European Championship (darts)

The European Championship is a PDC darts tournament which allows the top European players to compete with the highest ranked players from the PDC Order of Merit. The tournament takes place in a variety of months and features a field of 32 players.

European Championship
Tournament information
VenueLokhalle
LocationGöttingen
CountryGermany
Established2008
Organisation(s)PDC
FormatLegs
Prize fund£400,000 (2017)
Month(s) PlayedVarious
Current champion(s)
Rob Cross

History

The inaugural tournament – the 2008 European Championship – was held at the Südbahnhof in Frankfurt, Germany and featured a prize fund of £200,000.[1]

The tournament moved to the Claus Hotel & Event Center in Hoofddorp, Netherlands for 2009 featuring a similar prize fund.[2] The tournament returned to Germany in 2010, where it was held at Dinslaken. The 2011 tournament remained in Germany, only this time, it took place in Düsseldorf – the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia. From 2012 to 2014, the tournament took place in Mülheim, Germany, then between 2015 and 2017, the tournament took place in Hasselt, Belgium, but in 2018, the tournament will return to Germany, moving to the Westfalenhallen in Dortmund. It moved to Göttingen in 2019, before returning to the Westfalenhallen in Dortmund in 2020.

Phil Taylor won the tournament on each of the first four stagings of the event, before Simon Whitlock took the title in 2012. Adrian Lewis gained -at that time- his third major win after beating Whitlock in the 2013 edition of the tournament. Michael van Gerwen won the tournament for the first time in 2014 beating Terry Jenkins in the final. In 2015, van Gerwen came back from 7–10 behind to defeat Gary Anderson 11–10 in the final, then he beat Mensur Suljović 11–1 in the 2016 final, and he won it for a fourth year in a row in 2017, when he defeated Rob Cross 11–7 in the 2017 final. In 2018, James Wade won the title, and in 2019 Rob Cross became European champion.

Finals
Year Champion (average in final) Score Runner-up (average in final) Prize money Sponsor Venue
Total Champion Runner-up
2008 Phil Taylor (104.35) 11–5 Adrian Lewis (96.56) £200,000 £50,000 £25,000 PartyPoker.net Südbahnhof, Frankfurt
2009 Phil Taylor (109.35) 11–3 Steve Beaton (97.16) £20,000 Claus Event Center, Hoofddorp
2010 Phil Taylor (105.74) 11–1 Wayne Jones (94.64) Stadthalle Dinslaken, Dinslaken
2011 Phil Taylor (109.29) 11–8 Adrian Lewis (98.72) Maritim Hotel, Düsseldorf
2012 Simon Whitlock (94.91) 11–5 Wes Newton (89.47) RWE-Sporthalle, Mülheim
2013 Adrian Lewis (103.34) 11–6 Simon Whitlock (99.59)
2014 Michael van Gerwen (98.16) 11–4 Terry Jenkins (92.90) £250,000 £55,000 £25,000 888.com
2015 Michael van Gerwen (107.28) 11–10 Gary Anderson (102.42) £300,000 £65,000 £35,000 Unibet Ethias Arena, Hasselt
2016 Michael van Gerwen (111.62) 11–1 Mensur Suljović (85.91) £400,000 £100,000 £40,000
2017 Michael van Gerwen (108.91) 11–7 Rob Cross (102.39)
2018 James Wade (91.44) 11–8 Simon Whitlock (88.81) Westfalenhallen, Dortmund
2019 Rob Cross (93.12) 11–6 Gerwyn Price (84.51) £500,000 £120,000 £60,000 Lokhalle, Göttingen
2020 Westfalenhallen, Dortmund

Records and statistics
As of 27 October 2019.

Total finalist appearances
Rank Player Won Runner-up Finals Appearances
1 Michael van Gerwen40411
Phil Taylor4049
3 Adrian Lewis12310
Simon Whitlock12310
5 Rob Cross1123
6 James Wade10111
7 Steve Beaton0114
Terry Jenkins0119
Wayne Jones0114
Wes Newton0116
Gary Anderson0116
Mensur Suljović01111
Gerwyn Price0115

Champions by country
Country Players Total First title Last title
 England 4 7 2008 2019
 Netherlands 1 4 2014 2017
 Australia 1 1 2012 2012

Nine-dart finishes

Three nine-darters have been thrown at the European Championship. The first one was in 2011.

Player Year (+ Round) Method Opponent Result
Adrian Lewis 2011, Semi-Final 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Raymond van Barneveld 11–10
Michael van Gerwen 2014, Semi-Final 2 x T20, T19; 3 x T20; 2 x T20, D12 Raymond van Barneveld 11–6
Kyle Anderson 2017, Semi-Final 3 x T20; 3 x T20, T20, T19, D12 Michael van Gerwen 10–11

