2017 PDC World Darts Championship


The 2017 William Hill World Darts Championship was the 24th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event took place at Alexandra Palace in London from 15 December 2016 to 2 January 2017.
Phil Taylor made a 28th successive appearance at a World Championship, equalling the record of John Lowe.
For the first time in the history of the World Darts Championship, no Englishman progressed to the semi-finals. It was also the first time since 2009 that the final was contested by the top 2 seeds.
Michael van Gerwen set a new record for the highest World Darts Championship 3-dart average in his semi-final victory over Raymond van Barneveld, breaking a 15-year record that had been held by Phil Taylor since 2002 ; Van Barneveld himself set a new record for the highest losing 3-dart average in the same tie, just 5 days after Cristo Reyes had broken the record in his second round match, also against Van Gerwen.
Van Gerwen won his second World Championship title by defeating two-times defending champion Gary Anderson 7–3 in the final.

Format

The field consisted of 72 players, including 16 in a Preliminary Round. Therefore, 64 players were entered into Round 1. The schedule was announced on 15 July 2016.
The 72 players consist of:
The draw was made on 28 November live on Sky Sports News. The preliminary round draw was made the previous night.
Order of Merit
Pro Tour
  1. James Wilson
  2. Steve West
  3. Chris Dobey
  4. Robbie Green
  5. Josh Payne
  6. Jermaine Wattimena
  7. Ronny Huybrechts
  8. Joe Murnan
  9. Darren Webster
  10. Devon Petersen
  11. Christian Kist
  12. Jonny Clayton
  13. Ricky Evans
  14. Andrew Gilding
  15. Kevin Painter
European Pro Tour
  1. Jeffrey de Graaf
  2. Max Hopp
  3. Ron Meulenkamp
PDPA Qualifier
First Round Qualifier
Preliminary Round Qualifiers
International Qualifiers
First Round Qualifiers
Preliminary Round Qualifiers
The prize money was £1,650,000 in total. The winner's prize money was increased from £300,000 to £350,000. Prize money for a nine-dart finish was originally set at £5,000, but the PDC increased it to £25,000 due to 'the stature of the tournament', though none were thrown.

Preliminary round

Best of three sets.
PlayerScorePlayer
86.63Jerry Hendriks 2 – 0 Warren Parry85.42
83.44Tengku Shah 2 – 1 Masumi Chino80.18
76.40Ross Snook 0 – 2 Kim Viljanen83.57
76.05Kevin Simm 2 – 0 Gilbert Ulang73.00
88.96John Bowles 0 – 2 David Platt86.92
68.04Sun Qiang 0 – 2 Corey Cadby102.48
76.51Boris Koltsov 1 – 2 Dragutin Horvat75.58
90.35Zoran Lerchbacher 2 – 1 Simon Stevenson85.44

