Masters (darts)

The Masters
The Masters
Tournament information
Venue	Marshall Arena
Location	Milton Keynes
Country	Scotland (2013–2014); England (since 2015)
Established	2013
Organisation(s)	PDC
Format	Legs (2013–2024),; Sets (2025–)
Prize fund	£400,000 (2025)
Month(s) Played	November (2013–14); January/February (2015–present)
Current champion(s)
	Stephen Bunting

The Masters (also known as the Winmau World Masters for sponsorship purposes) is a PDC darts tournament which features the top 24 darts players according to the PDC Order of Merit.

History

The inaugural tournament, held in 2013, was won by Phil Taylor, who defeated Adrian Lewis 10–1 in the final.^[1] James Wade won the following year by defeating Mervyn King 11–10 in the 2014 final.^[2] Michael van Gerwen became the third different champion in 3 years when he defeated Raymond van Barneveld 11–6.^[3]

In 2013 and 2014, the tournament took place in the Royal Highland Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland and was played in early November. However, the tournament was moved to early February in 2015 and had a new venue at the Arena MK (renamed Marshall Arena in 2019) in Milton Keynes, England. The tournament has been held in late January/early February ever since.

Format

From 2013 to 2020, the tournament featured the top 16 of the Order of Merit, in a fixed draw (1 plays 16, 2 plays 15 and so on). The first round and the quarter-finals are played over best of 19 legs, the semi-finals and the final are played over best of 21 legs.^[4]

For the 2021 tournament, the participants increased from the Top 16 to the Top 24, with the Top 8 automatically going to the second round and the players seeded 9 to 24 playing in the best of 11 legs first round.

Masters finals

Year	Champion (average in final)	Score	Runner-up (average in final)	Prize money			Sponsor	Venue
Year	Champion (average in final)	Score	Runner-up (average in final)	Total	Champion	Runner-up	Sponsor	Venue
2013	Phil Taylor (108.50)	10–1	Adrian Lewis (100.03)	£160,000	£50,000	£20,000	Coral	Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh
2014	James Wade (91.39)	11–10	Mervyn King (92.15)	£160,000	£50,000	£20,000	Unibet	Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh
2015	Michael van Gerwen (112.49)	11–6	Raymond van Barneveld (96.13)	£200,000	£60,000	£25,000		Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes (known as Arena MK until 2018)
2016	Michael van Gerwen (98.94)	11–6	Dave Chisnall (96.71)
2017	Michael van Gerwen (109.42)	11–7	Gary Anderson (103.58)
2018	Michael van Gerwen (105.85)	11–9	Raymond van Barneveld (100.55)
2019	Michael van Gerwen (99.82)	11–5	James Wade (87.44)				BetVictor
2020	Peter Wright (95.01)	11–10	Michael Smith (89.71)				Ladbrokes
2021	Jonny Clayton (104.10)	11–8	Mervyn King (94.95)	£220,000
2022	Joe Cullen (96.89)	11–9	Dave Chisnall (90.23)	£220,000
2023	Chris Dobey (94.05)	11–7	Rob Cross (90.20)	£275,000	£65,000	£30,000	Cazoo
2024	Stephen Bunting (102.50)	11–7	Michael van Gerwen (98.27)	£275,000	£65,000	£30,000	Cazoo

Records and statistics

As of 2023, Michael van Gerwen, James Wade, Peter Wright and Dave Chisnall are the only players to appear in all 11 editions of the Masters.

As of 29 January 2023.

Total finalist appearances

Rank	Player	Nationality	Won	Runner-up	Finals	Appearances
1	Michael van Gerwen	Netherlands	5	1	6	11
2	James Wade	England	1	1	2	11
3	Stephen Bunting	England	1	0	1	6
	Jonny Clayton	Wales	1	0	1	5
	Joe Cullen	England	1	0	1	5
	Chris Dobey	England	1	0	1	2
	Phil Taylor	England	1	0	1	5
	Peter Wright	Scotland	1	0	1	11
9	Dave Chisnall	England	0	2	2	11
	Mervyn King	England	0	2	2	5
	Raymond van Barneveld	Netherlands	0	2	2	6
12	Gary Anderson	Scotland	0	1	1	9
	Rob Cross	England	0	1	1	6
	Adrian Lewis	England	0	1	1	8
	Michael Smith	England	0	1	1	8

