World Cup of Darts
The PDC World Cup of Darts is a very unique competition on the PDC calendar. Pitting countries against each other, with pairs play. Its the only time in the PDC that player will play pairs with each other.
History
The World Cup of Darts is an international darts tournament hosted by the PDC that was first established in 2010. The competition came a year after the Jocky Wilson Cup in 2009, which was contested by England and Scotland and won 6-0 by the former. It was one of three new tournaments created by the PDC in 2010 alongside the PDC Under-21 World Championship and the PDC Women’s World Championship.
Germany has been the host country of the World Cup of Darts. Hamburg was the tournament’s venue from 2012 to 2015, when it then moved to Frankfurt before then coming back to Hamburg and the Barclaycard Arena in 2019. The 2020 edition of the tournament is due to be held at the Premstättner Halle in Graz, Austria.
Format
The World Cup of Darts is a pretty unique tournament as it is a team darts event. Only the top eight teams competing in the World Cup are seeded, with it previously being the top 16 teams in the tournament that were seeded. There are a total of 32 teams that compete in the World Cup from 32 nations, with the tournament beginning with a best of 9 legs doubles match.
After that, the format then changes to two best of seven singles matches. Should a team win both of their singles matches they would then take their place in the next round, but a split in singles games would then result in another best of seven doubles match to declare the winner.
When it comes to the final, there are a total of four best of seven singles matches that take place alongside one best of seven doubles game, with the doubles game now being the third in the sequence. There is a point awarded for a victory in each of the games, with the first team to three points being crowned World Cup winners.
Team Performances
England and Netherlands have been the dominant forces in the World Cup of Darts, coming out as winners of the tournament in eight of the nine editions of the World Cup. Both nations have four victories to their name from a total of nine appearances in the final. Scotland are the only other nation to have a World Cup win to their name, having had one victory from theri three appearances in the final.
No pairing have won more World Cup titles than that of England’s Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis, who won four World Cups in their six appearances, making it to the final five times when they competed together. The Dutch pairing of Michael van Gerwen and Raymond van Barneveld sit just behind them, having won three World Cups as a pair, reaching the final four times from their six appearances at the World Cup. Gary Anderson and Peter Wright were the members of the Scotland team to win the World Cup, while the Netherlands won the inaugural World Cup with van Barneveld and Co Stompe.