Main draw

Final

Statistics

PlayerEliminatedPlayedSets WonSets LostLegs WonLegs LostLeg Breaks100+140+170+180sHigh CheckoutCheckout Av.%Average
Michael van GerwenWinner617042.74106.32
Gary AndersonRunner-up615740.97103.45
Semi Finals516742.95100.62
Peter WrightSemi Finals514446.26102.45
Daryl GurneyQuarter Finals416134.2395.76
Phil TaylorQuarter Finals416739.3997.92
Dave ChisnallQuarter Finals413039.8697.53
James WadeQuarter Finals415549.0496.59
Darren WebsterThird Round315741.1899.43
Mark WebsterThird Round312931.7189.89
Adrian LewisThird Round316144.7497.98
Kim HuybrechtsThird Round313847.0695.09
Benito van de PasThird Round314345.7896.42
Jelle KlaasenThird Round314050.7992.57
Michael SmithThird Round314332.3195.04
Ian WhiteThird Round313050.9191.99
Cristo Reyes213060.53100.81
Simon WhitlockSecond Round217038.4699.10
Mensur SuljovićSecond Round212027.6389.87
Robert ThorntonSecond Round212427.5489.65
Joe CullenSecond Round211737.8491.81
Alan NorrisSecond Round26426.5394.32
Kevin PainterSecond Round212431.1187.83
Max HoppSecond Round210241.6791.08
Andrew GildingSecond Round214344.1988.58
Terry JenkinsSecond Round214039.1394.18
Chris DobeySecond Round211242.8690.71
Brendan DolanSecond Round214251.6194.23
Steve BeatonSecond Round212435.5693.15
Mervyn KingSecond Round214836.1490.55
Jamie LewisSecond Round211043.3391.22
Jonny ClaytonSecond Round212030.6588.13
Kim ViljanenFirst Round212041.1882.54
Dimitri Van den BerghFirst Round19840.0099.11
Stephen BuntingFirst Round111837.9391.02
Dragutin HorvatFirst Round210120.5181.88
Ron MeulenkampFirst Round111633.3388.56
Joe MurnanFirst Round17036.3688.84
Zoran LerchbacherFirst Round27527.9186.08
Jermaine WattimenaFirst Round19029.4191.90
Magnus CarisFirst Round16028.5780.64
Corey CadbyFirst Round215260.87100.55
Robbie GreenFirst Round18628.5790.08
John MichaelFirst Round114157.8986.05
David PlattFirst Round215638.1086.93
Jamie CavenFirst Round16027.2781.51
James WilsonFirst Round14025.0094.69
Vincent van der VoortFirst Round19020.0088.79
Mark FrostFirst Round17325.0073.74
John HendersonFirst Round112150.0088.19
Tengku ShahFirst Round210129.5585.65
Josh PayneFirst Round17537.5088.94
Rowby-John RodriguezFirst Round18534.7894.90
Justin PipeFirst Round17820.5985.94
Jeffrey de GraafFirst Round112738.1089.79
Christian KistFirst Round110533.3388.67
Ronny HuybrechtsFirst Round16950.0087.72
Devon PetersenFirst Round110033.3379.29
Ricky EvansFirst Round112034.7893.20
Steve WestFirst Round110937.1486.66
Jerry HendriksFirst Round215640.0086.59
Mick McGowanFirst Round19536.8487.01
Kevin SimmFirst Round210026.1979.11
Gerwyn PriceFirst Round15326.9286.89
Warren ParryPrelim. Round110233.3385.42
Masumi ChinoPrelim. Round111726.3280.18
Ross SnookPrelim. Round13825.0076.40
Gilbert UlangPrelim. Round15628.5773.00
John BowlesPrelim. Round111028.5788.96
Sun QiangPrelim. Round100/068.04
Boris KoltsovPrelim. Round19740.0076.51
Simon StevensonPrelim. Round17629.4185.44

Top averages

This table shows the highest averages achieved by players throughout the tournament.
* The highest average in the history of the PDC World Championship.
** The highest losing average in the history of the PDC World Championship.
*** The highest losing average in the final of a PDC World Championship.

Representation from different countries

This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the preliminary round. Twenty-two countries were represented in the World Championship, one less than in the previous championship.

Media coverage

The tournament was available in the following countries on these channels:
CountryChannel
United Kingdom
Ireland
Sky Sports Darts
NetherlandsRTL7
RTL7 Darts Radio
GermanySport 1 and DAZN
DenmarkTV3 Sport1/TV3 Sport2
NorwayViasport 3
Baltic StatesViasat Sport
Australia
Greece
Turkey
Cyprus
Malta
Israel
Italy
Fox Sports
New ZealandSky Sport
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Bulgaria
Nova Sport
HungarySport1 or Sport2
United States
Brazil
ESPN 3/WatchESPN
BelgiumEleven Sport Network
MENAOSN Sports
Sub-Saharan AfricaKwesé Sports 1 or 2
ChinaCCTV5+

Sky Sports F1 was renamed as Sky Sports Darts for the duration of the tournament.