The PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) World Championships are the pinnacle of the game for this particular corporation. It’s often thought of as being the highlight of a player’s career and for some, even qualifying is seen as a pretty impressive feat. The money that is involved now makes the richest event in darts and winning can change a players career in a matter of weeks.
The competition is held annually at the Alexandra Place and has been here since the move from the Circus Tavern came about in 2008. The move was one that allowed the tournament to expand and accommodate the ever-increasing popularity in both darts as a sport and the World Championships as a tournament.
- In This Article:
- Tips
- About
- Format
- Venue
- TV
- Prize Money
- Statistics
- History
Next Played: TBD
Next years event dates have not been scheduled yet. We'll update this page with more information as we have it.
Last Played: December 2020
- Winner: Gerwyn Price
- Runner Up: Gary Anderson
PDC World Championship Betting Tips
Note: The following tips are from 2021. Updated tips will be added shortly before the start date.
The build-up to Christmas would not be the same without the PDC World Darts Championship. For thousands of fans, a trip to north London and the climb up the hill to Alexandra Palace is an annual pilgrimage. Only a lucky few will get to make that trip this year due to the current restrictions of fans at sporting events but the presence of just 1,000 fans will make a big difference to the players.
There is a bit of a debate at the moment about the quality of the top level of darts. Some argue that we are a long way from the days when Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld, Adrian Lewis and James Wade were all at the height of their powers. Others point out that the strength in depth in the sport has never been greater with the likes of Dirk van Duijvenbode, Jose de Sousa and Devon Petersen among those making waves since Peter Wright won his maiden World Championship at the start of the year.
That strength in depth has produced some major shocks in 2020 and we’re sure to see more shocks over the next few weeks at Alexandra Palace; but which players are worth supporting in the betting?
Gerwyn Price - 5/1
Michael van Gerwen is, as per usual, the bookies’ favourite for the PDC World Darts Championship. The Dutchman has had a quiet year by his own standards but that has included wins in both the Players Championship Finals and the UK Open. He is longer in the betting than usual at a best price of 5/2 but with so many genuine contenders and slight question marks about his form there is better value available.
That value is first found in the 5/1 available about Gerwyn Price’s chances of getting his hands on the Sid Waddell Trophy for the first time. Price has worked incredibly hard to climb the world rankings and has now very much asserted his claims to be one of the best players in the sport with two more big titles this season: the World Grand Prix and World Series Finals.
Price has been happy to ruffle some feathers since joining the PDC and at this time of year he is an excellent pantomime villain for the crowds at Alexandra Palace to boo. There will be none of that this time around and while some may think that will rob him of a certain edge, that’s not been the case in recent events played behind closed doors. Price is an excellent self-motivator who is always difficult to beat and he has every chance of posting the biggest win of his career so far.
Devon Petersen - 28/1
A host of other players who feature prominently in the betting are also worth considering for glory on 3 January. Defending champion Peter Wright, Michael Smith and Dimitri van den Bergh should all be viewed as serious contenders but the quest for value takes us even further down the betting.
Devon Petersen has long been a very popular figure at Alexandra Palace thanks largely to the force of his personality and entertaining entrance. He’s also had some good run at the PDC World Darts Championship, reaching the last 16 on two occasions but he is playing the best darts of his career right now and could potentially go much further indeed.
Petersen has been working hard with another well-known darting entertainer, Wayne Mardle. The former player is best known these days as a commentator and analyst but he is also a darts coach and the work he’s done with Petersen has really paid off this year. Petersen is rated a better chance by the bookies than he has been in previous years but there is plenty of juice left in his odds of 28/1.
Gary Anderson - 28/1
Gary Anderson is a two-time former PDC world champion and yet the Flying Scotsman is available at a general price of 28/1 for this year’s tournament. That immediately tells you that all is not right with Anderson and there are several reasons to be cautious before backing him. For one, his second round match has had to be moved as he is self-isolating; for another he has been struggling with injuries to his back and knee, and to top it all off he’s become involved in a spat with fellow pros, some of whom he has labelled cheats.
