Darts is one of the simplest sports to follow, with a straightforward scoring system and a small set of rules. To get involved with dart betting, you don’t need to be a tungsten specialist. A full schedule of tournaments will keep punters amused. The PDC Championship is a dart competition that everyone wants to win. As of 2020, with £500,000 going to the top player, the prize money stands at a whopping £2.5 million. For any ambitious darts player, winning the Championship title is a dream.
There are several other dart competitions too. We have outlined five of them with their respective prize money.
1. Partypoker.com World Grand Prix
The main darting competition is the World Grand Prix, played each October annually in Dublin. Hardcore fans of darts pinpoint the Grand Prix as one of their year’s favorite events, perhaps just because it takes place in one of the world’s most thrilling cities. It’s first to a certain number of sets seems to be the tournament structure, with the knockout rounds being famously short, offering the occasional surprise along the way. The tournament’s biggest twist, something which gives it a dash of authenticity, is that each leg must start with the double hit, something known as the “double in, double out” style (reflecting the fact that, as with any darts game, the player must finish on a double or the bulls-eye). Event organizers decided to boost the field size from 32 to 64 in 2016, and the championship has continued to flourish, so much so that there is now a total prize of £500,000. Although darts are increasing at all levels of the game, it is the very apex of the match where most attention is concentrated. Television coverage is on the rise, as is attendance at the major darts world tournaments. The PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) has many prestigious tournaments, including tennis and golf, called “majors.” They have the most coverage and bigger prize money pools for the players to compete for.
2. PDC World Championship
The second of the new 2010 tournaments was open to all darts players between 18 and 21, from both the BDO and PDC. The final was shown live on Sky Sports at Alexandra Palace before the World Championship final. The PDC Championship is the most prestigious darts competition on the globe. The intensity is unmatched, and even the best darts players in the sport will struggle on the Alexandra Palace stage, with an estimated £2.5 million on offer in the tournament. The PDC World Title winner would need to have a quiet Christmas and New Year, but with £500,000 given to the top player, that’s a small sacrifice. The defending world champion is Peter Wright, but will he maintain his title at the end of the year?
3. Ladbrokes.com World Championships
Naturally, the highest-profile event in the darting timeline is the World Championships, held during the festive Christmas season at the Alexandra Palace in London. With the competition concluding in the New Year, it’s the first major of each calendar period. It has increased in popularity year after year. It has also become the flagship competition of world darts, played out in a legs and sets format (where the first player on three legs takes a set, an extremely traditional method of major tournaments). The new champion is Adrian Lewis, an Englishman. Lewis has won the last two tournaments, taking prize money of £200,000 on both instances.
4. Grand Slam of Dart
The Grand Slam, introduced in 2007, was the first tournament held in the U.K. to feature players from the PDC and BDO, two separate organizations. For the previous two years, players who had reached the association’s major tournaments’ finals were invited to participate in the Grand Slam. It is held for over nine days and seen live on Sky Sports. In November, the Grand Slam of Darts is conducted, and it is commonly the last major tournament before the PDC World Championship. This is one of the most successful darts betting competitions and is also a good predictor of the World Championship. The Grand Slam of Darts is challenged by some of the best darts players of all-time, with £125,000 open to the winning player. In both of the last two editions, Gerwyn Price has emerged victorious, and he may be the one to beat later this year.
5. The Dart Premier League
The Premier League, the newest of the dart majors but perhaps the most successful, is one of the most enjoyable dart tournaments. Premier League Darts Finals Night is up there with the darts calendar highlights, with £250,000 open to the winning team. Five-time Premier League champion Michael van Gerwen will be a favorite choice ahead of the tournament’s business finale. Every year, only eight players compete for the title. Four wildcards are joined by the top four in the PDC Order of Merit (the table where players are classified by prize money won in a year). The tournament format is a round-robin league table, with all eight teams competing twice over 14 weeks in the English spring, on consecutive Thursday nights at different arenas in the United Kingdom, followed by a playoff series with the top four. Every match is a best-of-14 leg match.
So, there you go. If you’re talented, take a swing at this.