The 2012 PDC World Darts Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2012 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship) was the nineteenth World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event took place at the Alexandra Palace between 15 December 2011 and 2 January 2012.
Adrian Lewis was the defending champion having won the 2011 tournament. Phil Taylor became the last remaining player to have played in every PDC World Championship, after Dennis Priestley failed to qualify. For the first time players from Malaysia, Portugal and Serbia qualified.
Lewis was able to defend his title against Andy Hamilton in the final with a 7âÂÂ3 win.
Sid Waddell, having commentated on the BDO World Championship from 1978 to 1994 for the BBC and on the PDC World Championship from 1995 to 2011 for Sky Sports, was forced to miss the 2012 PDC World Championship, having been diagnosed with bowel cancer in September 2011. He died in August 2012.
The televised stages features 72 players. The top 32 players in the PDC Order of Merit on 28 November 2011 are seeded for the tournament. They will be joined by the 16 highest non qualified players in the Players Championship Order of Merit from events played on the PDC Pro Tour.
These 48 players are joined by two PDPA qualifiers (to be determined at a PDPA Qualifying event to be held in Wigan on 28 November 2011), the winner of the PDC Youth Tour Order of Merit, and 21 international players: the 4 highest names in the European Order of Merit not already qualified, and 17 further international qualifiers to be determined by the PDC and PDPA.
Some of the international players, such as the 4 from the European Order of Merit, and the top American and Australian players are entered straight into the first round, while others, having won qualifying events in their countries, are entered into the preliminary round.
Order of Merit
Pro Tour
European Order of Merit<br />First round qualifiers
PDPA qualifiers<br />First round qualifier
Preliminary round qualifier
PDC Youth Tour Qualifier<br />Preliminary round qualifier
International qualifiers<br />First round qualifiers
Preliminary round qualifiers
In case a player has to withdraw from the competition, the first reserve player that will take his spot is the third-place finisher in the PDPA qualifier, Chris Thompson. It is the first time a match for third place was held at the qualifier.
The 2012 World Championship features a prize fund of ã1,000,000 â the same as in the previous two years.
The prize money is allocated as follows:
The draw was made on 29 November 2011, live on Sky Sports News by Rod Harrington & Keith Deller.
The format is best of 7 legs. One match is played each day with the winner playing his first-round match that same day. The draw for the preliminary round was held on 28 November 2011.
The winners of the eight preliminary-round matches joined 56 other players in the first round. The schedule was published on 2 December 2011.