The 2015 PDC World Darts Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2014/15 William Hill World Darts Championship) was the twenty-second World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event was held at the Alexandra Palace, London from 18 December 2014 to 4 January 2015.

Michael van Gerwen was the defending champion, having won his first World Championship title in 2014, but he lost 6–3 to Gary Anderson in the semi-finals. Anderson won the title by beating 16-time World Champion Phil Taylor 7–6 in the final. Taylor became the first player in PDC World Championship history to reach the PDC World Championship final, achieve a tournament 3-dart average of over 100, and yet not win the title.

Adrian Lewis threw the event's only nine-dart finish in his third round match with Raymond van Barneveld. John Michael and Boris Koltsov became the first players from Greece and Russia respectively to play in the first round of a PDC World Championship. Cristo Reyes became the first Spanish player to reach the last 16 in the history of the event.

Format and qualifiers The tournament featured 72 players. The top 32 players on the PDC Order of Merit on 2 December 2014 (after the Players Championship Finals) were seeded for the tournament. They were joined by the 16 highest non-qualified players from the Pro Tour Order of Merit, based on the events played on the 2014 PDC Pro Tour.

These 48 players were joined by two PDPA qualifiers (as determined at a PDPA Qualifying event held in Coventry on 1 December 2014), the highest ranked non-qualified player on the PDC Challenge Tour Order of Merit, and 21 international players: the four highest names on the European Order of Merit not already qualified, and 17 further international qualifiers determined by the PDC and PDPA. Some of the international players, such as the four from the European Order of Merit, and the top American and Australian players were entered straight into the first round, while others, having won qualifying events in their countries, were entered into the preliminary round.

The field was set on 1 December 2014. John Michael became the first Greek player to play in the PDC World Championship.

Qualifiers

Order of Merit Michael van Gerwen Phil Taylor Adrian Lewis Gary Anderson Peter Wright James Wade Simon Whitlock Dave Chisnall Robert Thornton Mervyn King Brendan Dolan Andy Hamilton Wes Newton

Ian White Terry Jenkins Justin Pipe Kim Huybrechts Jamie Caven Kevin Painter Steve Beaton Michael Smith

Ronnie Baxter Paul Nicholson Dean Winstanley Stephen Bunting Andy Smith Jelle Klaasen John Part Mark Webster Stuart Kellett

Pro Tour Andrew Gilding Darren Webster Benito van de Pas Christian Kist Jamie Lewis Ronny Huybrechts Wayne Jones Gerwyn Price John Henderson Keegan Brown David Pallett Joe Cullen Kyle Anderson Jyhan Artut Mickey Mansell

European Order of MeritFirst round qualifiers Mensur Suljović

Max Hopp Ryan de Vreede

PDPA QualifierFirst round qualifier Jason Hogg

Preliminary round qualifier Scott MacKenzie

International QualifiersFirst round qualifiers Dave Richardson Laurence Ryder John Weber Preliminary round qualifiers Nolan Arendse Daryl Gurney Jani Haavisto Alex Hon Scott Kirchner Boris Koltsov Robert Marijanović Mark McGrath John Michael Haruki Muramatsu Ian Perez Cristo Reyes Sascha Stein Kim Viljanen

1 Jarkko Komula, who finished second in the Scandinavian Order of Merit, was ineligible to play due to a suspension from the Finnish Darts Organisation. Kim Viljanen, who finished third, therefore replaced Komula.

2 Ryan de Vreede qualified after Richie Burnett was removed from the field after a positive drug test, despite the fact that it was recreational rather than performance-enhancing. As a result, Stuart Kellett moved into the top 32 seeds and Rowby-John Rodriguez qualified through the Pro Tour instead of the European Tour.

Prize money The 2015 World Championship featured a prize fund of at least £1,250,000 - an increase of £200,000 from the 2014 tournament.

