UK Open


The UK Open are a PDC tournament which took place since 2003 at the beginning of June in the Reebok stadium in Bolton (the home of the Bolton Wanderes). In 2014 both the Venue and the date changed: the UK Open Finals were moved to the Butlin's Resort in Minehead and take place at the beginning of March.
The main sponsor changed several times. 2003 it was Sky Sports, 2004 - 2006 Budweiser, 2007 - 2009 Blue Square, 2010 Rileys Dart Zone, 2011 - 2013 Speedy Hire and since 2014 Coral. 2024 Ladbrokes is the new main sponsor

The PDC players donīt qualify through the PDC Order of Merit but through a special UK Open Order of Merit by a series of qualifiers. The ranking is decided by the price money the players earn playing the qualifiers and the players have to play at least two of them to be able to take part in the finals. Up to 2009 those qualifiers were regional qualifiers which took place in different parts of the UK but that changed in 2010 when the PDC decided to reduce the number of venues to four: Barnsley, Wigan, Crawley and Derby, which all are quite easy to get to for the players. The UK Open always are organised as Pro Tour weekends with a qualifier on Saturday and a qualifier on Sunday. In 2014 there was another change and the number of qualifiers was reduced to six which take place at two weekends from Friday to Sunday in February.

Originally the Top 128 of the UK Open Order of Merit took part in the finals. By now the number is reduced to the Top 96. Added to those 96 are 32 amateur qualifiers qualified by the pub qualifiers which are open to all players who are not members of the PDPA. Often BDO players qualified via pub qualifying for the tournament such as Scott Waites or Anastasia Dorbomyslova in the year she switched to the PDC.
The pub qualifiers are organised from changing pub chains and a lot of players enter them-2010 there were 3500 players taking part fighting for the 32 places.
In 2010 there were 10 additional places for those counties who had voted for a takeover from the BDO by the PDC
In 2011 32 amateurs could qualify from a special qualification organised by the main sponsor Speedy Hire for the first round.
Since 2014 the 32 amateur qualifiers come from 32 Riley's sports bars qualifiers.

From 2019 no longer UK Open Qualifiers were played. Instead all 128 Tour Card Holders will qualify for the tournament. The number of amateur qualifiers will be reduced to 16 and the top 8 of the Challenge Tour Order of Merit and the Development Tour order of Merit who will not have a Tour Card after Qualifying School in January will qualify as well for the tournament.

The UK Open is a mixture of floor and stage tournament. The early rounds are played as a floor tournament with several matches played at the same time and a few selected stage matches. The Top 32 of the UK Open Order of Merit enter the tournament in the fourth round, the players between 33 and 64 in third round and the ranks 65 - 96 start in second round. All other players will begin the tournament in the first round. During the last two rounds only stage matches are played, first at the main stage and the second stage, then only on the main stage.
The format is legs throughout with the number of legs increasing till the final. The special of the UK Open is that the top players enter the tournament later but they are not seeded. Before every round there is a new draw and it happens often enough that amateur players end up with the tops on stage in front of the cameras and have a surprise in store.
The tournament from the beginning was televised by sky sports and is televised from the preliminary round on. Phil Taylor didnīt win it as often as other tournaments but he managed to throw a Nine-Dart almost every year.

Till 2013 the tournament was televised by Sky Sports. Since 2014 ITV televises the tournament.





UK Open Winners
2003Phil Taylor18:8Shayne Burgess
2004Roland Scholten11:6John Part
2005Phil Taylor13:17Mark Walsh
2006Raymond van Barneveld13:17Barrie Bates
2007Raymond van Barneveld16:8Vincent van der Voort
2008James Wade11:7Gary Mawson
2009Phil Taylor11:6Colin Osborne
2010Phil Taylor11:5Gary Anderson
2011James Wade11:8Wes Newton
2012Robert Thornton 11:5Phil Taylor
2013Phil Taylor 11:4Andy Hamilton
2014Adrian Lewis 11:1Terry Jenkins
2015Michael van Gerwen 11:5Peter Wright
2016Michael van Gerwen 11:4Peter Wright
2017Peter Wright 11:6Gerwyn Price
2018Gary Anderson 11:7Corey Cadby
2019Nathan Aspinall 11:5Rob Cross
2020Michael van Gerwen 11:9Gerwyn Price
2021James Wade11:5Luke Humphries
2022Danny Noppert11:10Michael Smith
2023Andrew Gilding11:10Michael van Gerwen



Price Money
WinnerRunner-UpSemifinalsQuarterfinalsLast 16Last 32Last 64Last 96Last 128
201240 000 Pound20 000 Pound10 000 Pound6000 Pound4000 Pound2000 Pound1000 Pound--
201450 000 Pound25 000 Pound12 500 Pound7500 Pound5000 Pound3000 Pound1000 Pound--
2015/1660 000 Pound30 000 Pound17 000 Pound10 000 Pound5000 Pound3000 Pound1500 Pound--
2017/1870 000 Pound35 000 Pound17 500 Pound11 500 Pound6500 Pound3500 Pound1750 Pound--
2019/20/21100 000 Pound40 000 Pound20 000 Pound12 500 Pound7500 Pound4000 Pound2000 Pound1000 Pound-
2023110 000 Pound50 000 Pound30 000 Pound15 000 Pound10 000 Pound5000 Pound2500 Pound1500 Pound1000 Pound




UK Open 2012









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