PDC World Cup of Darts

Darts tournamentTemplate:SHORTDESC:Darts tournament

The **PDC World Cup of Darts** is a team darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation, and was one of the three new tournaments introduced into the PDC calendar in 2010. It is broadcast live by Sky Sports. Due to the rescheduling of the Players Championship Finals in the PDC calendar, the second edition was played in Hamburg, Germany in February 2012. In 2015, the event took place the Eissporthalle Frankfurt, where it stayed until returning to Hamburg in 2019 when it moved to the Barclaycard Arena. In 2020, the event was held at the Salzburgarena in Salzburg, Austria, and in 2021, it returned to Germany, this time in the Sparkassen-Arena, Jena, and in 2022 and 2023, it returned to Frankfurt once more.

The competition succeeded the Jocky Wilson Cup; a one-off international match between England and Scotland held in Glasgow on 5 December 2009. England defeated Scotland by 6 points to 0.

## Background

In October 2009, PDC chairman Barry Hearn announced his intention to buy the British Darts Organisation and inject £2 million into amateur darts, but the BDO decided not to accept the offer. In a statement, Hearn stated "The aim of our offer to the BDO was to unify the sport of darts and this remains our long-term objective despite the decision by the BDO County Associations" The Jocky Wilson Cup was held in December.

But following the BDO's rejection, the PDC went on to arrange three brand new tournaments for 2010 to help the development of youth and women's darts: the PDC Under-21 World Championship, the PDC Women's World Championship, and the PDC World Cup of Darts.

## Format

See also: List of PDC World Cup of Darts teams
In the first 3 competitions (held in 2010, 2012 and 2013), the participating teams were the top 24 countries in the PDC Order of Merit at the end of October after the 2010 World Grand Prix. Each nation's top ranked player was then joined by the second highest player of that country. For seeding, the average rank of both was used.

The top 8 nations automatically started in the second round (last 16). The other 16 nations played in the first round. Matches were best of 11 legs in doubles, and the losing team threw first in the next leg. The winners of the first round played the top eight ranked teams in the second round, also in best of 11 doubles.

In 2010, the winners of the second round were drawn into two groups of four (A & B). Each team played each other once (three matches per team). Each match consisted of two singles and one doubles – all over best of five legs. **1 point** was awarded for a singles win, and **2 points** for a doubles win, with all points counting towards the overall league table. The top two teams in each group advanced to the semi-finals.

The semi-finals consisted of four singles games and one doubles game (if required) per match – all over best of 11 legs. Again, **1 point** was awarded for a singles win, and **2 points** for a doubles win. If the match score is 3–3 at the end of the games, then a sudden-death doubles leg would decide who goes through to the final.

The final was the same format as the semi-final, but each game was best of 15 legs.

In 2012, the first round format remained the same, with the exception being that the matches were best of 9 doubles. The second round had games where each match consisted of two singles and one doubles – over best of seven legs in singles, and best of 9 legs in doubles. As before, **1 point** was awarded for a singles win, and **2 points** for a doubles win. If the score was tied 2–2, then a sudden death doubles leg took place to determine the winner. The format was the same for the quarter-finals, with the exception that the doubles matches were best of 7 legs, like the singles.

In the semi-finals, games had each match consisting of four singles and one doubles match – over best of seven legs. As before, **1 point** was awarded for a singles win, and **2 points** for a doubles win. If the score was tied 3–3, then a sudden death doubles leg took place to determine the winner. In the final, the match consisted of four singles and one doubles match – over best of 13 legs. As before, **1 point** was awarded for a singles win, and **2 points** for a doubles win. If the score was tied 3–3, then a sudden death doubles leg took place to determine the winner.

In 2013, a new format was created. The 24 teams were put into groups of 3, which each contained one of the top 8 seeds, plus two other teams. The teams played each other in best of 9 doubles matches, with the top 2 in each group progressing to the last 16. The last 16 also used the same best of 9 doubles format.

In the quarter-finals onwards, the matches began with two best of 7 leg singles matches. If one team won both singles matches, they were declared the winner, if each team won one match each, a best of 7 doubles match would decide the winner. In the final, there would be four best of 7 leg singles matches (if needed), with a point for each win, with a 7 leg doubles decider, if the singles matches ended making the score 2–2.

In 2014 and 2015, the field extended to 32 teams, with the top 16 teams being seeded, and each playing a best of 9 doubles match to begin. After that, the format was the same as the later stages of the previous tournament with two best of 7 leg singles matches. If one team won both singles matches, they were declared the winner, if each team won one match each, a best of 7 doubles match would decide the winner. In the final, there would be four best of 7 leg singles matches (if needed), with a point for each win, with a 7 leg doubles decider, if the singles matches ended making the score 2–2. In 2015, the final was tweaked, so that the doubles match would be the third match.

The format remained the same until 2023, with the only major change being in 2016, when only the top 8 teams were seeded, rather than the top 16.

In March 2023, the PDC announced a completely revamped format for the following tournament set to happen between 15–18 June 2023. This new format would consist of 40 different nations for the first time in the events history and a group stage for the first time since 2013. 12 groups of 3 countries will be drawn, with the winner of each group advancing into the second round, while the top four ranked countries would automatically advance into the second round. This format also consisted of doubles throughout the competition for the first time.

## Results by year

* † Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis won the 2012 title on the sudden death doubles leg.

### Individual appearances

As of the 2023 tournament, only 4 players have played in all 13 editions of the World Cup of Darts.

They are:

* Brendan Dolan
* William O'Connor
* Mensur Suljović
* Simon Whitlock

### Total finalist appearances

#### Player

* Active players are shown in **bold**
* Only players who reached the final are included
* In the event of identical records, players are sorted in alphabetical order by family name

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 PDC announces 3 new tournaments Archived 2010-04-30 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 15 July 2010, PDC.tv
2. ↑ Players Championship Finals Date Set. PDC (15 July 2011).
3. ↑ bwin World Cup of Darts NetZone. PDC (9 June 2015).
4. ↑ PDC launch World Cup Retrieved 15 July 2010 Skysports.com
5. ↑ Cash Converters World Cup Format Archived 2010-11-23 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 19 November 2010, PDC.tv
6. ↑ World Cup of Darts expanded as radical new format announced. Professional Darts Corporation.
7. ↑ score decided in matches except for (p) which indicates score decided by points, or (l) which indicates score decided by legs.
8. ↑ Betfair World Cup of Darts Tickets. *pdc.tv*. Professional Darts Corporation.
9. ↑ Bwin World Cup of Darts Schedule. Professional Darts Corporation.

## External links

* Official website
* World Cup of Darts on Darts database