Location Frankfurt Format Legs Venue Eissporthalle Frankfurt | Established 2010 Country Germany Prize fund 250,000 GBP | |
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Organisation Professional Darts Corporation | ||
The PDC World Cup of Darts is a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation and was one of the three new tournaments being introduced into the PDC calendar in 2010. It is broadcast live by Sky Sports. Due to the rescheduling of the Players Championship Finals in the PDC calendar, the second edition was played in Hamburg, Germany in February 2012. In 2015, the event took place the Eissporthalle Frankfurt.
Contents
The competition succeeded the Jocky Wilson Cup; a one-off international match between England and Scotland held in Glasgow on 5 December 2009. England defeated Scotland by 6 points to 0.
Background
In October 2009, PDC chairman Barry Hearn announced his intention to buy the British Darts Organisation and inject £2 million into amateur darts, but the BDO decided not to accept the offer. In a statement, Hearn stated "The aim of our offer to the BDO was to unify the sport of darts and this remains our long-term objective despite the decision by the BDO County Associations" The Jocky Wilson Cup was held in December.
But following the BDO's rejection, the PDC went on to arrange three brand new tournaments for 2010 to help the development of youth and women's darts: the PDC Under-21 World Championship, the PDC Women's World Championship, and the PDC World Cup of Darts.
Format
The participating teams were the top 24 countries in the PDC Order of Merit at the end of October after the 2010 World Grand Prix. Each nation's top ranked player was then joined by the second highest player of that country. For seeding the average rank of both was used.
The top 8 nations automatically started in the second round (last 16). The other 16 nations played in the first round. Matches were best of 11 legs in doubles, and the losing team threw first in the next leg. The winners of the first round played the top eight ranked teams in the second round, also in best of 11 doubles.
The winners of the second round were drawn into two groups of four (A & B). Each team played each other once (three matches per team). Each match consisted of two singles and one doubles - all over best of five legs. 1 point was awarded for a singles win, and 2 points for a doubles win, with all points counting towards the overall league table. The top two teams in each group advanced to the semi-finals.
The semi-finals consisted of four singles games and one doubles game (if required) per match - all over best of 11 legs. Again, 1 point was awarded for a singles win, and 2 points for a doubles win. If the match score is 3-3 at the end of the games, then a sudden-death doubles leg would decide who goes through to the final.
The final was the same format as the semi-final, but each game was best of 15 legs.