UK Open

From 2003 to 2013, the UK Open took place in June each year at the Reebok Stadium, in Bolton. In 2014, it moved to Butlin's Minehead taking place in early March. Phil Taylor beat Shayne Burgess in the inaugural final. Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld 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 13–7. He also successfully defended the title in 2007, again beating Taylor en route.

Taylor has achieved the perfect nine-dart finish four times (2004, 2005, 2007 & 2008). Mervyn King (2010), Gary Anderson (2012), Wes Newton (2013), Michael van Gerwen (2016 & 2020) and Jonny Clayton (2020) have also achieved a nine-dart leg (although Newton and Clayton's finishes were not televised live). The tournament had a different runner-up for the first 13 years.

Because of extreme weather conditions and fears for the safety of visiting fans the unprecedented decision was taken by the host venue Butlins to play the entire 2018 UK Open behind closed doors leaving the public only being able to watch the event though ITV4’s live coverage and the PDC live web feed.[4]

Qualifying events for amateur players are organised by Rileys 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.

As of 8 March 2020.

Total finalist appearances

Rank	Player	Nationality	Won	Runner-up	Finals
1	Phil Taylor	England	5	1	6
2	Michael van Gerwen	Netherlands	3	0	3
3	Raymond van Barneveld	Netherlands	2	0	2
	James Wade	England	2	0	2
5	Peter Wright	Scotland	1	2	3
6	Gary Anderson	Scotland	1	1	2
7	Nathan Aspinall	England	1	0	1
	Adrian Lewis	England	1	0	1
	Roland Scholten	Netherlands	1	0	1
	Robert Thornton	Scotland	1	0	1
11	Gerwyn Price	Wales	0	2	2
12	Barrie Bates	Wales	0	1	1
	Shayne Burgess	England	0	1	1
	Corey Cadby	Australia	0	1	1
	Rob Cross	England	0	1	1
	Andy Hamilton	England	0	1	1
	Terry Jenkins	England	0	1	1
	Gary Mawson	United States	0	1	1
	Wes Newton	England	0	1	1
	Colin Osborne	England	0	1	1
	John Part	Canada	0	1	1
	Vincent van der Voort	Netherlands	0	1	1
	Mark Walsh	England	0	1	1

• 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

Country	Players	Total	First title	Last title
England	4	9	2003	2019
Netherlands	3	6	2004	2020
Scotland	3	3	2012	2018

Nine-dart finishes

Ten nine-darters have been thrown at the UK Open. The first one was in 2004, and nine of them have been televised. The one that wasn't was thrown by Wes Newton in 2013 against Adrian Lewis.

Player	Year (+ Round)	Method (double-in double-out)	Opponent	Result
Phil Taylor	2004, 4th Round	3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12	Matt Chapman	8–2 (L)
Phil Taylor	2005, Semi-Final	3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12	Roland Scholten	11–6 (L)
Phil Taylor	2007, 5th Round	3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12	Wes Newton	11–5 (L)
Phil Taylor	2008, 4th Round	3 x T20; 2 x T20, T19; 2 x T20, D12	Jamie Harvey	9–1 (L)
Mervyn King	2010, 5th Round	3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12	Gary Anderson	8–9 (L)
Gary Anderson	2012, 3rd Round	3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12	Davey Dodds	9–3 (L)
Michael van Gerwen	2016, 4th Round	3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12	Rob Cross	9–5 (L)
Jonny Clayton	2020, 6th Round	3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12	Chris Dobey	10–8 (L)
Michael van Gerwen	2020, Semi-Finals	3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12	Daryl Gurney	11–3 (L)

High averages

Ten highest UK Open one-match averages
Average	Player	Year (+ Round)	Opponent	Result
118.66	Phil Taylor	2010, Last 32	Kevin Painter	9–0
115.62	Phil Taylor	2009, Quarter-Final	Mark Lawrence	10–0
115.51	Phil Taylor	2009, Last 32	Ken Mather	9–3
114.91	Michael van Gerwen	2015, Last 16	Kim Huybrechts	9–2
114.54	Phil Taylor	2008, Last 16	Wes Newton	9–3
113.05	Phil Taylor	2010, Semi-Final	Denis Ovens	10–5
111.67	Phil Taylor	2015, Last 16	Vincent van der Voort	9–3
110.88	Peter Wright	2017, Quarter-Final	Raymond van Barneveld	10–8
110.81	Michael van Gerwen	2020, Quarter-Final	Rob Cross	10–4
110.72	Phil Taylor	2012, Last 16	Ronnie Baxter	9–4

Five highest tournament averages
Average	Player	Year
109.17	Phil Taylor	2015
107.38[5]	Phil Taylor	2009
106.81	Phil Taylor	2013
106.43	Phil Taylor	2010
105.57	Michael van Gerwen	2015

From 2003 until 2013, coverage for the UK Open was shown on Sky Sports in June, but from 2014, the tournament was moved to March and shown on ITV4.

The inaugural event in 2003 was sponsored by Sky Bet. In 2004 Budweiser became the main sponsor. After Budweiser's three-year sponsorship ended in 2006, bookmakers Blue Square took over as title sponsor in 2007 until 2009. The 2010 event was sponsored by Rileys Darts Zones.[6] From 2011 to 2013 it has been sponsored by Speedy Hire. In 2014 Coral took over sponsorship, it lasted until 2018, when its sister company, Ladbrokes took over for the 2019 tournament.

• ^a Each year is linked to an article about that particular event's draw.

• Official Page on PDC website
• PDC UK Open on Darts database