The document provides an overview of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), which promotes darts in Britain. It details the PDC's major tournaments throughout the year, including the World Darts Championship which attracts over 65,000 spectators and has a prize fund of £1.65 million. It also notes the sport's large TV audience, with the World Championship being the most watched non-football program on Sky Sports. Top darts players can earn over £1 million per year from prize money and endorsements.

1. WELCOMETOTHE
PROFESSIONAL DARTS
CORPORATION
PROMOTERSOFBRITAIN’SBIGGESTINDOORSPORT

2. PURPOSE OF PRESENTATION
To give you an up-to-date perspective on a sport with:
- A loyal following of traditional and new fans from across society
- Over 300,000 live spectators attending events each year
- TV audience figures second only to football
- Worldwide television and media coverage
- A genuine connection with people of all backgrounds
- Over £10m in prize money on offer to its players
- Top players earning in excess of £1m per year through
prize money, endorsements and sponsorships
- A developed infrastructure that provides a professional
pathway from novice to World Champion

3. PDC OVERVIEW
- The Professional Darts Corporation was formed in 1992 and has been
controlled by Barry Hearn since 2001.
- The PDC has the world’s top players and in 2016 will pay out more than
£10m in prize money.
- PDC tournaments are broadcast live in the UK, Holland, Germany, Australia,
New Zealand, Italy, Scandinavia and the Middle East and televised in highlight
form globally.
- There are 12 major televised events in the UK and Europe plus World Series
events in Dubai, Shanghai, Tokyo, Perth, Sydney and Auckland.
- The World Darts Championship is the most watched
non-football programme on Sky Sports.
- Challenge and Development Tours provide a bridge for amateur and
youth players in to the professional game.

4. PDC OVERVIEW continued…
- The PDC’s most famous player, Phil Taylor, is one of the world’s most
successful sportsman, with 16 world titles and over 60 TV titles to his name as
well as being named runner-up in the BBC Sports Personality awards.
- The PDC’s annual black tie awards dinner at the Dorchester Hotel is televised
by Sky Sports.
- The PDC, through its independent governing body the Darts Regulation
Authority, introduced drug testing in 2005 – three years before golf!
- Over 25 players on the Order of Merit each have over £100,000 to their name.
- Footballers, other sportsmen and TV stars are regulars at PDC events and
royalty made its debut when Prince Harry has twice attended
the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace.
- The PDC brand appears in chart-topping computer games and AWP/SWP games.

5. MAJOR TOURNAMENTS
OTHER TOURNAMENTS
Event title Prize fund Location Dates
- World Championship
- The Masters
- Premier League Darts
- UK Open
- World Cup of Darts
- World Matchplay
- Champions League
- World Grand Prix
- European Championship
- Grand Slam of Darts
- World Series Finals
- Players Championship Finals
£1,650,000
£200,000
£725,000
£300,000
£250,000
£450,000
£250,000
£400,000
£400,000
£400,000
£200,000
£400,000
London
Milton Keynes
Various – UK & Ire
Minehead
Frankfurt
Blackpool
Cardiff
Dublin
Hasselt
Wolverhampton
Glasgow
Minehead
Dec – Jan
January
Feb – May
March
June
July
September
October
October
November
November
December
- Over 30 x ProTour events paying either £60,000 or £75,000 each (Players Championship /
UK Open qualifiers) or €115,000 (European Tour) in UK, Ireland, Germany, Holland,
Austria and Gibraltar)
- World Series events in Dubai, Shanghai, Tokyo, Perth, Sydney and Auckland
- World Youth Championship and 19 x £10,000 Development Tour events for u23s
- Challenge Tour featuring 16 x £10,000 events open to all Q-School entrants
- Australian ProTour, Russian ProTour, Scandinavian ProTour
- Affiliated organisations in China, Korea, Thailand, Philippines, Japan and more

6. WORLD DARTS CHAMPIONSHIP
- First held in 1994, this is the PDC’s longest-running event and the most
prestigious tournament in the world of darts.
- Offering a total prize fund of £1,650,000, the winner walks away with £300,000 –
the sport’s biggest pay-day!
- 72 players from over 20 countries assemble at London’s iconic Alexandra Palace
for two dramatic weeks of action throughout December and early January.
- Over 65,000 spectators turn the event in to London’s biggest Christmas party!
- Won 14 times by Phil Taylor, as well as Adrian Lewis (x2), John Part (x2),
Gary Anderson (x2), Raymond van Barneveld, Michael van Gerwen and
Dennis Priestley.
- Available as 88 hours live or 26 x 1 hour Highlights

