The 2015 PDC World Darts Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2014/15 William Hill World Darts Championship) was the twenty-second World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event was held at the Alexandra Palace, London from 18 December 2014 to 4 January 2015.
Michael van Gerwen was the defending champion, having won his first World Championship title in 2014, but he lost 6âÂÂ3 to Gary Anderson in the semi-finals. Anderson won the title by beating 16-time World Champion Phil Taylor 7âÂÂ6 in the final. Taylor became the first player in PDC World Championship history to reach the PDC World Championship final, achieve a tournament 3-dart average of over 100, and yet not win the title.
Adrian Lewis threw the event's only nine-dart finish in his third round match with Raymond van Barneveld. John Michael and Boris Koltsov became the first players from Greece and Russia respectively to play in the first round of a PDC World Championship. Cristo Reyes became the first Spanish player to reach the last 16 in the history of the event.
The tournament featured 72 players. The top 32 players on the PDC Order of Merit on 2 December 2014 (after the Players Championship Finals) were seeded for the tournament. They were joined by the 16 highest non-qualified players from the Pro Tour Order of Merit, based on the events played on the 2014 PDC Pro Tour.
These 48 players were joined by two PDPA qualifiers (as determined at a PDPA Qualifying event held in Coventry on 1 December 2014), the highest ranked non-qualified player on the PDC Challenge Tour Order of Merit, and 21 international players: the four highest names on the European Order of Merit not already qualified, and 17 further international qualifiers determined by the PDC and PDPA. Some of the international players, such as the four from the European Order of Merit, and the top American and Australian players were entered straight into the first round, while others, having won qualifying events in their countries, were entered into the preliminary round.
The field was set on 1 December 2014. John Michael became the first Greek player to play in the PDC World Championship.
Order of Merit
Pro Tour
European Order of Merit<br />First round qualifiers
PDPA Qualifier<br />First round qualifier
Preliminary round qualifier
International Qualifiers<br />First round qualifiers
Preliminary round qualifiers
The 2015 World Championship featured a prize fund of at least ã1,250,000 - an increase of ã200,000 from the 2014 tournament.
The prize money is allocated as follows:
The preliminary round was played in a first to four legs format. One match was played per session with the winners playing their first round matches later on the same day. The draw was held on 30 November 2014, two days before the main draw. Gurney achieved the highest average in the history of the Preliminary round.
This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the preliminary round.
The tournament was available in the following countries on these channels:
â Sky Sports 3 was renamed as Sky Sports Darts for the duration of the tournament. The channel's coverage of the event was later named the Best Sports of Live Event Coverage at the Broadcast Digital Awards.
The event also included a single-leg exhibition between two England cricket teammates â fast bowler James Anderson and opening batsman and Test captain Alastair Cook.