The

Cazoo Cazoo is a British online car retailer based in London, England which was founded in 2018 by Alex Chesterman. History Cazoo was founded in 2018 by British internet entrepreneur Alex Chesterman. It launched an online marketplace for used cars i ...

UK Open is a ranking major

darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small sharp-pointed missiles known as darts at a round target known as a dartboard. Points can be scored by hitting specific marked areas of the bo ...

tournament held annually at the Butlins Minehead Resort by the

Professional Darts Corporation The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the Wor ...

(PDC) in England. Often referred to as the "

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...

of darts", the UK Open replicates the abolition of seedings, elimination play, and fixtures determined via open draw. One-hundred-and-sixty players compete in the multi-board event over eight-stages before the PDC’s Top 32 enter the tournament in the fourth round. The tournament has a prize fund of £450,000; the victor’s prize is £100,000.

History

From 2003 to 2013, the UK Open took place in June each year at the

Reebok Stadium The University of Bolton Stadium is the home ground of Bolton Wanderers F.C. in Horwich, Greater Manchester, England. Opening in 1997, it was named the Reebok Stadium, after club sponsors Reebok. In 2014, Bolton Wanderers signed a naming ri ...

, in Bolton. In 2014, it moved to

Butlin's Minehead Butlins Resort Minehead is a holiday camp operated by Butlins, located in Minehead in Somerset, England. It opened in 1962 and remains in use today. It was known as Butlin's Minehead until 1987, and as Somerwest World from then until 1999, wh ...

taking place in early March. Phil Taylor beat

Shayne Burgess Shayne Burgess (born 1 June 1964) is an English former professional darts player who competed in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) tournaments. He is known for his unorthodox throwing action, where he draws the point of the dart up close ...

in the inaugural final. Dutchman

Raymond van Barneveld Raymond van Barneveld (born 20 April 1967) is a Dutch professional darts player. Nicknamed Barney, although originally known as The Man, he is one of the most successful darts players in history. Van Barneveld is a five-time World Darts Cham ...

won the tournament in 2006, the first ever ranking tournament with the PDC in which he has played. He knocked out 13-times World Champion Phil Taylor 11–10 en route to the final where he beat

Barrie Bates Barrie Bates (born 17 October 1969) is a former Welsh darts player who played on the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) circuit. His original nickname was Batesy, but since 2007, he was known as Champagne. Career Bates made his PDC televised ...

13–7. He also successfully defended the title in 2007, again beating Taylor en route. Taylor has achieved the perfect

nine-dart finish A nine-dart finish, also known as a nine-darter, is a perfect leg or single game in the sport of darts. The object of the game is to score a set number of points, most commonly 501; in order to win, a player must reach the target total exactly a ...

four times (2004, 2005, 2007 & 2008). Mervyn King (2010), Gary Anderson (2012), Wes Newton (2013),

Michael van Gerwen Michael van Gerwen (; born 25 April 1989) is a Dutch professional darts player. He is currently ranked number 3 in the world, having been number 1 from 2014 to 2021. He is also a three-time PDC World Champion, having won the title in 2014, 2 ...

(2016 & 2020),

Jonny Clayton Jonny Clayton (born 4 October 1974) is a Welsh professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Nicknamed The Ferret, he was half of the Welsh team that won the 2020 PDC World Cup of Darts before winning his ...

(2020), Sebastian Białecki (2021), Jitse van der Wal (2021),

José Justicia José Antonio Justicia Perales (born 6 January 1989) is a Spanish darts player. Career Justicia started his career in 2009 and participated in PDPA Players Championship events in Gibraltar and Nuland. At the end of the year, he attempted to qu ...

(2022),

James Wade James Martin Wade (born 6 April 1983) is an English professional darts player, currently playing in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). He became the youngest player to win a major PDC title, when he won the 2007 World Matchplay at th ...

(2022) and Michael Smith (2022) have also achieved a nine-dart leg (although Newton's, Białecki’s, van der Wal’s and Justicia's were not televised live, while Clayton's and Smith's were only live on the PDC website). The tournament had a different runner-up for the first 13 years. Because of

extreme weather Extreme weather or extreme climate events includes unexpected, unusual, severe, or unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. Often, extreme events are based on a locat ...

conditions and fears for the safety of visiting fans the unprecedented decision was taken by the host venue

Butlins Butlin's is a chain of large seaside resorts in the United Kingdom. Butlin's was founded by Billy Butlin to provide affordable holidays for ordinary British families. Between 1936 and 1966, ten camps were built, including one in Ireland and o ...

to play the entire

2018 UK Open Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short ...

behind closed doors leaving the public only being able to watch the event though ITV4’s live coverage and the PDC live web feed. The Tournament was moved to the Marshall Arena in 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

and played behind closed doors."The UK Open to Move to Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes this March,"
Sky Sports, 26 January 2021.

Format

Qualifying events for amateur players are organised by

Rileys Rileys is a British sports bar chain. Once a division of the Riley sporting goods company, it currently is an independent entity with headquarters in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. At its peak, the chain boasted 165 locations. Historically kn ...

and held in various locations across the UK. 16 players qualify through these events. The format is as follows (as of 2020): * First round: The 16 Rileys qualifiers, 8 Challenge Tour qualifiers, 8 Development Tour qualifiers and Tour Card holders ranked 97–128 in the PDC Order of Merit. * Second round: Players ranked 65–96 in the PDC Order of Merit join the 32 winners of the first round. * Third round: Players ranked 33–64 join the 32 winners of the second round. * Fourth round to final: Players ranked 1–32 in the PDC Order of Merit join the 32 winners of the third round. The draws for the first three rounds are made in full after all qualifying players are known, while the draws for the fourth round onward are made separately on stage as soon as each preceding round has concluded.

UK Open Finals

Records and statistics

Total finalist appearances

* 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

Champions by country

Nine-dart finishes

Fifteen nine-darters have been thrown at the UK Open. The first one was in 2004, and eleven of them have been televised. Wes Newton in 2013, Sebastian Białecki and Jitse van der Wal in 2021 and

in 2022 hit nine-darters that were not broadcast. not televised

High averages

Media coverage

From 2003 until 2013, coverage for the UK Open was shown on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

in June. In 2014 the tournament was moved to March and coverage of the event moved to

ITV4 ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a line-up that consists of sports, cult clas ...

References

Notes

*Each year is linked to an article about that particular event's draw.

External links

Official Page on PDC website

PDC UK Open on Darts database
{{PDC Darts Tournaments Professional Darts Corporation tournaments Recurring sporting events established in 2003 2003 establishments in England Annual sporting events in the United Kingdom