2023 PDC World Cup of Darts

Darts tournamentTemplate:SHORTDESC:Darts tournament
The **2023 My Diesel Claim World Cup of Darts** was the thirteenth edition of the PDC World Cup of Darts. It took place from 15–18 June 2023 at the Eissporthalle in Frankfurt, Germany.

Australia (consisting of Damon Heta and Simon Whitlock) were the defending champions after beating Wales (consisting of Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton) 3–1 in the 2022 final, but they were defeated by the Belgium pairing of Dimitri Van den Bergh and Kim Huybrechts 8–7 in the quarter-finals, who gained revenge on their opponents defeating them in the same stage in last year's tournament.

The Wales team of Price and Clayton won the World Cup for the second time by defeating Scotland (consisting of Peter Wright and Gary Anderson) 10–2 in the final, in the first World Cup where all matches were doubles format only.

During the group stage, the Poland team of Krzysztof Ratajski and Krzysztof Kciuk broke the world record for the highest pairs average when they defeated the Lithuania team of Darius Labanauskas and Mindaugas Barauskas 4–1 with an average of 118.10.

## Format

A new format was introduced for 2023, with an expansion to forty teams. There were sixteen seeded teams, with the top four progressing straight to the second round, while the teams seeded from 5–16 will join the remaining 24 teams competing in a group stage of twelve groups of three, with one team qualifying from each group.

As part of the new format, all rounds will be a single match played in doubles format, removing singles matches, which had been a part of the previous format, entirely.

**Group stage:** Best of seven legs.

**Second round, quarter and semi-finals:** Best of fifteen legs.

**Final:** Best of nineteen legs

## Prize money

Total prize money increased to £450,000 from the previous £350,000, with the winning prize going up to £80,000 from £70,000.

The prize money per team will be:

## Teams and seedings

The top four nations based on combined Order of Merit rankings will be seeded to the second round, while the next twelve nations will be seeded in the group stage.

The top two players from nations represented by the PDC Order of Merit will be confirmed on 29 May; the top players from nations on the PDC Asian Tour will be confirmed on 1 May, and the top players from the Nordic & Baltic regions will be confirmed on 5 June.

The expansion sees Bahrain, Iceland and Ukraine enter for the first time, while Croatia will compete for the first time since 2013, France for the first time since 2014, India for the first time since 2015, Thailand for the first time since 2018, and China returning having missed the 2022 tournament.

On 22 February 2023, a Latin America qualifier was announced to determine a representative team from that region. On 14 May, the qualifier took place and was won by Guyanaese pairing of Sudesh Fitzgerald and Norman Madhoo, who will become the 4th new team to compete at this year's competition.

Most of the pairings were officially confirmed on 30 May. Pairings for players from Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Lithuania were confirmed on 4 June.

On 14 June 2023, the PDC informed that Michael van Gerwen had withdrawn from the event due to a dental operation that he didn't recover from in time. He was substituted by Dirk van Duijvenbode. The PDC also confirmed that Netherlands will be seeded with number 3, moving Wales to seed number 2.

## Results

The draw was made on 9 June by Eddie Hearn. The seeds from 5–16 were allocated their positions in alphabetical order. (e.g Seed 5 into Group A, Seed 6 into Group B, etc.) Another draw to determine the positions in the bracket for the second round was done following the completion of the group stage, but the top 4 seeds were secured in bracket order.

## References

1. ↑ Whitlock and Heta lead Australia to historic Cazoo World Cup success. *PDC.tv* (19 June 2022).
2. ↑ Wonderful Wales win My Diesel Claim World Cup of Darts for second time. Retrieved on June 18, 2023.
3. ↑ Poland produce record World Cup Pairs average to storm into last 16. Retrieved on June 19, 2023.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 World Cup of Darts expanded as radical new format announced. PDC.
5. ↑ Latin America Qualifier announced for 2023 World Cup of Darts. *PDC.tv* (22 February 2023).
6. ↑ PDC Order of Merit nation pairings confirmed for World Cup. *PDC.tv* (30 May 2023).
7. ↑ Final World Cup of Darts pairings confirmed. *PDC.tv* (8 June 2023).
8. ↑ Van Gerwen withdraws from World Cup of Darts. *PDC.tv* (14 June 2023).
9. ↑ 2023 My Diesel Claim World Cup of Darts draw. *PDC.tv* (9 June 2023).