The Bullit World Darts Trophy was a professional

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 run by the

British Darts Organisation The British Darts Organisation (BDO) was a darts organisation founded on 7 January 1973 by Olly Croft. Made up of 66 member counties, it oversaw professional, semi-professional and amateur darts competitions in Britain. The BDO was a founder ...

and the

World Darts Federation The World Darts Federation (WDF) is a sport governing body and (along with the PDC) a tournament organiser for the game of darts. It was formed in 1974 by representatives of the original fourteen founding members. Membership is open to the nati ...

. Held each September from 2002 to 2007, it took place at the De Vechtsebanen in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The tournament had a playing format comparable with the two World Championships ( BDO and PDC). Until 2007, it formed the third leg of the BDO Grand Slam, along with the BDO World Championship, the World Masters and the International Darts League.

Tournament history

First held in 2002, the tournament was played under the auspices of the

and the Dutch Darts Association ( NDB, the Dutch governing body of darts) and featured players from those organisations up to and including 2005.

PDC Participation

However, in 2006, following

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 ...

's move to the PDC in February of that year, host broadcasters

SBS 6 SBS6 is a Dutch free-to-cable commercial TV channel and is a part of Talpa TV, formerly known as SBS Broadcasting B.V. and now owned by Talpa Network. Other channels of the group in the Netherlands are Net5, Veronica, and SBS9. History SBS ...

, were able to grant invitations to five non-WDF affiliated players, meaning that players from the PDC would be able to compete in the event for the first time. Van Barneveld, along with Phil Taylor,

Colin Lloyd Colin Edward Lloyd (born 7 August 1973), nicknamed Jaws, is an English retired professional darts player. He is a former world number one ranked player and has won two major television titles in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) – th ...

Ronnie Baxter Ronnie Baxter (born 5 February 1961) is an English former professional darts player who competed in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He used the nickname "The Rocket" for his matches. Baxter was known for his fast robotic throwing a ...

and

Peter Manley Peter David Manley (born 7 March 1962) is an English former professional darts player who played in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events from July 1996 until 2017. He won one major title, the Las Vegas Desert Classic, in 2003, and twic ...

were given the five invitations that were offered to the PDC. In 2007, the WDT included the top 12 players in the PDC Order of Merit and four PDC Qualifiers, giving a total of 16 PDC players who would line up alongside 12 from the WDF rankings and 4 wildcards, which were given to Jelle Klaasen,

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 ...

Vincent van der Voort Vincent van der Voort (born 18 December 1975) is a Dutch professional darts player on the PDC circuit. As of the 2012 PDC World Darts Championship, his nickname is the "Dutch Destroyer", although he used to go by "Grease Lightning". He is bes ...

and Mervyn King, all of whom had left the BDO to join the PDC earlier that year.

End of event

Towards the end of 2007, the chairman of the PDC,

Barry Hearn Barry Maurice William Hearn (born 19 June 1948) is an English sporting events promoter and the founder and President of promotions company Matchroom Sport. Through Matchroom, Hearn is also involved in many sports including snooker, darts, ...

, announced that its players would not be competing in the 2008 International Darts League and World Darts Trophy events. As a result, SBS6 announced they would no longer be broadcasting the event, with their coverage relying heavily on big names such as van Barneveld, which then cast doubts over whether either tournament would go ahead. The tournament promoters filed a lawsuit against the PDC and SBS6 claiming a contract had been agreed for the PDC players to be involved. The case ended in failure on 21 February 2008, and the International Darts League was indefinitely postponed. The future of the World Darts Trophy was also thrown into doubt as a result of the decision, and both events were confirmed defunct by the failure of an appeal on 29 April 2008.IDL & WDT end
Google translation from official web site

Prize Fund

*Winner €45,000 *Runner Up €22,500 *Joint 3rd 2 x €11,250 *Joint 5th 4 x €6,000 *Joint 9th 8 x €3,000 *Joint 17th 16 x €2,000 *Joint 33rd and 41st 24 x €1,000 *Totals €194,000

Final Results and statistics

Men's Finals

Women's finals

Junior WDT finals

References

External links

World Darts Trophy
Darts Mad. {{PDC Darts Tournaments 2002 establishments in the Netherlands 2007 disestablishments in the Netherlands Professional Darts Corporation tournaments British Darts Organisation tournaments Darts in the Netherlands International sports competitions hosted by the Netherlands