7. WORLD MATCHPLAY
- An event steeped in tradition, with the purest format of the game – legs only –
makes this the event of choice for long-standing darts fans.
- Staged in the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, a beautiful period venue full of
character in the birth-place of the British seaside holiday!
- The best 32 players in the world battle it out over a nine day tournament to
walk away with the £100,000 top prize from a total fund of £450,000.
- Live crowds, booking up to a year in advance for their seats, top 2000 per day
across 10 sessions.
- Phil Taylor has dominated this event with 15 titles, but Rod Harrington (x2),
James Wade, Colin Lloyd, Peter Evison, Michael van Gerwen and Larry Butler
have all had their name inscribed on the famous trophy since its inception in
1994 as the PDC’s second ‘major’.
- Available as 39 hours live or 31 x 1 hour highlights

8. WORLD GRAND PRIX
- One of the most famous titles in the world of darts – this event boasts a
unique format with players having to start a leg on a double, as well as finish
on one!
- Played out over a week in October before a passionate Dublin crowd, this is
not one for the feint-hearted, with nerves of steel required to take the title.
- Home favourite Brendan Dolan became the first player in history to record a
9-dart finish at this format when he achieved the feat in his 2011 semi-final.
- Having grown over the last decade, the World Grand Prix now boasts an
eye-catching £400,000 prize fund, with £100,000 to the winner.
- Unsurprisingly, Phil Taylor tops the roll of honour with 11 titles, but James
Wade and Michael van Gerwen have two each and Colin Lloyd and Alan
Warriner have also tasted success here.
- Available as 27 hours live or 15 x 1 hour highlights

9. GRAND SLAM OF DARTS
- One of the newest Premier PDC events– the Grand Slam pitches 32 major
finalists from the previous two-years to find a real ‘Champion of Champions’.
- Uniquely, this sees the top players from the BDO/WDF system invited to
participate based on their achievements at the Lakeside Championship.
- A quick-fire group stage format over the opening half of the event leaves the
field wide open to shocks and surprises.
- Wolverhampton’s cauldron-like Civic Hall sells out day after day with 1500
fun-filled fans craving top class darts action!
- In the eight stagings of the event to date, Phil Taylor has taken the prize
six times, with BDO stalwart Scott Waites winning in 2010 and Raymond van
Barneveld in 2012 before Michael van Gerwen took the 2015 honour.
- Available as 46 hours live or 23 x 1 hours highlights

10. UK OPEN
- This tournament is dubbed the ‘FA Cup of Darts’ as it pits David against Goliath on
the oche with eight boards in play and a re-draw after every round.
- A series of stand-alone amateur qualifiers are staged giving 32 ‘Pub’ players the
opportunity of being drawn against the top stars of the PDC.
- The short format in the early stages means history can be made as the giants
can be slain by the hopeful qualifiers and on the final day, the last eight play
down to a winner in a real survival of the fittest!
- With £300,000 on offer, £60,000 of it to the winner, it’s a dramatic weekend’s
action at Butlin’s famous holiday park in Minehead.
- Phil Taylor has five titles, James Wade, Michael van Gerwen and Raymond van
Barneveld two each and one for Robert Thornton, Adrian Lewis and Roland Scholten.
- Available as 23 hours live or delayed.

11. PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS
- Having only been in existence since 2009, the Players Championship Finals
has wasted no time in growing in to one of the most coveted titles on the
circuit with £65,000 from a total pot of £300,000 going to the winner.
- The top 32 from the PDC’s 12-month ProTour Order of Merit qualify for the
curtain-raiser to the World Championship to discover who’s really been the
top man on the Tour over the year.
- Over 5000 committed dart fans book their weekend trip to Butlin’s in Somerset
for a weekend’s non-stop top class darts action.
- Experienced pro Kevin Painter ended his 20 year wait for a major title as he
lifted the crown in 2011, whilst Michael van Gerwen (x2), Gary Anderson, Paul
Nicholson and Phil Taylor (x3) are other previous winners.
- Available as 23 hours live or delayed.

12. EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP
- Top class darts is growing globally, and nowhere is making as much progress as
western Europe, where the PDC’s European Championship has found its home
with crowds of over 2000 per session.
- This tournament gives the top 32 players from the year’s European Tour events
the chance to pit their wits on the big stage for the £100,000 top prize.
- Since its inception in 2008, when it was staged in Germany, the event has formed
a major part of the PDC’s worldwide expansion and has also been staged in the
darts hot-bed of Holland before moving to Belgium in 2015.
- Phil Taylor picked up the first four titles between 2008 – 2011 before Simon
Whitlock, Adrian Lewis and Michael van Gerwen (x2) took the honours in the next
four years.
- Available as 23 hours live or 15 x 1 hours highlights

