World Series of Darts
The World Series of Darts is a series of darts tournaments organised by the Professional Darts Corporation.
Beginning in 2013, the World Series has comprised between two and seven tournaments across the world, where a mixture of the top-ranked PDC players take on local qualifiers in a knockout format. Since 2015, there has been a finals tournament held annually in November at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow, Scotland, although in 2018, it moved to the Multiversum Schwechat in Vienna, Austria, and moved again to the AFAS Live in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 2019, and will move again to the Salzburgarena, Salzburg in 2020.
History
The World Series of Darts commenced in 2013 with the Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters. The goal of these series of tournaments is to make darts more popular across the globe.Later that year, the Sydney Darts Masters took place, which as well as including 8 top-ranked PDC players, also featured 8 players from Australia and New Zealand to take part in the tournament. In 2014, tournaments in Singapore and Perth were added to the series, although this would be the only year that Singapore was used for an event.
In 2015, but the Japan tournament and Auckland were added. Also in 2015, ended the series with the World Series of Darts Finals. In 2016, the PDC expanded into China with the addition of the Shanghai Darts Masters, and in 2017, both North America and Europe had their own tournaments with the US Darts Masters in Las Vegas, and the German Darts Masters in Düsseldorf, along with Melbourne over from Sydney in the Australian leg of the tour.
In 2018, Brisbane joined the fray and replaced Perth, whilst Dubai was excluded. It was also confirmed that Vienna, Austria would replace Glasgow as the host of the World Series Finals in 2018.
In 2019, it was announced that Cologne and Hamilton would host World Series events for the first time, with Dubai seemingly still on a back burner and China also excluded. It was also confirmed that Amsterdam, Netherlands will replace Vienna as the host of the World Series Finals in 2019.
In 2020 a new tournament, the Nordic Darts Masters, will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was also confirmed that Salzburg, Austria will replace Amsterdam as the host of the World Series Finals in 2020. The two Australian events will move to Wollongong and Townsville.
The US Darts Masters will relocate to New York City in 2021, having been due to move in 2020 before the cancellation of the 2020 US Masters due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Venues
Since the first tournament began in 2013, the World Series has visited ten countries including the Finals.Event | Venue | First held | Last held | Upcoming | Current/last champion |
Dubai Tennis Centre | 2013 | 2017 | None scheduled | Gary Anderson | |
Sydney Darts Masters | Luna Park Hordern Pavilion Qantas Credit Union Arena The Star | 2013 | 2016 | None scheduled | Phil Taylor |
Singapore Darts Masters | Singapore Indoor Stadium | 2014 | 2014 | None scheduled | |
Perth Darts Masters | HBF Stadium Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre | 2014 | 2017 | None scheduled | Gary Anderson |
Japan/Tokyo Darts Masters | Osanbashi Hall, Yokohama Yoyogi National Gymnasium | 2015 | 2016 | None scheduled | Gary Anderson |
Auckland Darts Masters | The Trusts Arena | 2015 | 2018 | None scheduled | Michael van Gerwen |
Shanghai Darts Masters | Pullman Hotel Shanghai South | 2016 | 2018 | None scheduled | Michael Smith |
US Darts Masters | Tropicana Las Vegas Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas Hulu Theater, New York City | 2017 | 2019 | 2021 | Nathan Aspinall |
Melbourne Darts Masters | Hisense Arena | 2017 | 2019 | None scheduled | Michael van Gerwen |
German Darts Masters | Castello Arena, Düsseldorf Veltins-Arena, Gelsenkirchen Lanxess Arena, Cologne | 2017 | 2019 | 2020 | Peter Wright |
Brisbane Darts Masters | Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre | 2018 | 2019 | None scheduled | Damon Heta |
New Zealand Darts Masters | Claudelands Arena, Hamilton | 2019 | 2019 | 2021 | Michael van Gerwen |
Nordic Darts Masters | Forum Copenhagen | N/A | N/A | 2020 | |
New South Wales Darts Masters | WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong | N/A | N/A | 2021 | |
Queensland Darts Masters | Townsville Entertainment & Convention Centre | N/A | N/A | 2021 | |
World Series of Darts Finals | Braehead Arena, Glasgow Multiversum Schwechat, Vienna AFAS Live, Amsterdam Salzburgarena, Salzburg | 2015 | 2019 | 2020 | Michael van Gerwen |
Points in the World Series tournament
Since the World Series of Darts Finals were announced in 2015, each event includes ranking points that all players earn dependent on how far they go to through each tournament. The top 8 ranked players automatically qualify for the Finals.Stage | Points |
Winner | 12 |
Runner-up | 8 |
Semi-final | 5 |
Quarter-final | 3 |
First round | 1 |