1	2	3	8	12	19	24	4	68	40.00	94.01
Gerwyn Price	First round	1	0	3	5	9	16	7	5	40	41.67	93.90
Christian Kist	First round	1	1	3	7	9	21	8	3	136	46.67	93.63
Joe Cullen	First round	1	1	3	9	11	27	15	4	161	47.37	93.14
Daryl Gurney	First round	2	1	3	11	14	27	15	7	108	42.31	92.45
Andrew Gilding	First round	1	0	3	2	9	18	8	1	56	20.00	92.00
Mervyn King	First round	1	2	3	12	13	32	25	3	120	39.39	90.67
David Pallett	First round	1	0	3	3	9	10	9	3	161	37.50	90.05
John Henderson	First round	1	2	3	9	12	30	13	4	101	27.27	89.13
John Michael	First round	2	1	3	10	11	35	12	2	120	52.63	87.92
Jamie Lewis	First round	1	1	3	5	11	17	10	3	141	45.45	87.75
Michael Mansell	First round	1	0	3	5	9	15	10	5	101	33.33	87.65
Jyhan Artut	First round	1	0	3	2	9	11	9	1	95	33.33	87.47
Simon Whitlock	First round	1	1	3	4	11	23	6	3	40	16.67	87.29
Andy Smith	First round	1	0	3	2	9	16	9	2	75	14.29	86.66
Justin Pipe	First round	1	2	3	7	10	22	9	2	116	29.17	86.28
Dave Richardson	First round	1	2	3	6	11	15	7	7	96	35.29	86.04
Paul Nicholson	First round	1	2	3	8	10	23	11	5	116	26.67	85.49
Scott Kirchner	First round	2	1	3	12	9	25	14	2	124	31.58	84.86
John Part	First round	1	2	3	6	12	21	8	1	115	31.58	84.78
Nolan Arendse	First round	2	0	3	4	9	22	4	0	60	28.57	84.27
Jason Hogg	First round	1	2	3	8	11	19	8	5	76	29.63	83.85
Steve Beaton	First round	1	0	3	3	9	16	6	0	36	30.00	82.24
Robert Marijanović	First round	2	1	3	7	13	21	7	4	52	25.93	81.59
John Weber	First round	1	1	3	4	10	18	5	1	128	50.00	79.86
Rowby-John Rodriguez	First round	1	0	3	2	9	11	4	1	40	18.18	79.22
Boris Koltsov	First round	2	1	3	7	11	21	6	4	60	36.84	78.71
Ron Meulenkamp	First round	1	1	3	7	9	21	12	1	60	18.92	77.78
Ryan de Vreede	First round	1	0	3	3	9	15	1	2	56	27.27	75.24
Stuart Kellett	First round	1	1	3	7	11	19	3	3	108	41.18	73.08
Scott MacKenzie	Preliminary round	1	0	0	3	4	10	6	1	81	42.86	93.76
Christian Perez	Preliminary round	1	0	0	0	4	6	1	2	–	0.00	89.90
Jani Haavisto	Preliminary round	1	0	0	1	4	6	3	1	48	50.00	83.77
Jermaine Wattimena	Preliminary round	1	0	0	3	4	12	3	0	64	20.00	82.77
Alex Hon	Preliminary round	1	0	0	0	4	5	3	1	–	0.00	79.22
Haruki Muramatsu	Preliminary round	1	0	0	2	4	12	2	0	56	20.00	75.69
Kim Viljanen	Preliminary round	1	0	0	1	4	2	1	0	18	33.33	67.11
Mark McGrath	Preliminary round	1	0	0	0	4	3	1	0	–	0.00	65.09

Representation from different countries

This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the Preliminary round.

	ENG	NED	SCO	AUS	GER	WAL	NIR	BEL	AUT	CAN	FIN	HKG	ESP	CRO	GRE	RSA	RUS	USA	JPN	NZL	PHI	Total
Final	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Semis	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4
Quarters	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8
Round 3	7	4	3	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	16
Round 2	15	5	3	2	2	1	1	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	32
Round 1	25	8	5	5	3	3	3	2	2	2	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	64
Prelim.	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	16
Total	25	9	5	5	3	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	72

Broadcasting

The tournament is available in the following countries on these channels:

Country	Channel
United Kingdom Ireland	Sky Sports †
Netherlands	RTL7
Germany	Sport1/Sport1+
Denmark	TV3 Sport1/TV3 Sport2
Australia Italy	Fox Sports
New Zealand	Sky Sport (New Zealand)
Romania	Sport TV
Czech Republic Slovakia Hungary	Sport TV (Sport 1 and Sport2)
Middle East North Africa	OSN
Bulgaria Scandinavia Baltic states	Viasat

† Sky Sports 3 has been renamed as Sky Sports Darts for the duration of the tournament.

External links

• Official site
• PDC Netzone - Results, schedule