World Professional Darts Championship
The World Professional Darts Championship is one of the most important tournaments in the darts calendar. Originally held as an annual event between 1978 and 1993, players then broke off into two separate organisations after a controversial split in the game. Each organisation, the British Darts Organisation (BDO) and the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) now organise their own World Championship in January. As a result there is no longer a unified World Champion in the game.The BDO have organised their version dating back to 1978. Since 1985 it has been held at the Lakeside Country Club at Frimley Green, Surrey. The PDC version started in 1994 after “the split”, with a field of players containing all active previous World Champions from the BDO. It was originally staged at Purfleet’s Circus Tavern, Essex before moving to Alexandra Palace, London, for the 2008 World Championship. Both organisations hold other professional tournaments. The BDO organise the World Masters and many Open tournaments. They also organise county darts for their 64 county members in the UK including individual and team events. The PDC’s major tournaments are the World Championship, Premier League, UK Open, Las Vegas Desert Classic, World Matchplay and the World Grand Prix. All of these are broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK. They also hold PDC Pro Tour events and smaller category events around the UK. As of 2007 the PDC have introduced two new televised major tournaments – the US Open (Challenge TV) and the Grand Slam of Darts (ITV).