The World Masters is one of the longest-running and most prestigious of the BDO/WDF tournaments, which began in 1974. The tournament is sponsored by darts board manufacturer,

Winmau Winmau, pronounced "win more", is a Welsh manufacturer of dartboards, other darts equipment and title sponsor of the oldest darts tournament still running, the Winmau World Masters. Founded in 1945, Winmau was acquired by rival dartboard manufac ...

. The World Masters was unusual in darts in that its sets are the best of 3 legs (first to 2) rather than the standard best of 5 legs (first to 3). It was previously the final leg of the BDO's Grand Slam title of televised majors, along with the BDO World Darts Championship, International Darts League and World Darts Trophy, until the latter two tournaments were axed in 2008. The champion is referred to as the World Master. After the collapse of the British Darts Organisation in September 2020, 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 ...

announced plans to launch the WDF World Masters. In December 2020, it was announced that the 2021 tournament will be held at

De Bonte Wever De Bonte Wever (formerly De Smelt) is a sports arena located in Assen, Netherlands. De venue opened in the 1970s with a 400-meter speed skating track. Later an ice hockey hall was added. In the early 1990s the city of Assen became the owner of th ...

in Assen,

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 ...

. This was then pushed back to 2022 due to ongoing coronavirus restrictions. The new WDF version of the event changed the format from setplay to legplay for the first time, with significantly shorter matches.

List of tournament finals

Men's World Masters

Women's World Masters

World Youth Masters

Boys' World Masters

Girls' World Masters

Records

Most men's tournament wins 5 - Eric Bristow. Bob Anderson and Martin Adams have both won 3 times (also both achieving 'hat tricks' by winning in three consecutive years), while

Dave Whitcombe David Whitcombe (born 27 June 1954) is an English former professional darts player who won several major tournaments and reached two World Championship Finals between 1980 and 1992. Biography Whitcombe was twice a winner of the Winmau World M ...

, John Lowe,

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 ...

, Stephen Bunting and Glen Durrant have all won the Masters twice. Youngest champion

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 ...

(2006) aged 17 years, 174 days, who eclipsed the record of Eric Bristow Double Champion Leeanne Maddock (1992) aged 17 years won both the youth title and the women's title. Joint World Championship & Masters Champions Only seven players have ever won the World Masters and the World Championship in the same season. Eric Bristow achieved the feat three times (1979 Masters 1980 World, 1983–84 and 1984–85). Bob Anderson (1987–88), Richie Burnett (1994–95), John Walton (2000–01), Martin Adams (2009–10 and 2010–11), Stephen Bunting (2013–14) and Glen Durrant (2016–17) were the others. There have been two other instances of players holding both championships at the same time (Phil Taylor 1990 and Raymond van Barneveld 2005) - but these were not during the same season which is considered to end with the World Championship. Not Dropping A Set Stephen Bunting's 2013 win was achieved without dropping a set. There are 15 players who have won the Masters and the BDO World Championship during their careers: John Lowe, Eric Bristow, Bob Anderson, Phil Taylor, Dennis Priestley, Richie Burnett, Steve Beaton, Raymond van Barneveld, Les Wallace, John Walton, Andy Fordham, Martin Adams, Scott Waites, Stephen Bunting, and Glen Durrant. Additionally, Michael van Gerwen won the Masters in 2006 and has since won the PDC World Championship three times, but not the BDO World Championship.

Media coverage

*1974–1988 ITV *1989 Not broadcast *1990 The Sports Channel (part of the short-lived satellite TV service BSB) *1991–1992

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 ...

*1993–1994 Wire TV *1995

L!VE TV L!VE TV was a British television station that was operated by Mirror Group Newspapers on cable television from 12 June 1995 until 5 November 1999. It was later revived for Sky from 2003. In 2006, L!VE TV's name was changed to Babeworld to re ...

(highlights on the ITV night time programme 'Sport AM' as well as on the HTV Wales programme 'Top Sport') *1996–2000

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its international sports unit, it operates two main channels— Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

*2001–2010 BBC *2011–2012

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

*2013–2015

*2016 Premier Sports *2017

*2018 No TV Broadcaster (streamed on YouTube and Winmau TV) *2019

*2022 No TV Broadcaster (streamed on YouTube) The 2011 tournament was also shown in the United States for the first time with

ESPN3 ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360 and ESPN3.com) is an online streaming service owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications ( ...

broadcasting it.

References

External links

World Darts Federation Official Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:World Masters (Darts) 1974 establishments in England British Darts Organisation tournaments