The world’s top 16 PDC dart players compete for the Master's title. This non-ranking event is the first major event following highly successful World Darts Championships. Michael van Gerwen will start as a firm favourite after claiming his third world title at the Ally Pally on the 1st January.

2019 Betvictor Masters Field

Michael van Gerwen | Michael Smith | Peter Wright | Rob Cross | Daryl Gurney | Dave Chisnall | Mensur Suljovic |Simon Whitlock | Gary Anderson | Darren Webster | Jonny Clayton | Gerwyn Price | James Wade | Joe Cullen | Ian White | Adrian Lewis

The biggest darts open in the world, the Bauhaus Dutch Open, starts 1st February 2019. Mark McGeeney has won the past two events but won’t be attending to defend his title. Mark won a PDC Tour Card at Q School and has now moved to the PDC so it won’t be three in arrow for Mark!

There is also a ladies and a separate disability event. Disability players/wheelchair users can also compete in the main events. Further details and registration details can be found on the Dutch Open Website.

Darts just gets bigger and with new stars showing their muscle, 2019 will be a year of change and upset for some of the biggest names in darts. A packed year of TV events continues with the PDC Betvictor Masters 1-3 February live on ITV4 / ITV Sport it is followed by the start of 16 weeks of the PDC Unibet Premier League.

The Premier League Darts starts February 7, at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle and will be shown live via Sky Sports and various other channels across the World.

2019 Unibet Premier League Field

Michael van Gerwen | Rob Cross | Peter Wright | Gary Anderson | Daryl Gurney | Michael Smith | Gerwyn Price | James Wade | Mensur Suljovic | Raymond van Barneveld

More details including league table, match results, venues and schedule can be seen below. The League table will be updated each week so you can be sure of viewing the latest details.

Premier League tickets are available via the PDC Website.

PDC Ticket Centre

 

PDC Dart Events - February

DATE	FEATURED EVENT	LOCATION	WATCH VIA
1 - 3	The Masters	M. Keynes
7	Premier League Darts 1	Newcastle
14	Premier League Darts 2	Glasgow
21	Premier League Darts 3	Dublin
28	Premier League Darts 4	Exeter

 

PDC Dart Events - March

DATE	FEATURED EVENT	LOCATION	WATCH VIA
1-3	UK Open	Minehead
7	Premier League Darts 5	Aberdeen
14	Premier League Darts 6	Nottingham
16	Players Championship 7	Wigan
17	Players Championship 8	Wigan
21	Premier League Darts 7	Germany
27	Premier League Darts 8	Netherlands
28	Premier League Darts 9	Netherlands

 

BDO Dart Events - February

DATE	FEATURED EVENT	LOCATION	WATCH VIA
1 - 3	Dutch Open	Netherlands
15 - 17	Scottish Open	Scotland
22 - 24	Celtic Challenge	Wales
23 - 24	Slovak Open	Slovakia

 

BDO Dart Events - March

DATE	FEATURED EVENT	LOCATION	WATCH VIA
7, 9,10	Isle of Man Classic / Open	Isle of Man
9 - 10	BDDA Winmau Open & Classic	Birmingham
10 -17	Torremolinos Festival of Darts	Torremolinos
15 - 17	Hub City Open	Canada
15 - 17	West Fries Open	Netherlands
23 - 24	Acropolis Darts / Greek Open	Greece
30	Winmau Iceland Open	Iceland

Disability Event / Additional Event |Internet Stream | Internet Srteam | Internet Stream | Live Stream

Updated - Players Nicknames & Walk-on Music

An increased amount of visitors have contacted me about players walk-on music and nicknames. Some of you have kindly supplied me with more information therefore I have updated both the players nicknames and walk-on pages on this site. I hope to add a few more in the near future but in the meantime if you know anymore or if any player has since changed either their Nickname or walk-on please let me know via my contact page.

The revised nickname and walk-on music pages now includes a number of WDDA players

I do realise there are loads missing of missing nicknames and walk-on, however, I add more to these lists all the time.

 

A Brief Introduction to Professional Darts

The game of darts is played and enjoyed by millions of people in UK pubs and clubs and by millions more across the World. The game has come from the humble roots of the tap and public rooms of the traditional English pub on to the international stage and is regularly televised to millions across the World.

In 1978 the first World Darts Championship was organised by the British Darts Organisation and sponsored by Embassy tobacco. The winner Leighton Rees from Wales received a trophy and a cheque for the sum of £3,000.

Prize money has since increased considerably in the game of darts, and the winner of a major competition can expect to pick up a very attractive amount of money. Take for example the 2019 PDC World Championship, a losing first round player receives £7,500 , the competition winner £500,000. One of the biggest contributors to the rise in prize money in such competitions has been as a result of increased lucrative sponsorship deals.

Since 1978 the game has grown into one of the best-loved and viewed sports on television. It has made many darters into household names here are just a few:

John Lowe three-time world champion, John Part three-time world champion, Martin Adams three-time world champion, Eric Bristow five-time world champion, Raymond van Barneveld five-time world champion & Phil Taylor sixteen-time world champion.

