11 curious facts about the Darts World Cup that you need to know

It won't be long before it's that time again. Ok admittedly, there are still around 4 months until the Darts World Cup 2020 starts again. But we're already excited! You too? The Darts World Cup is the absolute highlight of the entire calendar year, both for players and fans. The high prize money, the fanatical audience in the Ally Pally and the many dart players who come together from all over the world - darts connects! In this blog post we would like to provide you with 11 curious facts about the Darts World Cup that we were able to find out. Attention: Some of these are facts that should be viewed with a wink.

Fact 1: Record runner-up Phil Taylor

Phil Taylor is darts world champion. And not just anyone, but probably the best there has ever been in his sport. In total, “The Power” managed to win a whopping 16 world championship titles in his career. It could have been significantly more, because Phil Taylor is also the record runner-up in the world championship. With five World Cup runner-up finishes (one more than Dennis Priestley), there is no professional player who has had to watch another player celebrate the World Cup title more often (1994, 2003, 2007, 2015, 2018). Ok, that's why he won the Darts World Cup 16 times.

Fact 2: The top 3 of the Darts World Cup come from three countries - for eight years

One thing in particular has become clear over the past eight World Cups. In these eight world championships, players from the Netherlands, England or Scotland were always in the top 3. This once again underlines the supremacy of the three big darts nations. Only Simon Whitlock (Australia) and Mark Webster (Wales) have been able to secure one of the coveted top three spots at a World Cup in the past 11 years.

Fact 3: From 1994 to 2010 – three players in the top 4 come from England

Another crazy statistic shows how extreme the dominance of the English in darts once was. Between 1994 and 2010, no two non-England players ever made it to the semi-finals of a Darts World Cup . It was only at the 2010 World Cup that England's curse was broken. Namely when Phil Taylor (England), Simon Whitlock (Australia), Mark Webster (Wales) and Raymond van Barneveld (Netherlands) made it to the semi-finals for the first time.

Fact 4: Phil Taylor continues to lead the Darts World Cup rankings – forever?

Of course, Phil Taylor still leads the all-time World Cup rankings. Despite Michael van Gerwen 's three world titles, Taylor is still unassailably ahead when it comes to placings at a world championship. It is also questionable whether he will ever be caught up here. MvG is still missing at least 12 world titles in the PDC before the Darts World Cup 2020.

Fact 5: Nations ranking: Canada in fourth place. Canada?

When it comes to naming six or seven major darts nations, no one thinks of Canada . Sure, England, the Netherlands, Scotland and Wales. Australia is also one of them. But Canada? In principle, the entire ranking is thanks to a single player: the two-time world champion from Canada – John Part.

Fact 6: 4 x whitewash in the World Cup final – a bitter experience

We all know it: The two World Cup finalists have been decided and everyone is looking forward to the big finale. The question of who will win the tournament in the end is probably on every fan's mind at the beginning of the year. But sometimes everything is over quicker than you expect and often hope for. A total of four times it happened that a final ended with a whitewash in sets. An extremely bitter experience for a player who at least made it to the final of a World Darts Championship. Here are the encounters in which this happened:

• 1998: Taylor Priestley. 6-0
• 2001: Taylor Part 7:0
• 2002: Taylor-Manley 7-0
• 2006: Taylor-Manley 7-0

As you can see: Peter Manley even suffered this fate twice.

Fact 7: Trina Gulliver – Phil Taylor among women

Trina Gulliver was long considered the best woman in darts . The 49-year-old proved this several times at the BDO Women's World Cup. From 2011 to 2007, Gulliver managed to win a series of 7 world championship titles in a row. Even after that, Gulliver was able to celebrate three more world titles by 2016. With ten titles at the Women's Darts World Cup, Gulliver is the most successful darts player in the history of the sport.

Fact 8: Four German participants took part in the 2019 Darts World Cup

Until the last Darts World Cup, there was one thing that had never happened before: four German participants in a Darts World Cup. For this reason, there was a premiere at the last PDC World Championship when Max Hopp , Martin Schindler , Gabriel Clemens and Robert Marijanovic were allowed to compete in the Ally Pally. In the end, all four players quickly returned home. While Marijanovic and Schindler failed in round one, Clemens flew home after round two. Hopp at least made it to the third round, but failed there against the number one in the world – Michael van Gerwen. All games of the Darts World Cup are now also broadcast on German television. Cult commentator Elmar Paulke has been hosting the streaming provider DAZN for two years. You can secure a free trial month there at any time!

Fact 9: 72 participants – there have never been more

At the Darts World Cup 2019, the field of participants was increased to 72 players. So many players had never taken part in a PDC Darts World Cup. The reason for this was further qualifying and preliminary round games, women receiving starting places for the first time and significantly higher prize money that was awarded to the 72 participants.

Fact 10: 22 nations in 2019 – how many will there be in 2020?

What is particularly nice to see is that with 22 nations, more nations took part in the 2019 PDC Darts World Cup than ever before. This shows how international the sport has become in recent years. Darts have been enjoying increasing popularity for years. But England still dominates the entire darts world. This is also shown by the statistics. Because with a whopping 23 participants from the motherland of darts, England is still far ahead of the up-and-coming competition from the Netherlands or Scotland.

Fact 11: Around 100 dartboards are used at a Darts World Cup

Almost 100 dartboards will be used at the World Cup due to the increased number of participants. By the way, at the 2018 World Cup there were 80 boards that were pierced by 38,555 darts. Basically, from the second round at the latest, the board is changed after each game in order to give the players the best possible conditions when throwing. A lot of wear and tear when you consider that amateur players use a board for several years.

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