UK Open


The Ladbrokes UK Open is a ranking major darts tournament held annually at the Butlins Minehead Resort by the Professional Darts Corporation in England. Often referred to as the FA Cup of darts, the UK Open replicates the abolition of seedings, elimination play, and fixtures determined via open draw. One-hundred-and-sixty players compete in the multi-board event over eight-stages before the PDC’s Top 32 enter the tournament in the fourth round. The tournament has a prize fund of £450,000; the victors prize is £100,000.

History

From 2003 to 2013, the UK Open took place in June each year at the Reebok Stadium, in Bolton. In 2014, it moved to Butlin's Minehead taking place in early March. Phil Taylor beat Shayne Burgess in the inaugural final. Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld won the tournament in 2006, the first ever ranking tournament with the PDC in which he has played. He knocked out 13-times World Champion Phil Taylor 11–10 en route to the final where he beat Barrie Bates 13–7. He also successfully defended the title in 2007, again beating Taylor en route.
Taylor has achieved the perfect nine-dart finish four times. Mervyn King, Gary Anderson, Wes Newton, Michael van Gerwen and Jonny Clayton have also achieved a nine-dart leg. The tournament had a different runner-up for the first 13 years.
Because of extreme weather conditions and fears for the safety of visiting fans the unprecedented decision was taken by the host venue Butlins to play the entire 2018 UK Open behind closed doors leaving the public only being able to watch the event though ITV4’s live coverage and the PDC live web feed.

Format

Qualifying events for amateur players are organised by Rileys and held in various locations across the UK. 16 players qualify through these events.
The format is as follows :
  • First round: The 16 Rileys qualifiers, 8 Challenge Tour qualifiers, 8 Development Tour qualifiers and Tour Card holders ranked 97–128 in the PDC Order of Merit.
  • Second round: Players ranked 65–96 in the PDC Order of Merit join the 32 winners of the first round.
  • Third round: Players ranked 33–64 join the 32 winners of the second round.
  • Fourth round to final: Players ranked 1–32 in the PDC Order of Merit join the 32 winners of the third round.
The draws for the first three rounds are made in full after all qualifying players are known, while the draws for the fourth round onward are made separately on stage as soon as each preceding round has concluded.

UK Open Finals

Records and statistics

Total finalist appearances

  • Active players are shown in bold
  • Only players who reached the final are included
  • In the event of identical records, players are sorted in alphabetical order by family name

    Champions by country

Nine-dart finishes

Ten nine-darters have been thrown at the UK Open. The first one was in 2004, and nine of them have been televised. The one that wasn't was thrown by Wes Newton in 2013 against Adrian Lewis.
PlayerYear Method OpponentResult
Phil Taylor2004, 4th Round3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Matt Chapman8–2
Phil Taylor2005, Semi-Final3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Roland Scholten11–6
Phil Taylor2007, 5th Round3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Wes Newton11–5
Phil Taylor2008, 4th Round3 x T20; 2 x T20, T19; 2 x T20, D12 Jamie Harvey9–1
Mervyn King2010, 5th Round3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Gary Anderson8–9
Gary Anderson2012, 3rd Round3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Davey Dodds9–3
Michael van Gerwen2016, 4th Round3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Rob Cross9–5
Jonny Clayton2020, 6th Round3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Chris Dobey10–8
Michael van Gerwen2020, Semi-Finals3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Daryl Gurney11–3

High averages

Media coverage

From 2003 until 2013, coverage for the UK Open was shown on Sky Sports in June, but from 2014, the tournament was moved to March and shown on ITV4.

Sponsors

The inaugural event in 2003 was sponsored by Sky Bet. In 2004 Budweiser became the main sponsor. After Budweiser's three-year sponsorship ended in 2006, bookmakers Blue Square took over as title sponsor in 2007 until 2009. The 2010 event was sponsored by Rileys Darts Zones. From 2011 to 2013 it has been sponsored by Speedy Hire. In 2014 Coral took over sponsorship, it lasted until 2018, when its sister company, Ladbrokes took over for the 2019 tournament.
SponsorYears
Sky Bet2003
Budweiser2004–2006
Blue Square2007–2009
Rileys Darts Zones2010
Speedy Hire2011–2013
Coral2014–2018
Ladbrokes2019–present