The Darts World Cup is a unique tournament as it is a team darts competition. The unique format of the Darts World Cup includes doubles play, including the first round of doubles. Thirty-two teams from 32 countries compete in the World Championship, with the tournament starting with a double match up to the best of 9 legs. England and the Netherlands have been the dominant forces in the Darts World Cup, winning tournaments in eight of the nine World Cup editions. Scotland is the only country to have won the World Cup on behalf of Scotland, having won three final matches.
World No. 3 Gervin Price has been the winner of the Belgian Darts Championship in recent years, and lately, he has also won the Players Championship and the World Grand Prix. Rob Cross didn’t have a brilliant year, was kicked out of the Premier League early, but had little to no impact in the Majors.
Michael Smith recently reached the semi-finals of the International Darts Open, but he lost to eventual champion Joe Cullen. Beating champion Gwen Price 5-4 in the thriller and then James Wade in the semi-finals, bully boy Michael Smith became the bookmaker’s favourite to win his first World Darts Championship.
At the end of the 2021 tournament, only four players played in all 11 Darts World Cup editions. This is the first year the tournament has been held since the collapse of the British Darts Organization in September 2020. The BDO World Championship took place in London in 2020.
In three brand new tournaments in 2012, participating teams were ranked among the top 24 nations of the Order of Merit by the Professional Darts Corporation after the 2010 World Grand Prix. First-round winners played the top 8 nations in the second round, even the best of 11 duplicates. The second round consisted of two singles and one double – the best of seven matches in dollars and nine in doubles. The game was the best of 11 doubles rounds, with the losing team taking the lead in the next round. Each match consists of four singles and one double in the quarter-finals, with the best of seven games.
Darts is not popular as football, NFL, Basketball and Cricket but there are selected fans for the sports who are willing to come and watch the players play the sport. Dart is a unique game that requires high concentration to be good at it. Planning the World Championship helps them gain more viewers every year, and as of now, 32 countries participate in the tournament. It is pretty recognised globally, and many Darts players are aged more than 30, which is why they cannot attract the young crowd.