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

Country	Players	Total	First title	Last title
Netherlands	1	5	2015	2019
England	5	5	2013	2024
Scotland	1	1	2020	2020
Wales	1	1	2021	2021

High averages

Masters highest one-match averages
Average	Player	Year (+ round)	Opponent	Result
112.49	Michael van Gerwen	2015, final	Raymond van Barneveld	11–6
112.32	Rob Cross	2023, second round	Gary Anderson	10–6
112.20	Michael van Gerwen	2016, first round	Stephen Bunting	10–1
111.17	Gary Anderson	2023, second round	Rob Cross	6–10
111.14	Michael van Gerwen	2018, quarter-final	James Wade	10–2
110.28	Michael van Gerwen	2015, quarter-final	Dave Chisnall	10–9
110.05	Phil Taylor	2014, first round	Wes Newton	10–4
109.74	Gary Anderson	2017, first round	Benito van de Pas	10–3
109.42	Michael van Gerwen	2017, final	Gary Anderson	11–7
109.28	Phil Taylor	2013, quarter-final	Wes Newton	8–2

Masters highest one-match losing averages
Average	Player	Year (+ round)	Opponent	Result
111.17	Gary Anderson	2023, second round	Rob Cross	6–10
108.09	Dave Chisnall	2015, quarter-final	Michael van Gerwen	9–10
106.95	Adrian Lewis	2014, quarter-final	James Wade	6–10
106.48	Dave Chisnall	2018, first round	Raymond van Barneveld	9–10
106.43	Kim Huybrechts	2013, first round	Adrian Lewis	5–6

Different players with a 100+ match average (Updated 04/02/24)
Player	Total	Highest Av.	Year (+ round)
Michael van Gerwen	20	112.49	2015, final
Phil Taylor	10	110.05	2014, first round
Gary Anderson	8	111.17	2023, second round
Peter Wright	7	104.72	2021, quarter-finals
Dave Chisnall	6	109.26	2024, first round
Jonny Clayton	6	105.41	2021, quarter-finals
Raymond van Barneveld	6	103.51	2018, quarter-finals
Adrian Lewis	5	107.93	2013, quarter-finals
Michael Smith	5	105.49	2022, second round
Mensur Suljović	4	106.12	2019, first round
Joe Cullen	3	106.30	2022, second round
James Wade	3	105.56	2014, semi-finals
Stephen Bunting	3	102.50	2024, final
Mervyn King	3	101.97	2021, first round
Rob Cross	2	112.32	2023, second round
Simon Whitlock	2	105.90	2021, second round
Gerwyn Price	2	105.60	2021, quarter-finals
Damon Heta	2	102.96	2024, second round
Kim Huybrechts	1	106.43	2013, first round
Dimitri Van den Bergh	1	105.31	2022, first round
Martin Schindler	1	103.85	2024, first round
Ian White	1	101.78	2022, first round
José de Sousa	1	101.29	2021, first round
Justin Pipe	1	100.40	2014, first round
Vincent van der Voort	1	100.14	2016, first round

Media coverage

The Masters is broadcast by ITV4 in the United Kingdom and Viaplay in the Netherlands.^[5]

References

^ "2013 PDC The Masters". Mastercaller.nl. Archived from the original on 4 February 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
^ "2014 PDC The Masters". Mastercaller.nl. Archived from the original on 4 February 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
^ "2015 PDC The Masters". Mastercaller.nl. Archived from the original on 4 February 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
^ "Toernooicenter The Unibet Masters 2016". RTL 7 Darts.
^ Cite error: The named reference viaplay.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

External links

[1] "2013 PDC The Masters". Mastercaller.nl. Archived from the original on 4 February 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2016.

[2] "2014 PDC The Masters". Mastercaller.nl. Archived from the original on 4 February 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2016.

[3] "2015 PDC The Masters". Mastercaller.nl. Archived from the original on 4 February 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2016.

[rtl7darts.nl-4] "Toernooicenter The Unibet Masters 2016". RTL 7 Darts.

[viaplay.com-5] Cite error: The named reference viaplay.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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