13. WORLD CUP OF DARTS
- The PDC’S only team event forms one of the most entertaining and dramatic
weekends in the darts calendar.
- 24 two-man teams from across the globe come together over six sessions
in front of sell-out German crowds to do battle for national pride.
- A Davis Cup style format of doubles and singles matches ensures every dart
thrown is vital as the outcome of a tie could change at any moment.
- With £250,000 total prize purse, this is the richest pairs or team event in the
darts world.
- The inaugural event was won by Dutch pair Raymond van Barneveld and
Co Stompe in 2010, but England, represented by Phil Taylor and Adrian
Lewis won in 2012, ‘13 and ‘15 although van Barneveld returned, this time
with Michael van Gerwen, to lift the cup in 2014.
- Available as 23 hours live or 15 x 1 hours highlights

14. THE MASTERS
- The newest addition to the PDC’s list of majors, the inaugural Masters was
staged in 2013 and saw the top 16 players in the world face off over three
dramatic days.
- The first two runnings of the event were at Edinburgh’s Royal Highland Centre
over a November weekend before The Masters switched position in the calendar
for 2015 as it relocated to the impressive arena:MK in Milton Keynes and was
played at the end of January.
- The increased total prize fund of £200,000 delivered a £60,000 winner’s cheque
to Michael van Gerwen as he followed James Wade (2014) and Phil Taylor (2013)
in to the winner’s circle in 2015 and then retained his title the following year.
- Available as 12 hours live or 7 x 1 hours highlights

15. WORLD SERIES OF DARTS
- Instigated in 2013, the PDC’s quest to take the professional game global
continued with tournaments in previously unchartered territories.
- The top eight players in the world entertained crowds in excess of 2500 at the
Dubai Darts Masters over two electric nights of action in May, as the PDC
staged its first ever outdoor event at the Dubai Tennis Stadium.
- The World Series made its debut in Japan in 2015 with a weekend in Yokohama,
as Japan joined Singapore on the list of Asian nations to have staged an event with
Shanghai also joining the circuit in 2016.
- The Tour also boasts a popular Australasian leg with sell-out shows in front of huge
crowds in Perth, Sydney and Auckland where local qualifiers pit their wits against
the best in the world.
- The PDC plans to continue growing the World Series with further events in
Asia and North America.
- Available as either 8, 10 or 12 hours live per event.

16. PDC UK TV COVERAGE OVER TIME
There were almost 1000 hours of PDC darts coverage shown across UK television last
year. In 2015 there was an average of just over 20 hours of PDC darts coverage shown
every week on UK television.
The reduction from 2013 and 2014 was due to the UK Open switching to ITV4
and therefore fewer repeats being shown
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
270:32
321:23
300:59 296:44
386:34
721:25
762:58 761:58 754:41 739:20
811:11
839:36
794:40
998.41

17. PDC TV REACH* OVER TIME
In 2015, coverage of PDC events reached* over 13.5 million viewers;
approximately 20% of the UK population.
*reach is defined as viewers watching a consecutive five minutes of the programme,
calculated until 2010 over three minutes
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
3,203
4,226
4,969
6,512
7,293
14,552
11,002
12,225
11,587
10,510
9,299
11,1106
11,714
13,555
INTRODUCTION OF GRAND
SLAM OF DARTS ON ITV1

18. AVERAGE LIVE AUDIENCE
The World Championship was watched by a greater average
live audience than any other non-football Sky programming
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19. AVERAGE 16 - 34 LIVE AUDIENCE
The World Championship achieved the greatest live average audience
for the 16 – 34 age group on Sky Sports, ahead of Premier League
Darts and Football League coverage.
67
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20. On average, two out of three of the PDC live audience are male, with approximately
one in four aged 16 – 34 and four out of 10 in the ABC1 socio-economic grade.
PDC LIVE AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE
MALE
66%
FEMALE
34%
35+
75%
16-34
25%
ABC1
41%
C2DE
59%

21. RANKING AGAINST
OTHER SPORTS
- Over 700 hours of PDC coverage aired in each of the previous nine years.
- There is now double the TV coverage than was aired eight years ago.
- The World Darts Championship Final in January 2015 was the only
non-football programme ranked in Sky Sports’ top 50 viewed shows of
the previous 12 months.
- Live PDC programming on Dutch channel RTL7 reaches a market share of up to 25%.
- German channel Sport1’s highest ever viewing figure came during the
recent World Darts Championship
- Sky Sports rebranded one of their channels as Sky Sports Darts for the World Darts
Championship – following in the footsteps of other iconic sporting events such as the
Ashes and Ryder Cup