The prize money is allocated as follows:

Position (num. of players) Prize money(Total: £1,250,000)Winner (1) £250,000Runner-Up (1) £120,000Semi-finalists (2) £60,000Quarter-finalists (4) £35,000Third round losers (8) £18,000Second round losers (16) £12,000First round losers (32) £8,000Preliminary round losers (8) £3,500Nine-dart finish (1) £10,000

Results

Preliminary round The preliminary round was played in a first to four legs format. One match was played per session with the winners playing their first round matches later on the same day. The draw was held on 30 November 2014, two days before the main draw. Gurney achieved the highest average in the history of the Preliminary round. Player Score Player Av. 89.90 Christian Perez 0–4 Cristo Reyes 93.94 67.11 Kim Viljanen 1–4 Sascha Stein 91.30 93.76 Scott MacKenzie 3–4 Daryl Gurney 96.11 65.09 Mark McGrath 0–4 Scott Kirchner 83.50 79.27 Boris Koltsov 4–2 Haruki Muramatsu 75.69 83.77 Jani Haavisto 1–4 John Michael 94.82 84.68 Nolan Arendse 4–0 Alex Hon 79.22 82.77 Jermaine Wattimena 3–4 Robert Marijanović 76.36

Main draw

Finals

Rounds 1–4

Final

Final: Best of 13 sets. Referees: George Noble (first half) and Russ Bray (second half).Alexandra Palace, London, England, 4 January 2015. (4) Gary Anderson 7 – 6 Phil Taylor (2) 3 – 2, 2 – 3, 3 – 1, 3 – 1, 0 – 3, 0 – 3, 1 – 3, 3 – 2, 3 – 2, 3 – 1, 0 – 3, 2 – 3, 3 – 0 97.68 Average (3 darts) 100.69 19 180 scores 13 121 Highest checkout 141 39.39% (26/66) Checkout summary 32.93% (27/82)

