European Championship (darts)

European Championship
Tournament information
Venue	Westfalenhallen
Location	Dortmund
Country	Germany
Established	2008
Organisation(s)	PDC
Format	Legs
Prize fund	£400,000 (2017)
Month(s) Played	Various
Current champion(s)
Michael van Gerwen

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.

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 will then move to Göttingen in 2019.

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.

European Championship 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								Westfalenhallen, Dortmund

Records and statistics

As of 29 October 2017.

Total finalist appearances

Player	Won	Runner-up	Finals
Michael van Gerwen	4	0	4
Phil Taylor	4	0	4
Adrian Lewis	1	2	3
Simon Whitlock	1	1	2
Steve Beaton	0	1	1
Terry Jenkins	0	1	1
Wayne Jones	0	1	1
Wes Newton	0	1	1
Gary Anderson	0	1	1
Mensur Suljović	0	1	1
Rob Cross	0	1	1

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 Suljovic	11–1
111.00	Michael van Gerwen	2014, Quarter-Final	Dave Chisnall	10–5
110.88	Phil Taylor	2009, Last 16	Robert Thornton	9–0
109.97	Phil Taylor	2009, Last 32	Toon Greebe	6–2
109.36	Phil Taylor	2009, Semi-Final	Jelle Klaasen	11–3
109.35	Phil Taylor	2009, Final	Steve Beaton	11–3

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
104.74	Peter Wright	2015, Semi-Final	Michael van Gerwen	7–11
104.36	Phil Taylor	2016, Quarter-Final	Mensur Suljovic	3–10
103.86	Michael van Gerwen	2012, Last 16	Raymond van Barneveld	9–10

Different players with a 100+ match average - updated 09/05/18
Player	Total	Highest Av.	Year (+ Round)
Phil Taylor	26	118.14	2009, Quarter-Final
Michael van Gerwen	21	111.62	2016, Final
Adrian Lewis	8	108.62	2008, Quarter-Final
Raymond van Barneveld	7	113.04	2012, Last 32
Peter Wright	6	104.74	2015, Semi Final
Gary Anderson	4	106.26	2015, Semi-Final
Colin Lloyd	4	104.00	2009, Last 16
Mervyn King	4	104.00	2009, Last 16
Dave Chisnall	4	103.86	2015, Last 16
Mensur Suljovic	3	105.50	2016, Quarter-Final
Stephen Bunting	3	102.68	2014, Last 32
Rob Cross	3	102.39	2017, Final
Mark Walsh	2	104.10	2008, Last 32
Jelle Klaasen	2	103.76	2013, Last 16
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
Jonny Clayton	1	102.80	2017, Last 32
Simon Whitlock	1	102.52	2011, Last 32
Dennis Priestley	1	102.35	2008, Last 16
Colin Osborne	1	101.80	2009, Last 16
Paul Nicholson	1	101.61	2011, Last 32
Ronnie Baxter	1	101.45	2011, 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
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, 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.

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]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Darts.

References

External links

• European Championship page on the PDC website
• European Championship Winners