High averages
Ten highest European Championship one-match averages
Average Player Year (+ Round) Opponent Result
118.14 Phil Taylor 2009, Quarter-Final Gary Anderson 10–3
113.92 Phil Taylor 2008, Last 16 Mervyn King 9–3
113.33 Phil Taylor 2008, Semi-Final Robert Thornton 11–7
113.04 Raymond van Barneveld 2012, Last 32 Terry Jenkins 6–1
111.62 Michael van Gerwen 2016, Final Mensur Suljović 11–1
111.33 Jonny Clayton 2019, Last 32 James Wade 6–0
111.03 Phil Taylor 2009, Last 32 Toon Greebe 6–2
111.00 Michael van Gerwen 2014, Quarter-Final Dave Chisnall 10–5
110.88 Phil Taylor 2009, Last 16 Robert Thornton 9–0
110.32 Michael van Gerwen 2018, Last 32 Paul Nicholson 6–2
Five highest losing averages
Average Player Year (+ Round) Opponent Result
106.12 Gary Anderson 2009, Quarter-Final Phil Taylor 3–10
106.12 Phil Taylor 2015, Quarter-Final Adrian Lewis 9–10
105.10 Michael van Gerwen 2019, Last 32 Ross Smith 5–6
104.74 Peter Wright 2015, Semi-Final Michael van Gerwen 7–11
104.36 Phil Taylor 2016, Quarter-Final Mensur Suljović 3–10
Different players with a 100+ match average (Updated 27/10/19)
Player Total Highest Av. Year (+ Round)
Phil Taylor 26 118.14 2009, Quarter-Final
Michael van Gerwen 23 111.62 2016, Final
Adrian Lewis 8 108.62 2008, Quarter-Final
Raymond van Barneveld 7 113.04 2012, Last 32
Peter Wright 7 104.74 2015, Semi-Final
Dave Chisnall 5 109.75 2019, Last 16
Gary Anderson 4 106.26 2015, Semi-Final
Colin Lloyd 4 104.00 2009, Last 16
Mervyn King 4 104.00 2009, Last 16
Jonny Clayton 3 111.33 2019, Last 32
Mensur Suljović 3 105.50 2016, Quarter-Final
Stephen Bunting 3 102.68 2014, Last 32
Rob Cross 3 102.39 2017, Final
Michael Smith 2 106.09 2019, Last 32
Mark Walsh 2 104.10 2008, Last 32
Gerwyn Price 2 103.85 2019, Last 16
Jelle Klaasen 2 103.76 2013, Last 16
Simon Whitlock 2 102.52 2011, Last 32
Robert Thornton 2 102.12 2008, Semi-Final
James Wade 2 101.81 2011, Last 16
Wes Newton 1 106.09 2012, Last 32
Jamie Caven 1 106.09 2013, Last 32
Brendan Dolan 1 104.68 2014, Last 32
James Wilson 1 103.64 2018, Last 32
Dennis Priestley 1 102.35 2008, Last 16
Nathan Aspinall 1 101.88 2019, Last 16
Jeffrey de Zwaan 1 101.87 2019, Last 32
Colin Osborne 1 101.80 2009, Last 16
Steve West 1 101.67 2018, Quarter-Final
Paul Nicholson 1 101.61 2011, Last 32
Ronnie Baxter 1 101.45 2011, Last 32
Kyle Anderson 1 101.09 2018, Last 32
Vincent van der Voort 1 101.09 2014, Last 32
Ronny Huybrechts 1 100.97 2013, Last 32
Kim Huybrechts 1 100.86 2015, Last 32
Cristo Reyes 1 100.69 2015, Last 32
Robert Wagner 1 100.59 2014, Last 32
Ian White 1 100.52 2019, Last 32
Terry Jenkins 1 100.06 2014, Last 32
Five highest tournament averages
Average Player Year
111.54 Phil Taylor 2009
108.20 Phil Taylor 2008
105.87 Phil Taylor 2016
105.53 Michael van Gerwen 2016
105.15 Michael van Gerwen 2015

Television coverage

The PDC announced on August 12, 2008 that ITV4 would broadcast the entire event.[1] This was the second PDC darts tournament that ITV4 have broadcast, after the inaugural Grand Slam of Darts – after its rating success ITV had chosen to broadcast this event as well as the 2008 Grand Slam of Darts.

The 2009 event was not televised in the UK, but the 2010 event was broadcast on Bravo, which screened live darts for the first time in its history.[3] However, Bravo ceased broadcasting at the start of 2011. On June 26, 2011, it was announced that ITV4 would broadcast the 2011 event.[4] In the Netherlands it is broadcast on RTL7 and in Germany it is broadcast on Sport1. On August 8, 2012 it was announced that ESPN would televise the event, becoming the first broadcaster to show both BDO and PDC dart tournaments. From 2013, the tournament returned to ITV4 as part of a deal between ITV and the PDC to show 4 tournaments from the PDC calendar.

List of United Kingdom broadcasters
  • 2008; 2011; 2013–present: ITV4
  • 2010: Bravo
  • 2012: ESPN
  • 2009: not televised in the UK

Sponsorship

PartyPoker.net sponsored first six editions of the tournament – they also sponsored the US Open and the Las Vegas Desert Classic, two other non-defunct televised PDC events.

In 2014, 888.com took over sponsoring of the tournament.[5]

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References
  1. PDC website report – European Championship Details Confirmed Archived 2008-08-15 at the Wayback Machine from the Professional Darts Corporation, retrieved 12-08-2008
  2. "European Championship Venue". pdc.tv. 2009-04-22. Archived from the original on 2009-04-25. Retrieved 2009-04-23.
  3. "PDC Link Up With Bravo". pdc.tv. 2010-05-22. Archived from the original on 2010-05-25. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  4. "European Championship On ITV4". pdc.tv. 2011-06-24. Archived from the original on 2011-06-27. Retrieved 2011-06-24.
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-10-25. Retrieved 2014-10-25.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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