Usually, you’d look at that sort of pre-tournament preparation (or lack thereof) and give the player a wide berth in the betting. There is something about a prickly Gary Anderson though. He’s never minded a little bit of needle up on stage and we’ve seen him overcome all sorts of issues in the lead up to the World Championship again. Anderson has a chance to prove that class is permanent and that you can never write him off.
PDC World Championship Recent Winners
| Year | Winner (Seeding) | Runner-Up (Seeding) | Score (Sets) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020/21 | Gerwyn Price (3) | Gary Anderson (13) | 7-3 |
| 2019/20 | Peter Wright (7) | Michael van Gerwen (1) | 7-3 |
| 2018/19 | Michael van Gerwen (1) | Michael Smith (10) | 7-3 |
| 2017/18 | Rob Cross (20) | Phil Taylor (6) | 7-2 |
| 2016/17 | Michael van Gerwen (1) | Gary Anderson (2) | 7-3 |
| 2015/16 | Gary Anderson (2) | Adrian Lewis (5) | 7-5 |
| 2014/15 | Gary Anderson (4) | Phil Taylor (2) | 7-6 |
| 2013/14 | Michael van Gerwen (2) | Peter Wright (16) | 7-4 |
| 2012/13 | Phil Taylor (1) | Michael van Gerwen (7) | 7-4 |
| 2011/12 | Adrian Lewis (2) | Andy Hamilton (17) | 7-3 |
About The World Darts Championship
The World Championship or simply the “Worlds” as it’s more commonly known by, takes place through December and January, with a break over Christmas Day. It usually finishes on New Year’s Day in January and is seen by many to signify the start of the Christmas period, such is the stature of the competition for darts fans.
The tournament proper includes 96 players in total. Players are eligible based on world rankings, with the top 32 players in the PDC Order of Merit taking part with the remaining places made up of the next highest 32 ranked players from the Pro Tour Order of Merit and 32 places from a series of international qualifiers and event wins.
The PDC order of Merit qualifiers will be the 32 seeded players and enter the competition at the second round stage. The Pro Tour Order of Merit and International Qualifiers compete from the first round onwards.
2020/21 PDC World Championship Qualification
| Route of Entry | Number of Players | Round of Entry |
|---|---|---|
| PDC Order of Merit (Seeds) | 32 | Round 2 |
| Pro Tour Order of Merit | 32 | Round 1 |
| International Qualifiers | 32 | Round 1 |
Match Format
Each of the matches is played out as a ‘best of’ number of sets. To win each set a player must win 2 legs to then be awarded the set. The following structure is in place for the tournament proper.
Number of Sets by Round
| Round | Best of Sets | First to Sets |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Round | 5 sets | 3 sets |
| 2nd Round | 5 sets | 3 sets |
| 3rd Round | 7 sets | 4 sets |
| 4th Round | 7 sets | 4 sets |
| Quarter-finals | 9 sets | 5 sets |
| Semi-finals | 11 sets | 6 sets |
| Final | 13 sets | 7 sets |
The games and number of sets make it the longest format in the PDC. It’s often quite challenging for player given that a large number of tournaments that they play each year are leg based often require a much lower number of legs or sets than that of the World Championships.
Alexandra Palace as the Host Venue
As mentioned previously, the World Championships takes place at the Alexandra Palace, which is in Alexandra Park, London. The tournament has been held here since 2008 after previously being held at the Circus Tavern in Essex, London from the first event in 1994 to that of 2007.
The scope and expansion of the tournament has meant that the Alexandra Palace is now one of the most iconic darting venues in the world and as a result, pretty much all sessions for all days are either sold out well in advance or with a few tickets being left for cash turnstiles on the day.
There are a number of rooms at the Alexandra Palace, but the darts is held in the Great Hall, which has a capacity crowd of 8,500. In 2017/18 it was reported that across the 15 days more than 68,000 fans came through the doors.
There has been mummering’s that the tournament could move once again in order to accommodate more fans. This hasn’t been approved and hasn’t gone down too well with dart fans who love the Palace, but in order for the competition to expand, it would be needed, especially given that more people than ever are trying to get tickets.
