World Masters (darts)

This article is about the tournament organized by the BDO and the WDF. For the tournament organized by the PDC, called the World Masters from 2025, see Masters (darts).

World Masters
Founded1974
First season1974
Organising bodyBDO (1974–2019)
WDF (2022, 2024–)
CountryEngland (1974–2019)
Netherlands (2022)
Hungary (2024)
Most recent
champion(s)		Netherlands Wesley Plaisier
England Beau Greaves
(2024)
Tournament formatSets

The World Masters is a darts tournament, initially organised by the British Darts Organisation from 1974 and later by the World Darts Federation. It is one of the longest-running and most prestigious of the BDO/WDF tournaments. The tournament was originally sponsored by Phonogram before changing its sponsor in 1975 to darts board manufacturer, Winmau. The World Masters was originally contested as the best of 5 legs (first to 3) before later transitioning to the set format.

It was previously the final leg of the BDO's Grand Slam title of televised majors, along with the BDO World Darts Championship, International Darts League and World Darts Trophy, until the latter two tournaments were axed in 2008. The champion is referred to as the World Master.

The tournament was unseeded for most of its history and all players entered the main draw in the first round. Seedings were introduced for the first time in 2007 at the behest of the BBC to ensure the top players were present for the televised stages of the event. Thus, the top eight ranked players received a bye to the last-16.[1]

After the collapse of the British Darts Organisation in September 2020,[2] the World Darts Federation announced plans to launch the WDF World Masters.[3] In December 2020, it was announced that the 2021 tournament will be held at De Bonte Wever in Assen, Netherlands.[4] This was then pushed back to 2022 due to ongoing coronavirus restrictions.[5] The new WDF version of the event changed the format from setplay to legplay for the first time, with significantly shorter matches.[6] The event also moved to a biennial format.[7] In 2024 a new host nation was announced as Budapest, Hungary was the host for the 2024 WDF World Masters.[8] For 2025 the Professional Darts Corporation will rebrand their existing Masters tournament as the Winmau World Masters, leaving the future of the WDF tournament unclear.[9]

  1. ^ Chaplin, Patrick (2012). 180! : fascinating darts facts. Stroud. p. 92. ISBN 9780752486116.
  2. ^ "BDO era comes to an end as counties join UKDA". Dartsnews.com. 8 September 2020. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  3. ^ "Development of World Rankings Criteria For 2021 – WDF". World Darts Federation. 15 September 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  4. ^ "The World Darts Federation are delighted to announce the launch of the WDF World Masters, with its first edition set to take place in the Netherlands, 2–5 December 2021 – WDF". World Darts Federation. 18 December 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  5. ^ "World Masters Cancelled Again, New Attempt In December 2022". Darts News. 3 September 2021.
  6. ^ "2022 Winmau World Masters Updated Information". World Darts Federation. 1 December 2022.
  7. ^ "WDF World Masters to return in 2024". World Darts Federation. 3 July 2023.
  8. ^ "Budapest Calling – the 2024 WDF World Masters is coming to Hungary". World Darts Federation. 18 May 2024.
  9. ^ Phillips, Josh (28 October 2024). "Winmau World Masters to return as PDC event undergoes radical rebrand". PDC. Retrieved 2 November 2024.