The European Championship is a PDC darts tournament which was created to allow the top European players to compete with the highest ranked players from the PDC Order of Merit. Since 2016, the tournament has taken place at the end of October, and features the top 32 players on the PDC European Tour Order of Merit.
History The inaugural tournament – the 2008 European Championship – was held at the Südbahnhof in Frankfurt, Germany and featured a prize fund of £200,000.PDC website report – European Championship Details Confirmed from the Professional Darts Corporation, retrieved 12-08-2008
The tournament moved to the Claus Hotel & Event Center in Hoofddorp, Netherlands for 2009 featuring a similar prize fund. 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 returned to Germany, moving to the Westfalenhallen in Dortmund. It moved to Göttingen in 2019, before moving to the König Pilsener Arena in Oberhausen in 2020, and then the Salzburgarena in Salzburg, Austria in 2021, before returning to Dortmund again in 2022.
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 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. In 2018, James Wade won the title, and in 2019 Rob Cross became European champion, then Peter Wright won in 2020, before Cross regained the title in 2021.
Finals Year Champion Score Runner-up Prize money Venue Total Champion Runner-up 2008 £200,000£50,000 £25,000 2009 Phil Taylor (109.35) 11–3 Steve Beaton (97.16)£20,000 2010 Phil Taylor (105.74) 11–1 Wayne Jones (94.64) 2011 Phil Taylor (109.29) 11–8 Adrian Lewis (98.72) Maritim Hotel, Düsseldorf 2012 11–5 Wes Newton (89.47) RWE-Sporthalle, Mülheim 2013 Adrian Lewis (103.34) 11–6 2014 11–4 Terry Jenkins (92.90) £250,000 £55,000 £25,000 2015 £300,000 £65,000 £35,000 Ethias Arena, Hasselt 2016 £400,000 £100,000 £40,000 2017 2018 Westfalenhallen, Dortmund 2019 £500,000 £120,000 £60,000 Lokhalle, Göttingen 2020 2021 2022 2023 £600,000 2024 2025
Records and statistics
Total finalist appearances RankPlayerWonRunner-upFinalsAppearances 1 Michael van Gerwen41517 2 Phil Taylor4049 3 Rob Cross2139 4 Peter Wright20214 5 Simon Whitlock12311 James Wade12316 Adrian Lewis12310 8 Ross Smith1016 Ritchie Edhouse1012 Gian van Veen1013 11 Steve Beaton0115 Wayne Jones0114 Wes Newton0116 Terry Jenkins0119 Gary Anderson0118 Mensur Suljović01113 Gerwyn Price01111 Michael Smith01111 Jermaine Wattimena0115 Luke Humphries0115
Active players are shown in bold Only players who reached the final are included In the event of identical records, players are sorted by date first achieved
Champions by country CountryPlayersTotalFirst titleLast title61020082024252014202512202020231120122012
Nine-dart finishes Four nine-darters have been thrown at the European Championship. The first one was in 2011. PlayerYear (+ Round)MethodOpponentResult Adrian Lewis2011, Semi-Final3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Raymond van Barneveld11–10 Michael van Gerwen2014, Semi-Final2 x T20, T19; 3 x T20; 2 x T20, D12 Raymond van Barneveld11–6 Kyle Anderson2017, Semi-Final3 x T20; 3 x T20, T20, T19, D12 Michael van Gerwen10–11 José de Sousa2020, Last 323 x T20; 2 x T20, T19; 2 x T20, D12 Jeffrey de Zwaan6–3
High averages Ten highest European Championship one-match averagesAveragePlayerYear (+ Round)OpponentResult118.14 Phil Taylor2009, Quarter-Final Gary Anderson10–3113.92 Phil Taylor2008, Last 16 Mervyn King9–3113.33 Phil Taylor2008, Semi-Final Robert Thornton11–7113.04 Raymond van Barneveld2012, Last 32 Terry Jenkins6–1111.62 Michael van Gerwen2016, Final Mensur Suljović11–1111.33 Jonny Clayton2019, Last 32 James Wade6–0111.03 Phil Taylor2009, Last 32 Toon Greebe6–2111.00 Michael van Gerwen2014, Quarter-Final Dave Chisnall10–5110.88 Phil Taylor2009, Last 16 Robert Thornton9–0110.32 Michael van Gerwen2018, Last 32 Paul Nicholson6–2