In March 2005 the 'game' of darts was recognized by 'Sports England' as a sporting activity which could pave the way to the sport featuring in future Olympic Games, however, I still feel we are a long way from that day.

Darts is one of the fastest growing sports in Holland, Germany, China and Asia. Over a third of the Dutch population watched Raymond Van Barneveld become the first Dutch player to take the world darts title in 1998; he has since won the title a further four times 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007 (PDC World Darts Championship). Raymond beat the reigning champion Phil Taylor 7 sets to 6 and a sudden death leg in the final set. The famous Bull up for the right to throw first will long be remembered as Phil hit an outer Bull Raymond asked for the dart to be left in the board as he used it to push his dart into the centre Bull. Since then the Bulling up procedure in the PDC events has changed. All darts are removed before the opponents throw. Raymond now equals Eric Bristow's achievement but still trails Phil Taylor's staggering sixteen world title victories.

The prize fund over the years has steadily increased, with players playing for £500,000 first prize in 2019 PDC World Darts Championships.  This is a far cry from the first World Championships prize of £3,000. The sports prize money continues to grow making a few of the current player's millionaires.

In December 2007 PDC World Darts Championship moved to the Alexandra Palace. The Alexandra Palace is affectionately known as the 'Ally Pally' and was the stage set for the world renowned 'News of the World Individual Darts Tournaments'.

The New of the World Darts Tournament was probably one of the hardest dart events to win with a best of three legs format throughout the competition, including the final. Legendary dart player Bobby George managed to win this event twice and on one occasion Bobby didn’t lose a single leg throughout the tournament.

In 2001 the BDO introduced a Ladies World Darts Championship which was won by England’s Trina Gulliver MBE. Trina has won this event for seven consecutive years and made the final yet again in 2008 and 2009 but only to lose to a new up and coming star Anastasia Dobromyslova from Russia in 2008 and Francis Hoenselaar from Holland in 2009. In 2010 Trina again regained the title beating Rhian Edwards from Wales 2-0 she then repeated this feat in 2011 again beating Rhain Edwards by the same margin 2-0. In 2016 Trina won the World Darts title yet again making her the most successful ladies darts player in the World, a record-breaking Ten World Titles. Trina has been awarded the MBE for services to darts and charitable fundraising.

Anastasia moved to the PDC late 2008 and played in a preliminary qualifying round for the PDC World Darts Championship 2009. She lost to Dutchman Remco van Eijden 5 legs to 3. She also tried to qualify for the 2010 championship but failed. Anastasia moved back to the BDO late 2010 / early 2011 and in 2012 she won BDO / WDF Ladies Worlds Darts Championship for the second time and then again in 2013.

In 2007 the PDC introduced the first Youth World Championship. This event was won by Arron Monk who beat Michael van Gerwen 6 - 4 in the final. It wasn't until 2015 when the BDO followed suit and introduced its own Youth World Championship. It was sixteen-year-old Colin Roelofs from the Netherlands who became the first victor beating seventeen-year-old Harry Ward from England 3 - 0. Harry, unfortunately, didn't win a single leg in the final however I am sure we will be seeing a lot more from all of these youth players in the future.

Lisa Ashton from Lancashire, has since been a dominate in the ladies game, winning in 2014, 2015, 2017 and again in 2018.

In 2010 Russ Strobel submitted to the Darts Australia a new recommended dartboard height for Wheelchair users. The height Russ has come up with is 137cm to the centre Bull. The height was based on the perceived origins of the standard hanging height of the standard clock dartboard. It is said the average height of a man in the England UK was 5’8” around 1920’s, the height of the centre bullseye of a standard board. Modern adjustments make that 173cm. Russ has taken this analogy and worked out what the height would be should a man of 5’8” (173cm) be sitting in a wheelchair. His exact figure came out to be 136.5cm however as Russ explained the addition of 0.5cm would make the recommended wheelchair dartboard height easy to remember 137cm (wheelchair) - 173cm (Standard). The concept of the new height for Wheelchair uses was accepted by Darts Australia and in 2012 was also accepted by the World Darts Organisation. More about Disability Darts can be found on this website.

On this site, you will find a brief history of this intriguing sport along with all the information you will need to set up the dart board and organise darting events. You can also learn how boards are made using sisal (a material used in rope making) and how dart weights, lengths, shafts and flights can alter the flight of the dart.

The site also features traditional games played on today’s standard dartboards and UK city dartboards; The Yorkshire and the Manchester log-end to name just two. You can download rules and many games from here as well as those all-important checkouts.

You will also find practise routines to improve your accuracy and scoring consistency as well as information about maintaining your dartboard and darts. There are also many dart related links to professional dart organisations, manufacturers, suppliers, professional dart players and other UK local dart leagues. My thanks go to them for their help and support in building this site.

I hope you enjoy the site your feedback is always welcome and if you like the site please inform others.

Darts501 was established in 2004 and from its humble beginnings and a few makeovers the website has had over well in excess of 11 Million viewers and the increasing trend continues. In 2018 the website attracted a conservative 1.6 million, however, with more people opting not to have their visit to this website recorded this figure is vastly undervalued. Thanks to all that visit and keep calling back to see regular updates.

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