PDC Darts Prize Money Heads Towards £20 Million in 2023
There has never been a better time to be a professional darts player. In January, the 2023 Cazoo Masters boasted a purse of £275,000. It represented a big increase over the 2022 prize pool of £220,000. Chris Dobey collected £65,000 for winning the event. The winner’s prize had remained unchanged at £60,000 since 2015.
Last year prize funds for the Cazoo Premier League, Betfred World Matchplay, BoyleSports World Grand Prix, and Cazoo Grand Slam of Darts were all increased. In 2022 a record £15 million was awarded to players that are part of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).
Peter Wright and Michael van Gerwen have both won in excess of £1 million during the past two years from ranking events alone. ©PDC
“Having pushed beyond £15 million prize money for 2022, we’ve now set our sights on breaking past £20 million on the circuit in the next few years,” said PDC Chairman Eddie Hearn in December 2021.
The European Tour Begins This Week
Now, following the increase in prize money for the 2023 Cazoo Masters – and previously-announced financial boosts to the PDC’s Secondary Tours and Women’s Series – further financial increases for this year’s PDC circuit have been confirmed.
The latest televised event financially boosted is the UK Open. Scheduled to be held between March 3rd and March 5th at Butlin’s Minehead Resort, this year the tournament’s prize money will increase by £150,000. The competition – a favorite with punters and darts betting sites – is now worth £600,000. The eventual winner will claim £110,000 of the purse.
The last four UK Open winners collected £100,000. A decade ago, the winner’s share of a £200,000 purse was £40,000. In 2023, for the first time, the tournament will pay down to the last 128 players, with second-round losers receiving £1,000.
The European Tour Begins This Week
Prize money on the prospering PDC European Tour has also increased. An additional £35,000 has been added to all 2023 Tour events. It takes their worth to £175,000 apiece. Each tournament winner will now receive £30,000 – an increase of £5,000. The total cash injection for these competitions across the year is £455,000.
The first of 2023’s 13 European Tour events begin with the Baltic Sea Darts Open in Kiel this Friday. 2023 Premier League players Peter Wright, Michael Smith, Michael van Gerwn, Jonny Clayton, Gerwyn Price, Dimitri Van den Bergh and Nathan Aspinall, will all hotfoot it from the Dublin Premier League fixture on Thursday night to play in the German event on Saturday.
Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, and Hungary are other countries that will stage European Tour events during the coming eight months. In 2022 Luke Humphries (with four successes) and Michael van Gerwen (a three-time winner) took over half of the six-round European Tour competitions.
