PDC World Darts Championship


The PDC World Darts Championship, known for sponsorship purposes as the William Hill World Darts Championship, organised by the Professional Darts Corporation, is one of the two separate 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. The PDC championship begins in December and ends in January and is held at Alexandra Palace in London. It is the highest profile of the PDC's tournaments, with the winner receiving the Sid Waddell Trophy, named in honour of the 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, as long as they meet certain eligibility criteria.
The current PDC champion is Peter Wright. With 14 wins from 25 appearances, Phil Taylor has dominated the competition, last winning it in 2013. Other than Taylor, there have been eight other champions. The other players to win it more than once are Michael van Gerwen, John Part, Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson . The one-time winners are the inaugural champion Dennis Priestley, the Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld, Rob Cross and Peter Wright.

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, 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 2018, the prize fund will be increased to £1.8 million, with the World Champion receiving £400,000.

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.

List of finals

Records and statistics

Total finalist appearances

Nine-dart finishes

Nine nine-darters have been thrown at the World Championship. The first one was in 2009.
PlayerYear MethodOpponentResult
Raymond van Barneveld2009, Quarter-Final3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Jelle KlaasenWon
Raymond van Barneveld2010, 2nd Round3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Brendan DolanWon
Adrian Lewis2011, Final3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Gary AndersonWon
Dean Winstanley2013, 2nd Round3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Vincent van der VoortLost
Michael van Gerwen2013, Semi-Final3 x T20; 2 x T20, T19; 2 x T20, D12 James WadeWon
Terry Jenkins2014, 1st Round3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Per LaursenLost
Kyle Anderson2014, 1st Round3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Ian WhiteLost
Adrian Lewis2015, 3rd Round3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Raymond van BarneveldLost
Gary Anderson2016, Semi-Final3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Jelle KlaasenWon

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 195 times. This is compared to 21 times in the BDO World Championship, following the 2019 event. In 2010 Phil Taylor became the first player to average over 100 in all six rounds of the tournament. He repeated this feat in 2015 and Michael van Gerwen achieved it in 2017 and 2019.
An average of over 105 in a match in the PDC World Championship has been achieved 40 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.

Records

Media

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. 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:
Dutch broadcaster SBS6, having covered the BDO World Darts Championship for many years, also covered the event until RTL7 took over broadcasting. Fox Sports, TSN, SuperSport, Sky Sport, StarHub, Ten Sports, CCTV, Showtime, Ukraine TV, IKO, NOVA Sport, Sport1, Meersat, 7TV, Measat, J Sports, DAZN, GOL TV Eurosport now also broadcast the event.

Viewing figures

Television viewing figures for the final are as follows:

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.

Sponsor

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