2019 World Matchplay


The 2019 Betfred World Matchplay was the 26th annual staging of the World Matchplay, organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. The tournament took place at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, from 20–28 July 2019.
Gary Anderson was the defending champion, after defeating Mensur Suljović 21–19 after extra time in the longest final in the tournament's history. However, he lost 11–8 to Mervyn King in the second round.
Rob Cross won his first World Matchplay title with an 18–13 win over Michael Smith in the final. He also became just the fourth player in history to win both the PDC World Championship and the World Matchplay.

Prize money

The prize fund rose from £500,000 to £700,000, with the winner's earnings being up from £115,000 in 2018 to £150,000.

Format

In previous stagings of the event all games had to be won by two clear legs with no sudden-death legs. However, after consulting the host broadcaster Sky Sports in 2013, the PDC decided that games will now only proceed for a maximum of six extra legs before a tie-break leg is required. For example, in a first to 10 legs first round match, if the score reaches 12-12 then the 25th leg will be the decider.

Qualification

The top 16 players on the PDC Order of Merit as of 30 June 2019 were seeded for the tournament. The top 16 players on the ProTour Order of Merit, not to have already qualified on the cut-off date were unseeded.
The following players qualified for the tournament:

PDC Order of Merit

  1. Michael van Gerwen '
  2. Rob Cross
  3. Daryl Gurney '
  4. Gary Anderson '
  5. Michael Smith '
  6. Peter Wright '
  7. Gerwyn Price '
  8. James Wade '
  9. Mensur Suljović '
  10. Ian White '
  11. Simon Whitlock '
  12. Dave Chisnall '
  13. Nathan Aspinall '
  14. Jonny Clayton '
  15. Darren Webster '
  16. Adrian Lewis

    PDC ProTour Qualifiers

  17. Krzysztof Ratajski '
  18. Ricky Evans '
  19. Glen Durrant '
  20. Joe Cullen '
  21. Steve Beaton '
  22. Stephen Bunting '
  23. Jermaine Wattimena '
  24. Jamie Hughes '
  25. Jeffrey de Zwaan '
  26. Chris Dobey '
  27. Danny Noppert '
  28. Max Hopp '
  29. Mervyn King '
  30. John Henderson '
  31. Keegan Brown '
  32. Vincent van der Voort '

    Draw

Statistics