TV Coverage
There is little doubt that the success of darts on the whole has been partly attributed to that of the TV coverage that Sky Sport has offered. It’s been hosting the PDC World Darts Championship, amongst others, for over 25 years now and has been a huge reason to the increase in popularity of the sport and the availability of it on TV.
Sky Sports’ coverage of darts started in 1993/94 when the were filming the World Championships at the Circus Tavern. Back then, the total prizemoney was that of £64,000. The growth has now meant that the tournament gets a prize pot of £2.5 milliion, making it by far the most lucrative on tour. In total, Sky offer over 60 day’s worth of darts a year, which includes other tournaments such as the Premier League, World Matchplay, Grand Slam of Darts, World Grand Prix and World Cup of Darts.
Prize Money
The prizemoney for the 2020/21 season has been set at £2.5million, the same as the previous year but some £700,000 more than in 2017/18. The £700,000 increase was the largest single increase for any darts World Championship and even darts as a sport. The winner will take home a cheque worth £500,000. Many are also predicting that in the next 10 years the winners cheque will be around the £1 million mark, which will be a mightily impressive feat given where the sport has come from.
Three years previously, for the 2017/18 World Championships, the prize money was split from the total pot of £1.8million, which was in itself an increase of £150,000 from the 2016/17 championship. The winner, Rob Cross, went home with a cheque for £400,000. At this time this was the highest payout that there had ever been.
During the 2017/18 tournament there was also £20,000 for any player able to complete a nine dart finish.
Statistics
There is one name that has dominated professional darts over the last 30 years or so, and that is Phil Taylor. He’s won it all and won it all on multiple occasions as well. Whilst his stats in pretty much every tournament he has played in have been impressive, his stats in the World Championships, the pinnacle of the game, are just mind blowing.
He has entered 25 World Champions in total and won a staggering 14 of them. He’s been runner up 5 times from his 19 finals, which is an incredible strike rate. To put that into content, the next best on the list is the three-time winner Michael van Gerwen before the two-time winners, Gary Anderson, Adrian Lewis and John Part. It’s likely that Taylor’s record of 14 PDC World Championship titles will never be broken. It’s probably worth noting that he’s also won two world titles on the BDO tour, before making the switch across.
Michael van Gerwen holds the record for the highest single game average, with a 114.05 in the 2017 semi-final win over Raymond van Barneveld, resulting in a 6-2 demolition. What was incredible about that match is that van Barneveld’s average was that of 109.34, which is the highest losing average of all time and also the 4th highest average outright of all time as well. It’s widely thought to have been one of the best games of darts televised at the World Championships.
In the same year, van Gerwen was also able to produce the highest tournament average with 106.32 en route to his second World Championship title.
List of PDC World Champions: 1994 – 2020
| Name | Nationality | Titles | Finals | First Tile | Last Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phil Taylor | English | 14 | 19 | 1995 | 2013 |
| Michael van Gerwen | Dutch | 3 | 4 | 2014 | 2019 |
| Gary Anderson | Scottish | 2 | 5 | 2015 | 2016 |
| Adrian Lewis | English | 2 | 3 | 2011 | 2012 |
| John Part | Canadian | 2 | 3 | 2003 | 2008 |
| Dennis Priestley | English | 1 | 5 | 1994 | 1994 |
| Peter Wright | Scottish | 1 | 2 | 2020 | 2020 |
| Raymond van Barneveld | Dutch | 1 | 2 | 2007 | 2007 |
| Gerwyn Price | Welsh | 1 | 1 | 2021 | 2021 |
| Rob Cross | English | 1 | 1 | 2018 | 2018 |
History of the Championships
In the early nineties there was some pretty big unrest amongst the top players in the British Darts Organisation (BDO) regarding money involved in the sport and their payouts from tournaments. Many of the top players and all of the current World Champions that were still playing the game decided to break away from the BDO and form a new organisation, originally the World Darts Corporation, but later changed to the Professional Darts Corporation.
This, in turn, gave the power back to the players and whilst a huge risk at the time, enabled to create their own tournaments and more importantly, sponsorship deals to get more money into the sport. The deal went through in 1994 and by then they had the backing of satellite tv company, Sky Sports who have been at the forefront of the sport and broadcasting of the sport ever since.
