PDC European Championships

The PDC European Championships is the climax of the PDC Euro tour, run by PDC Europe. The players hold this tournament in high regard, and has springboarded players into the business end of the year with good performances in it.

History

The European Championships is a PDC darts tournament that has been running annually since 2008. It takes place across various months every year and allows the top European darts players in the world to take on the top ranked players in the PDC Order of Merit at the time of the tournament.

Initially held at the Südbahnhof in Frankfurt, Germany, the tournament has since taken place at a number of different venues across Europe in Germany and Belgium. The next edition of the European Championships is set to take place at the Westfalenhallen in Dortmund, which was also the host of the 2018 tournament.

Format

To qualify for the PDC European Championships, players will need to get themselves in the top 32 of the European Tour Order of Merit, which is based solely on prize money won from the 13 European Tour events from the season. The top 32 earners are then selected to compete in the event. There is a straight knockout format for the European Championships, with the draw being a fixed bracket process that sees the 1st seed play the 32nd seed, the 2nd seed play the 31st seed and so on.

There is a total of five rounds in the European Championships, with each round featuring a greater number of legs needed to win the match. The number of legs needed to win in each round goes as follows:

First Round – Best of 11 Legs
Second Round – Best of 19 Legs
Quarter-Finals – Best of 19 Legs
Semi-Finals – Best of 21 Legs
Final – Best of 21 Legs

Player Performances

As many would expect, it is Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen that have dominated this tournament, with both players winning four European Championship titles in their respective careers. Both players also have a perfect record in European Championship Finals, winning four of four appearances in the match. No other players have won the event more than once, with Adrian Lewis, Simon Whitlock, Rob Cross and James Wade the other four players’ names on the trophy.

Lewis, van Gerwen and Kyle Anderson are the three players to have hit nine-darters at the European Championships, while Taylor has clocked the top three averages in the history of the competition. Taylor has averaged 118.14, 113.92 and 113.33 in three individual matches at the European Championships.