The 2016 PDC World Darts Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2015/16 William Hill World Darts Championship) was the twenty-third 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 17 December 2015 to 3 January 2016.

Gary Anderson was the defending champion, having won his first world title in the 2015 final by beating 16-times champion Phil Taylor 7–6. He retained his title by beating Adrian Lewis 7–5. He also threw a nine-dart finish in his semi-final against Jelle Klaasen to add a bonus £15,000 to his winnings, and hit two maximum checkouts of 170 in the progress.

There were 654 maximums thrown during the event, beating the record of 625 from the previous year. 34 of these were produced in the final, which was the record for a professional match for a year until the 2017 World Darts Championship final produced 42.

Three-time world champion John Part was a notable absentee in this tournament, having failed to qualify for the first time since joining the PDC in 1997.

Format The tournament featured 72 players. The top 32 players on the PDC Order of Merit on 30 November 2015 (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 2015 PDC Pro Tour.

These 48 players were joined by two PDPA qualifiers (as determined at a PDPA Qualifying event held in Coventry on 30 November 2015), and 22 international players: the four highest names on the European Order of Merit not already qualified, and 18 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 entered straight into the first round, while others, having won qualifying events in their countries, were entered into the preliminary round.

Thanawat Gaweenuntawong became the first player from Thailand to play at a World Darts Championship.

Prize money The 2016 World Championship featured a prize fund of at least £1,500,000 – an increase of £250,000 from the 2015 tournament.

The prize money was allocated as follows:

Position (num. of players) Prize money(Total: £1,500,000)Winner (1) £300,000Runner-up (1) £150,000Semi-finalists (2) £70,000Quarter-finalists (4) £35,000Third round losers (8) £22,000Second round losers (16) £15,000First round losers (32) £10,000Preliminary round losers (8) £4,250Nine-dart finish (1) £15,000

Qualifiers

Order of Merit Michael van Gerwen Gary Anderson Phil Taylor Peter Wright Adrian Lewis Robert Thornton James Wade Michael Smith Ian White Simon Whitlock Terry Jenkins Kim Huybrechts Dave Chisnall Mervyn King Vincent van der Voort Raymond van Barneveld Stephen Bunting Brendan Dolan Jelle Klaasen Justin Pipe Mensur Suljović Mark Webster Jamie Caven Benito van de Pas Steve Beaton Wes Newton Andy Hamilton Andrew Gilding Dean Winstanley Kevin Painter Jamie Lewis John Henderson

Pro Tour Alan Norris Gerwyn Price Joe Murnan Daryl Gurney Keegan Brown Max Hopp Rowby-John Rodriguez Christian Kist Cristo Reyes David Pallett Ronny Huybrechts Dirk van Duijvenbode Jeffrey de Zwaan Kyle Anderson Joe Cullen Darren Webster

European Pro Tour

Jan Dekker Jyhan Artut Jermaine Wattimena

PDPA QualifierFirst round qualifier Ricky Evans

Preliminary round qualifier Andy Boulton

International qualifiers First round qualifiers Koha Kokiri Laurence Ryder Darin Young Preliminary round qualifiers René Eidams

Sven Groen Per Laursen Paul Lim Mick McGowan John Michael Keita Ono

Michael Rasztovits Warrick Scheffer Sun Qiang Rob Szabo Alex Tagarao Kim Viljanen

Results

Preliminary round The format in the preliminary round was extended from a best-of-seven legs to a best-of-three sets format. One match was played in the first eight sessions with the winners playing their first-round matches at the end of the session.

Player Score Player Av. 83.03 2–1 79.27 64.73 0–2 74.19 63.64 0–2 69.25 87.69 2–1 84.11 91.79 2–0 77.40 78.83 0–2 78.34 89.33 2–1 88.26 77.12 0–2 88.01

Main draw

Finals

Rounds 1–4

Final

Final: Best of 13 sets. Referee: George Noble. Alexandra Palace, London, England, 3 January 2016. (5) Adrian Lewis 5 – 7 Gary Anderson (2) 3 – 1, 0 – 3, 1 – 3, 3 – 2, 3 – 2, 1 – 3, 1 – 3, 0 – 3, 3 – 0, 0 – 3, 3 – 0, 1 – 3 100.23 Average (3 darts) 99.26 19 180 scores 15 131 Highest checkout 170 38% (19/50) Checkout summary 43% (26/60)

