Sporting Life
Michael van Gerwen recently hit a nine-darter at the Players Championship Finals (Picture: Lawrence Lustig)
Michael van Gerwen recently hit a nine-darter at the Players Championship Finals (Picture: Lawrence Lustig)

World Darts Championship: £100,000 bonus for a player who hits two nine-dart finishes at the Ally Pally

By Chris Hammer
Darts
Wed December 11, 2019 · 5y ago

A massive £100,000 bonus is up for grabs at the William Hill World Darts Championship if a player makes history and hits two nine-dart finishes at the Alexandra Palace.

There have been a record-breaking 47 perfect legs on the PDC circuit in 2019 - smashing the previous yearly best of 29 in 2015 and 2018 - but the only televised nine-darter was Michael van Gerwen's at the Players Championship Finals.

However, on that occasion van Gerwen bemoaned the fact there was no prize fund for such a feat and even suggested he should have "done a Ronnie O'Sullivan" and "gone for the single eight" deliberately as a kind of protest.

Snooker star O'Sullivan famously passed up a clear opportunity for a 147 break at the 2016 Welsh Open due to the paltry £10,000 prize money while at the recent UK Championship he played for the pink having potted 15 reds and 14 blacks previously, which courted more controversy.

Van Gerwen, who has hit 22 perfect legs in his a sensational career including six in front of live TV cameras, will be excited by this challenge thrown down by the PDC and there's no doubt he'll believe it's possible having once managed two nine-darters in one match - albeit in a floor event.

MVG also came agonisingly close to doing it in back-to-back legs at the World Championship of 2013 during his semi-final over James Wade.

Phil Taylor is the only player who has previously achieved two nine-darters in one televised event, with both coming in the 2010 Premier League final.

There have been nine perfect legs in PDC World Championship history although we had to wait until the 2009 World Championship before Dutch legend Raymond van Barneveld ended the drought - and then threw the tournament's second 12 months later.

There's been seven more since then but none by Taylor, who missed double 12 to do it in his last ever match during the 2018 final.

Adrian Lewis, like Barney, has achieved perfection in two different World Championships while MVG, Dean Winstanley, Terry Jenkins, Kyle Anderson and Gary Anderson are the other players who have achieved it at Alexandra Palace.

Click here to watch all of those nine-darters in one place

Only twice has a player earned a six-figure sum for perfect legs. Taylor pocketed exactly £100,000 at the 2002 World Matchplay, which dwarfed the total value of the 1002 bottles of Budweiser he won for hitting nine-darters in the 2004 and 2005 UK Opens (501 apiece!), but the most ever awarded was the £102,000 John Lowe received for the first ever televised back in 1984.

A massive £100,000 prize is on offer should any player achieve that feat over the next three weeks, with this year's event beginning on Friday December 13 and running through to the final on New Year's Day.

"The standard of top-level darts has continued to soar this year and that's been evident in the record number of nine-darters across the circuit," said PDC Chairman Barry Hearn ahead of the tournament which begins on Friday December 13 and ends on New Year's Day.

"The World Championship is the perfect stage for bringing the best out of players, and this £100,000 bonus for two nine-darters is another huge incentive for a player to make history at Ally Pally."

* Should two or more players break new ground by achieving two nine-dart finishes, the bonus would be shared on a pro-rata basis. For example, if two players were to each hit two nine-darters, at any stage during the event, they would receive £50,000 each. There is no additional bonus or priority given to players achieving three or more nine-darters, or for the order in which nine-darters are hit.

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