Statistics Player Eliminated Played Sets Won Sets Lost Legs Won Legs Lost 100+ 140+ 180s High checkout Checkout Av.% Average Gary Anderson Winner 6 126 40 99.29 Phil Taylor Runner-up 6 141 41.42 101.36 Michael van Gerwen Semi-finals 5 170 42.37 100.61 Semi-finals 5 170 41.42 96.67 Peter Wright Quarter-finals 4 144 46.88 98.15 Robert Thornton Quarter-finals 4 156 39.17 97.36 Stephen Bunting Quarter-finals 4 161 40.46 96.07 Vincent van der Voort Quarter-finals 4 157 42.28 94.50 Adrian Lewis Third round 3 157 35.40 99.95 Michael Smith Third round 3 170 39.77 99.72 Terry Jenkins Third round 3 164 48.48 97.37 Kim Huybrechts Third round 3 146 34.95 96.69 Cristo Reyes Third round 4 142 43.33 93.47 Dean Winstanley Third round 3 136 40.59 92.57 Andy Hamilton Third round 3 116 41.67 90.70 Benito van de Pas Third round 3 127 31.82 89.02 Jelle Klaasen Second round 2 127 30.99 98.85 James Wade Second round 2 96 35.19 94.04 Darren Webster Second round 2 136 47.83 93.92 Brendan Dolan Second round 2 128 35.42 91.54 Max Hopp Second round 2 161 31.15 91.09 Keegan Brown Second round 2 124 37.68 90.58 Ian White Second round 2 113 35.82 90.33 Kevin Painter Second round 2 141 41.38 89.90 Dave Chisnall Second round 2 116 37.50 89.58 Ronnie Baxter Second round 2 106 31.91 89.56 Kyle Anderson Second round 2 156 35.19 88.48 Jamie Caven Second round 2 127 32.50 87.92 Ronny Huybrechts Second round 2 104 41.03 87.64 Mark Webster Second round 2 125 23.64 87.50 Sascha Stein Second round 3 120 34.92 84.77 Laurence Ryder Second round 2 101 30.30 85.14 Mensur Suljović First round 1 120 60.00 98.91 Wes Newton First round 1 130 34.21 94.61 Wayne Jones First round 1 68 40.00 94.01 Gerwyn Price First round 1 40 41.67 93.90 Christian Kist First round 1 136 46.67 93.63 Joe Cullen First round 1 161 47.37 93.14 Daryl Gurney First round 2 108 42.31 92.45 Andrew Gilding First round 1 56 20.00 92.00 Mervyn King First round 1 120 39.39 90.67 David Pallett First round 1 161 37.50 90.05 John Henderson First round 1 101 27.27 89.13 John Michael First round 2 120 52.63 87.92 Jamie Lewis First round 1 141 45.45 87.75 Michael Mansell First round 1 101 33.33 87.65 Jyhan Artut First round 1 95 33.33 87.47 Simon Whitlock First round 1 40 16.67 87.29 Andy SmithFirst round 1 75 14.29 86.66 Justin Pipe First round 1 116 29.17 86.28 Dave Richardson First round 1 96 35.29 86.04 Paul Nicholson First round 1 116 26.67 85.49 Scott Kirchner First round 2 124 31.58 84.86 John Part First round 1 115 31.58 84.78 Nolan Arendse First round 2 60 28.57 84.27 Jason Hogg First round 1 76 29.63 83.85 Steve Beaton First round 1 36 30.00 82.24 Robert Marijanović First round 2 52 25.93 81.59 John Weber First round 1 128 50.00 79.86 Rowby-John Rodriguez First round 1 40 18.18 79.22 Boris Koltsov First round 2 60 36.84 78.71 Ron Meulenkamp First round 1 60 18.92 77.78 Ryan de Vreede First round 1 56 27.27 75.24 Stuart Kellett First round 1 108 41.18 73.08 Scott MacKenzie 1 81 42.86 93.76 Christian Perez Preliminary round 1 – 0.00 89.90 Jani Haavisto Preliminary round 1 48 50.00 83.77 Jermaine Wattimena Preliminary round 1 64 20.00 82.77 Alex Hon Preliminary round 1 – 0.00 79.22 Haruki Muramatsu Preliminary round 1 56 20.00 75.69 Kim Viljanen Preliminary round 1 18 33.33 67.11 Mark McGrath Preliminary round 1 – 0.00 65.09

Representation from different countries This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the preliminary round.

ENG NED SCO AUS GER WAL NIR BEL AUT CAN FIN HKG SPA CRO GRE RSA RUS USA JPN NZL PHI Total Final 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 Semis 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 Quarters 2 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 Round 3 7 4 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 16 Round 2 15 5 3 2 2 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 32 Round 1 25 8 5 5 3 3 3 2 2 2 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 64 Prelim. 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 16 Total 25 9 5 5 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 72

Broadcasting

The tournament was available in the following countries on these channels:

CountryChannel United Kingdom Ireland Sky Sports † Netherlands RTL 7 Germany Sport1/Sport1+ Denmark TV3 Sport1/TV3 Sport2 Australia Italy Fox Sports New Zealand Sky Sport (New Zealand) Romania Sport TV Czech Republic Slovakia Hungary Sport TV (Sport 1 and Sport2) OSN BulgariaScandinaviaBaltic states Viasat

† Sky Sports 3 was renamed as Sky Sports Darts for the duration of the tournament. The channel's coverage of the event was later named the Best Sports of Live Event Coverage at the Broadcast Digital Awards.

Exhibition The event also included a single-leg exhibition between two England cricket teammates – fast bowler James Anderson and opening batsman and Test captain Alastair Cook.Alastair Cook v James Anderson - World Darts Championship, Alexandra Palace England and Wales Cricket Board on YouTube (originally broadcast by Sky Sports)

Player Score Player Av. 40.42 James Anderson 0–1 Alastair Cook 41.75

References

External links Official site PDC Netzone - Results, schedule