Statistics

Player Eliminated Played Sets Won Sets Lost Legs Won Legs Lost Leg Breaks 100+ 140+ 170+ 180s High checkout Checkout Av.% Average Winner 6 170 42.15 102.07 Adrian Lewis Runner-up 6 164 45.95 100.67 Raymond van Barneveld Semi-finals 5 2 161 38.56 96.46 Jelle Klaasen Semi-finals 5 5 170 42.36 99.49 Peter Wright Quarter-finals 4 1 131 40.16 100.45 Michael Smith Quarter-finals 4 4 140 43.65 98.70 James Wade Quarter-finals 4 1 141 43.48 92.64 Alan Norris Quarter-finals 4 0 123 43.97 96.36 Phil Taylor Third round 3 1 170 37.11 97.11 Mark Webster Third round 3 1 130 36.14 93.00 Dave Chisnall Third round 3 0 160 42.39 101.49 Michael van Gerwen Third round 3 7 170 52.05 104.68 Mensur Suljović Third round 3 2 160 37.66 94.80 Vincent van der Voort Third round 3 0 134 37.68 95.32 Jamie Caven Third round 3 1 127 41.67 92.22 Benito van de Pas Third round 3 5 148 33.70 88.76 Mervyn King Second round 2 0 122 31.94 93.28 Kevin Painter Second round 2 1 110 38.64 92.81 Andrew Gilding Second round 2 0 132 47.83 86.81 Ronny Huybrechts Second round 2 0 164 40.00 91.61 David Pallett Second round 2 0 132 31.76 91.82 Terry Jenkins Second round 2 0 121 35.71 90.86 Joe Murnan Second round 2 0 112 32.43 88.32 Darren Webster Second round 2 0 116 34.38 91.37 Wes Newton Second round 2 0 161 33.33 81.35 Stephen Bunting Second round 2 0 88 40.35 92.45 Kyle Anderson Second round 2 0 128 27.94 91.44 Dimitri Van den Bergh Second round 2 4 122 41.18 93.87 Steve Beaton Second round 2 0 164 40.48 93.92 Daryl Gurney Second round 2 0 76 35.09 95.08 Christian Kist Second round 2 1 116 36.36 94.94 Ricky Evans Second round 2 0 130 44.44 88.22 Robert Thornton First round 1 0 121 33.33 88.66 Ian White First round 1 0 81 35.29 92.43 Simon Whitlock First round 1 0 121 28.57 92.85 Kim Huybrechts First round 1 0 106 32.00 92.66 Brendan Dolan First round 1 0 126 22.73 87.19 Justin Pipe First round 1 0 104 50.00 75.55 Andy Hamilton First round 1 0 73 34.21 86.75 Dean Winstanley First round 1 0 120 32.35 88.00 Jamie Lewis First round 1 0 78 46.15 90.34 John Henderson First round 1 0 80 46.15 81.06 Gerwyn Price First round 1 0 54 23.08 83.86 Keegan Brown First round 1 0 72 25.00 83.61 Rowby-John Rodriguez First round 1 1 170 35.29 89.37 Max Hopp First round 1 0 81 25.00 89.49 Cristo Reyes First round 1 0 105 26.92 87.05 Joe Cullen First round 1 0 40 33.33 93.86 Jyhan Artut First round 1 0 76 16.67 81.08 Dirk van Duijvenbode First round 1 0 110 50.00 79.77 Jeffrey de Zwaan First round 1 0 128 30.77 96.20 Andy Boulton First round 2 0 83 27.03 84.17 Jan Dekker First round 1 0 114 83.33 89.68 Jermaine Wattimena First round 1 0 70 66.67 87.10 Darin Young First round 1 0 100 53.33 83.49 John Michael First round 2 0 161 28.57 86.14 Mick McGowan First round 2 0 80 36.36 80.04 Kim Viljanen First round 2 0 92 52.63 84.16 Koha Kokiri First round 1 0 80 22.73 93.22 Laurence Ryder First round 1 0 86 50.00 81.37 Rob Szabo First round 2 0 70 34.78 82.42 René Eidams First round 2 0 122 31.82 79.87 Keita Ono First round 2 0 86 46.67 87.64 Aleksandr Oreshkin First round 2 0 134 40.54 87.74 Per Laursen Prelim. Round 1 0 80 37.50 79.27 Sven Groen Prelim. Round 1 0 110 33.33 84.11 Michael Rasztovits Prelim. Round 1 0 121 23.53 78.83 Paul Lim Prelim. Round 1 0 117 28.57 88.26 Sun Qiang Prelim. Round 1 0 48 11.11 64.73 Alex Tagarao Prelim. Round 1 0 24 25.00 77.40 Warrick Scheffer Prelim. Round 1 0 10 7.69 77.12 Prelim. Round 1 0 58 12.00 63.64

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 BEL WAL AUT GER NIR NZL SPA THA GRE RSA RUS USA JPN FIN PHI DEN SIN CHN IRE Total Final 1 – 1 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 2 Semis 1 2 1 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 4 Quarters 4 2 2 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 8 Round 3 7 5 2 – – 1 1 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 16 Round 2 18 6 2 1 2 1 1 – 1 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 32 Round 1 25 10 4 3 3 3 2 3 2 2 1 – 1 – 1 1 1 1 – – – – 1 64 Prelim. 1 1 – – – – 1 1 – 1 – 1 1 1 1 – 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 16 Total 25 11 4 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 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 Darts † Netherlands RTL 7 Germany Sport1/Sport1+ Denmark TV3 Sport1/TV3 Sport2 Australia Italy Fox Sports New Zealand Sky Sport (New Zealand) Czech Republic Slovakia Hungary Nova Sport 2 OSN United States ESPN 3 BulgariaScandinaviaBaltic states Viasat Belgium Eleven Sport Network

† Sky Sports F1 was renamed as Sky Sports Darts for the duration of the tournament.

References

External links Official site Netzone, Schedule, Results