Five highest losing averagesAveragePlayerYear (+ Round)OpponentResult109.20 Stephen Bunting2025, Last 32 Chris Dobey3–6107.56 Gerwyn Price2021, Quarter-Final Michael van Gerwen8–10106.12 Gary Anderson2009, Quarter-Final Phil Taylor3–10106.12 Phil Taylor2015, Quarter-Final Adrian Lewis9–10105.10 Michael van Gerwen2019, Last 32 Ross Smith5–6
Different players with a 100+ match average (Updated 25/10/25)PlayerTotalHighest Av.Year (+ Round) Michael van Gerwen31111.622016, Final Phil Taylor26118.142009, Quarter-Final Peter Wright14104.742015, Semi-Final Adrian Lewis8108.622008, Quarter-Final Gerwyn Price8107.562021, Quarter-Final Danny Noppert8104.882025, Last 32 Raymond van Barneveld7113.042012, Last 32 Dave Chisnall6109.752019, Last 16 Gary Anderson6106.262015, Semi-Final Michael Smith6106.092019, Last 32 Luke Humphries5109.982025, Last 32 Stephen Bunting5109.202025, Last 32 Nathan Aspinall5103.342021, Quarter-Final Jonny Clayton4111.332019, Last 32 Chris Dobey4105.762025, Last 32 Mervyn King4104.002009, Last 16 Colin Lloyd4104.002009, Last 16 Ryan Searle4102.432022, Last 32 Gian van Veen3109.922025, Last 16 Jermaine Wattimena3106.872025, Last 32 Mensur Suljović3105.502016, Quarter-Final Dirk van Duijvenbode3104.152022, Quarter-Final Martin Schindler3104.052025, Last 32 Rob Cross3102.392017, Final James Wade3101.812011, Last 16 Ross Smith3101.632022, Last 32 Ritchie Edhouse2109.482024, Last 32 Devon Petersen2106.302020, Quarter-Final Ricardo Pietreczko2104.282023, Last 32 Mark Walsh2104.102008, Last 32 Jelle Klaasen2103.762013, Last 16 Ian White2103.642020, Last 16 Simon Whitlock2102.522011, Last 32 Robert Thornton2102.122008, Semi-Final Josh Rock2101.692022, Last 16 Dimitri Van den Bergh2101.532022, Last 32 Wes Newton1106.092012, Last 32 Jamie Caven1106.092013, Last 32 José de Sousa1105.282022, Last 32 Madars Razma1104.922023, Last 32 Brendan Dolan1104.682014, Last 32 James Wilson1103.642018, Last 32 Dennis Priestley1102.352008, Last 16 Jeffrey de Zwaan1101.872019, Last 32 Colin Osborne1101.802009, Last 16 Steve West1101.672018, Quarter-Final Damon Heta1101.662021, Last 16 Paul Nicholson1101.612011, Last 32 Cameron Menzies1101.532025, Last 16 Ronnie Baxter1101.452011, Last 32 Kyle Anderson1101.092018, Last 32 Vincent van der Voort1101.092014, Last 32 Ronny Huybrechts1100.972013, Last 32 Kim Huybrechts1100.862015, Last 32 Cristo Reyes1100.692015, Last 32 Robert Wagner1100.592014, Last 32 Gabriel Clemens1100.362020, Last 32 Darius Labanauskas1100.062020, Last 32 Terry Jenkins1100.062014, Last 32
Five highest tournament averagesAveragePlayerYear 111.54 Phil Taylor2009108.20 Phil Taylor2008105.87 Phil Taylor2016105.53 Michael van Gerwen2016105.15 Michael van Gerwen2015
Television coverage The PDC announced on August 12, 2008 that ITV4 would broadcast the entire event. 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 in the UK, but the 2010 event was broadcast on Bravo, which screened live darts for the first time in its history. However, Bravo ceased broadcasting at the start of 2011. On June 26, 2011, it was announced that ITV4 would broadcast the 2011 event. 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.
List of United Kingdom broadcasters 2008; 2011; 2013–present: ITV4 2010: Bravo 2012: ESPN 2009: not televised in the UK
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 for one edition, with the tournament being sponsored by Unibet since 2015. In 2021, the tournament will be sponsored by Cazoo, who will also sponsor the PDC World Cup of Darts and the Grand Slam of Darts. Ahead of the 2023 tournament, Machineseeker were announced to be the new title sponsors.
References
External links European Championship page on the PDC website European Championship on Darts Database