The 2014 BetVictor World Matchplay was the 21st annual staging of the darts tournament, the World Matchplay, organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. The tournament took place at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, from 19âÂÂ27 July 2014.
Phil Taylor won the event for the seventh consecutive year and 15th in total by beating Michael van Gerwen 18âÂÂ9 in the final. Taylor also threw the event's only nine-dart finish which he did in the second round against Michael Smith.
The prize fund was increased to ã450,000 after being ã400,000 for the previous five editions of this event. The bonus for a nine-dart finish stood at ã10,000 and was won by Phil Taylor.
In previous stagings of the event all games had to be won by two clear legs with no sudden-death legs. However, in 2013 after consulting the host broadcaster Sky Sports, the PDC decided that games will now only proceed for a maximum of six extra legs before a tie-break leg is required. For example, in a best of 19 legs first round match, if the score reaches 12âÂÂ12 then the 25th leg will be the decider.
The top 16 in the PDC Order of Merit qualified as seeded players. The other 16 places went to the top 16 non-qualified players from the PDC ProTour Order of Merit who are unseeded players.