The first PDC World Championship took place that very same year and was won by Dennis Priestley, one of the founding members and also one of the figureheads who was part of the split with the BDO.
Throughout the first few years the tournament actually had lower prize money than that of the BDO. It wasn’t until 2002 when the PDC first overtook the BDO, being able to bring a bumper package of £200,000 together, some £76,000 more than the previous year.
Prize money has rocketed in recent years and the first £1million prize pool was announced for the 2010 tournament. The largest prize pool will be that of the 2020/21 tournament, worth £2.5 million, some £2.3 million more than the last BDO World Championship.
The success of the World Championships meant that more people were wanting tickets and by 2007 it was decided that the following season they would utilise the extra space that the Alexandra Palace had to offer, which is where they are still be hosted today.
The calibre of players and the general standard that players are required to be at these days has been another factor to the success of the tournament. The tours are now far apart in terms of standard and to give you an idea of the scope, the BDO has only ever had 20 occasions where a player has averaged over 100 in a match. To put that in perspective, Phil Taylor alone has had fifty six 100+ averages in the PDC World Championships.
Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor
Phil Taylor is the best darts player of all time. There is no one that is anywhere near the level of success that he has seen and there is a good chance that no one ever will. His 14 PDC World titles looks almost impossible to eclipse given the sheer talent in the sport these days and it’s likely he’s going to remain as the best of the best.
One of his most famous finals came against Raymond van Barneveld in 2009, who at the time was probably his closest rival and even throughout his career. Taylor won the match 7-1 in a bit of a thrashing, but the fact that Taylor averaged 110.94 over best of 13 sets was pretty incredible. To be fair, ‘Barney” played well averaging 102, but was just no match for Taylor’s brilliance.
It’s also worth noting that Taylor managed to win 8 World Championships in a row from 1995 through to 2002, before losing in the final to John Part in 2003 and then winning three more in a row after that, taking his tally to 11 from 12, with a runners up spot as well.
At some point in his career he’s won it all. This includes 16 World Matchplays, 11 World Grand Prix, 6 Grand Slams, 6 Premier Leagues, 4 Championship Leagues, 5 Desert Classics and so many more.
‘Mighty’ Michael van Gerwen
Van Gerwen is probably the closest thing we have seen to Taylor for a long while. The Dutchman, whilst unlikely to eclipse his World Championship record (although most likely out of the current crop of players) has been pretty relentless in his chase for success.
He’s been able to win multiple majors, including his three World championship tiles, 2 World Matchplays, 5 World Grand Prix titles, 3 Grand Slams and 5 Premier Leagues, to name just a few. Given that, at the time of writing he is still 31, it looks like he is going to become one of the greats of the game, even at this early age. Whilst he has played fewer tournaments, he actually holds a better highest match average in the Worlds than Taylor with 114.05 in his semi-final with van Barneveld in 2017, some 3 points higher than Taylors 111.21, such is the calibre of the player.
Rob ‘Voltage’ Cross
As the sport is so competitive, there haven’t been all that many “Roy of the Rovers’” stories at the World Championships, until Rob Cross burst onto the scene. In 2015 he was playing on the BDO where he failed to qualify for the BDO World Championship.
He made the switch across to the PDC in 2016 and even played as an amateur in the 2016 UK Open, making to the last 32 before being knocked out by Michael van Gerwen. That same year he won 3 challenge tour events, topping the order of merit and gaining a tour card for 2017.
In 2017 he started to find his feet and some consistency in the big time. He finished in the last 16 at the World Matchplay, Last 32 of the World Grand Prix, Quarter final of the Grand Slam, runner up in the European championship and semi-final of the Players Championship.
He entered into the 2017/18 World Championship as 20th seed after a remarkably solid first full year on tour. Wins against Siego Asada, Michael Smith, John Henderson, Dimitri Van den Burgh and Michael van Gerwen in the semi-final, set up a dream final against Phil Taylor, playing in his last professional tournament. He beat Taylor in a dramatic final, 7-2 which propelled Cross to 3rd in the world and an invitation to the 2018 Premier League Darts.