22. Live reach in overseas territories:
RTL7 Holland 8.1m
Sport1 Germany 5m
Fox Australia 250,000
OSN Arabia 100,000
INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
PDC darts is televised live and delayed in over
60 Countries worldwide, including...
Other markets where coverage is available:
Canada | China | Eastern Europe including Poland, Hungary
and Czech Republic | New Zealand | Italy | Scandinavia | Japan
Malaysia | USA

23. LIVE AUDIENCES
- Over 100,000 people attended the Premier League Darts; 65,000 visited the World Championship and total
crowds in excess of 15,000 enjoy each of the World Matchplay, World Grand Prix and Grand Slam of Darts.
- Two-thirds of all attendees are aged 25 – 44. Just over 60% are male.
- 89% are in work either full or part-time or self employed and 6% are students
- 49% watch the entire tournament they attend on TV with less than 10% watching ‘only the final
or none at all’.
- Over 40% of spectators do or consider placing a bet live at the event.
- 95% of spectators consider the atmosphere at events to be ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’.
- Title sponsorship brings a near 90% ‘very strong’ association rate.
- 66% of all visitors have had three or more holidays in the last two years.
- 80% of all visitors have a computer games console at home.
- 43% of all visitors have an online gaming account.
- Over a quarter of visitors are considering changing their car,
TV, mobile phone or computer within the next six months.
- 78% of all visitors play darts at some level, either organised,
socially or at home.

24. MEDIA COVERAGE
- Over 1000 articles about PDC events appeared in the national press in 2015.
- 400 World Championship articles printed and over 300 Premier League
articles printed.
- Coverage is increasing throughout the year with regular exposure in national and
regional titles including sponsor branding and high prominence in TV listings.
- Online coverage continues to grow with regular updates and brand mentions
featured on prominent sports websites, including skysports.com, bbc.co.uk and
the websites of the national newspapers.
- The PDC’s own website attracted 4m unique users and 22m page impressions
in 2014.
- The PDC’s official and associated Twitter feeds have over 1,000,000
followers and 100,000 likes on Facebook.

25. NEWSPAPER COVERAGE
There were over 1000 press articles produced about PDC events in 2015 with a wide ranging presence
across regional and national publications as well as an ever-increasing international profile.
REGIONAL PUBLICATIONS 216
200
131
105
66
62
60
52
38
28
20
19
19
14
14
8
8
6
6
3
2
1
RACING POST
DAIYLY STAR
THE SUN
THE EXPRESS
THE INDEPENDENT
THE MIRROR
DAILY MAIL
THE TIMES
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
THE GUARDIAN
THE SUN ON SUNDAY
THE PEOPLE
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
SUNDAY MIRROR
THE SUNDAY TIMES
DAILY STAR SUNDAY
METRO
THE EXPRESS ON SUNDAY
THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
THE OBSERVER

26. PARTNERS & SPONSORS

27. TITLE SPONSORSHIP RIGHTS
- Official designation as title sponsors of the event and partners of the PDC
- Prime set and venue signage to be located in prominent camera positions
- Exclusive oche backdrop and side shot branding as well as fan giveaways (180 cards, fun hats etc)
- Branding on all promotional literature, including: flysheets, press advertisements, posters and
publicity material
- Opportunity for on-site promotion and sampling to raise brand awareness and convert customers
- Prime set and venue signage to be located in prominent camera positions
- VIP hospitality tickets for key clients, staff or partners. Regular tickets for giveaways
- Opportunity to reach PDC database through e-newsletters and direct mailings
- Sector-exclusive branding on pdc.tv (monthly average over 300,000 visitors and 1.5m page impressions)
- Interaction and presence across PDC social media channels including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
and YouTube
- Opportunity to acquire broadcast sponsorship for UK TV coverage
- Verbal name-checks on TV commentary and graphic recognition in all programming

28. ASSOCIATE SPONSORSHIP RIGHTS
- Official designation as partners of the PDC and individual events
- All year round sector-exclusive association with PDC on a global or per territory basis
- Set signage at all events except World Championship
- Branding on all promotional literature, including: flysheets, press advertisements, posters and
publicity material
- Opportunity for on-site promotion such as big screen adverts and flyer distribution, and
sampling to raise brand awareness and convert customers
- VIP hospitality tickets for key clients, staff or partners. Regular tickets for giveaways
- Opportunity to reach PDC database through e-newsletters and direct mailings
- Sector-exclusive branding on pdc.tv (monthly average over 300,000 visitors and
1.5m page impressions)
- Interaction and presence across PDC social media channels including Twitter, Instagram,
Facebook and YouTube
- Opportunity to acquire player appearances for promotional or corporate events
- Logo branding on cover and full page advertisement in each event programme
- Use of event imagery and PDC logo in promotional material