Masters of Darts

Masters of Darts
Tournament information
Venue	ExpoCenter
Location	Hengelo
Country	Netherlands
Established	2005
Organisation(s)	BDO PDC
Format	Sets
Prize Fund	€185,000 (2007)
Month(s) Played	February
Final Year	2007
Final champion(s)
Raymond van Barneveld

The Masters of Darts has a unique place in darts history as it was the first televised tournament featuring the darts players of the two rival organisations, the British Darts Organisation (BDO) and the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) since they separated in 1993. There had been two "champion versus champion" matches held, but this tournament held in 2005 was the first major event featuring players from each organisation.

The first Masters of Darts took place between February 7 and February 13, 2005 at the ExpoCenter in Hengelo, The Netherlands. The best four players from both federations were invited. The tournament was arranged by PenH Events, who managed to secure a three-year contract with Raymond van Barneveld, a BDO player at the time, taking part in the tournament. The host broadcaster was RTL5 in the Netherlands, who had also secured a three-year deal to broadcast the event. The tournament was not held in 2006 and by the time it was revived for 2007, SBS6 took over as Dutch broadcasters for the event.

At the time the 2007 tournament details were announced there were four BDO players, five PDC players and an unnamed wildcard scheduled to appear. In the weeks leading up to the event all four BDO players switched to the PDC making the tournament effectively a PDC tournament.

Final Results

Year	Champion	Score	Runner-Up	Total Prize Money	Winner's Prize
2005	Phil Taylor	7-1 (sets)	Andy Fordham	€395,000	€150,000
2007	Raymond van Barneveld (107.90)	7-0 (sets)	Peter Manley (94.66)	€185,000	€50,000

2005 Event

Main article: 2005 Masters of Darts

Phil Taylor marched through the competition, winning all four group games against BDO players and dropped only two sets on the way. He then beat Raymond van Barneveld in the semi-final and Andy Fordham in the final to win the top prize €150,000 (approx £100,000) - one of the highest prizes in darts history.

2007 Event

Main article: 2007 Masters of Darts

The 2007 tournament featured a nine dart finish by Michael van Gerwen, Phil Taylor finished bottom of the England group losing three of his five matches. Peter Manley achieved a 100% record en-route to the final against Raymond van Barneveld, but van Barneveld clinched the title with a whitewash 7-0 set victory.

External links

• Summary of Results Planetdarts.tv