Every year, the Professional Dart Company (PDC) organise a large number of darts competitions for darts players to compete for prize money and build their professional rankings -a combination of the two help to improve their place in the rankings.
Each of these PDC events have a different size playing field, and some Professional Dart Company events are truly unique because they are played differently from the rest of the schedule. Of course, the larger the scale of the event, the more prizes darts players compete for, although it is obviously more difficult to win the game because they must win more rounds than other PDC darts tournaments.
So, what are the top 10 PDC darts events on the circuit each year, and what makes them so big? Here, they are in no particular order.
PDC World Championship
As the name suggests, the PDC World Championship is the largest darts competition in the annual schedule. This PDC darts tournament is usually held from mid-December to early January, and there are 95 different darts games in the competition, as players look to win the biggest prize of darts. The darts game takes the form of a set, that is, the player must win three 501 games to complete the game. Each round will increase the number of sets required to win, and the final will have the best of 13 sets as the decider.
Phil Taylor is the darts player who has won the most Professional Dart Company tournaments. He won the crown 16 times in his career before he decided to retire. Fallon Sherrock eliminated some of the best darts players in the 2020 competition,as she made headlines because she became the first woman to win a match in the tournament (before recording a further two).
UK Open PDC Dart Competition
Organized by PDC, the annual championship held in June, the UK Open is played for a period of 3 days, where 168 players participated in a darts knockout competition. After each round of the darts game, a draw will be held to decide the next round of the game where anyone can face each other. Taylor is the most successful dart player in the history of this PDC darts tournament, winning five victories. This game follows the form of legs, with players having to win the most 501 legs in each match.
PDC Darts Event: World Matchplay
The World MatchPlay is held in Blackpool Winter Gardens every July and is one of the biggest competitions held by PDC every year. Like many other events, this event has been ruled by Taylor for many years, as he had won 16 titles. This PDC darts tournament has a unique form, in which the player needs to reach a certain number of legs, but it needs to be achieved by keeping the opponent with a two-leg gap. Gary Anderson and Mensur Suljovic played out a classic in 2018 as their final reached 40 legs, which Anderson won 21-19.
PDC World Grand Prix
The World Grand Prix is one of the most unique PDC darts tournaments on the annual schedule because it requires players to start the match twice as well as to finish the game. Bullseye can also be used to get matches started. The competition is held in Ireland every year in September, and Taylor dominates, winning 11 titles. During the World Grand Prix there have been three nine-dart finishes, with Brendan Dolan, James Wade and Robert Thornton recorded one each- the last two men recorded theirs in the same match in 2014.
Grand Slam of Darts
The PDC organization - Grand Slam of Darts, usually played for 9 days in November, differs from other PDC competitions because it also allows players to compete with the best players from the competitive BDO corporation (British Darts Organization). Created in 2007, Taylor once again had dominated the competition, winning it 6 times, while Scott Waites is the only BDO man who has won it since 2019.
Players Championships Finals
In one of the latest tournaments on the PDC schedule, in the Players Championships final, the 64 best players from the Order of Merit compete with each other. Also played in November, this is a PDC darts tournament in which some of the best dart players have the chance to win a big tournament due to their performances in previous non-television events throughout the organisation. Michael van Gerwen has five titles.
European Championship PDC Tournament
The PDCs last ranked darts tournament, although not the last major competition, is the European Championship. This format sees the 32 best players from Europe go up against the top 32 in the PDC rankings. Taylor and Van Gerwen have four championships, as the competition is generally held in Germany between the end of October and the beginning of November each year.
Premier League Darts
Perhaps one of the most anticipated PDC tournaments on the PDC schedule, Premier League Darts provides plenty of entertainment where you can see five quick dart matches played in one evening across four months. With ten dart players fighting for a place in the top four for finals day, every Thursday they travel around the country to different places to accumulate points. Since the creation of this darts tournament in 2005, there have been nine nine-darters and this is a tournament that certainly attracts a large number of crowds. Taylor won it six times, although Van Gerwen is currently sitting on five.
World Cup of Darts PDC Tournament
The Darts World Cup is extremely unique because two dart players join forces from the same country and fight for the crown to be the best country.Organized by PDC the tournament takes place in June and the matches are played in single player modes as well as in a team where they aim to help each other to lower the 501 score. It may not be surprising that no nine-dart finishes have been recorded.
Top PDC Darts Tournaments: Champions League of Darts
The tenth (though not least) entry into the top ten of the PDC competition is the Champions League. The competition was launched in 2016, and has the top eight ranked dart players in the PDC Order of Merit charts, and is held over two days in September. In the smallest PDC tournament in the schedule, the dart players participate in a group, before taking part in the knockout stages, with legs being the format followed.
Check this and more content about darts at RoyalKasino77.