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RECORD
PRIZE MONEY FOR THE 2008 LAKESIDE WORLD PRO
The 2008
LAKESIDE WORLD PROFESSIONAL DARTS CHAMPIONSHIPS will have the richest prize fund
in the thirty-one year history of the BDO’s World Championships.
In its inaugural
year of 1978, total prize money was £10,500 and the first ever World Champion,
Leighton Rees of Wales, received a cheque for £3,000.
In 2008, the
available prize fund is being increased to its highest ever total of £310,000 –
with the Men’s Champion receiving a cheque for a record-breaking £85,000.
“This is yet more positive news
for the BDO, and we are delighted that Lakeside’s commitment to these great
Championships is stronger than ever”, says Olly Croft of the BDO. “Since
Lakeside became main title sponsor in 2004, there have been consistent
increases in prize money – especially for the World Champion. In 2004, the
Champions cheque was £50,000. In 2008 it will be £85,000. That represents a 70%
increase!
“Needless to say, I am proud
that the World Professional Darts Championships not only boasts such a
significant prize fund, but that it also enjoys the true history of darts at the
highest possible level. In addition, it has the largest TV audiences for darts
anywhere in the world, plus the best players, finest officials, and the No.1 one
venue in World Darts.”
To be played at Lakeside Country
Club, Frimley Green, Surrey - ‘The home of World Darts’ – from Saturday,
January 5th to Sunday, January 13th, 2008, the Men’s World
Professional Championship will celebrate 31 years continuous coverage on BBC
(1978 to 2008), while the only stand-alone Women’s World Professional
Championship will be staged for the eighth consecutive year (2001 to 2008).
“Lakeside is delighted to be
continuing as main title sponsor of these great Championships for the fifth
consecutive year”, says Bob Potter, OBE, proprietor of the Lakeside Complex.
“The atmosphere is unique, and we are privileged to play host to the world’s top
players – men and women – who produce ever-increasing standards of darts
excellence year after year.
“The increase in prize money not
only reflects our commitment to the Lakeside World Championships, but also to
the BDO players and officials who provide us with top-of-the-bill darts on BBC
television year after year”.
There will be live darts on
BBC-1 and BBC-2 every day of the Championships, together with afternoon and
recorded highlights. BBCi digital viewers will once again be able to watch every
dart thrown live, and BBC Worldwide will offer coverage to more than seventy
countries around the globe.
In addition, Dutch broadcasting
company SBS-6 will be back at Lakeside for their 11th consecutive year to
transmit live darts to The Netherlands, and Eurosport (with 104 million
outlets) will be adding to the global TV mix.
Collectively this provides the
biggest TV audience for darts in the world.
A peak audience of five million
BBC viewers watched the exciting and dramatic 2007 Lakeside World Professional
Darts Championship Final between Martin Adams and Phill Nixon.
This
represented a remarkable 19.5% share of the BBC audience on a Sunday evening, up
against ITV’s top-rating soap opera ‘Coronation Street’, and meant that 1 in 5
of the available viewing audience tuned into the 2007 Lakeside World Final.
This was an
increase of nearly one million viewers on the 2006 peak audience and represented
the highest audience for a Lakeside World Professional final in six years.
2007 Men’s World Professional
Champion MARTIN ADAMS and seven times Women’s World Professional Champion TRINA
GULLIVER will return to Lakeside to defend their titles from January 5th
to 13th, 2008.
PRIZE MONEY:
MEN’S
CHAMPION: £85,000
Runner-up: £30,000
Semi-Finalists: £11,000 x 2
Quarter-Finalists: £ 6,000 x 4
Second
Round: £ 4,250 x 8
First
Round: £ 3,000 x 16
WOMEN’S
CHAMPION: £ 6,000
Runner-Up £ 2,000
Semi-Finalists: £ 1,000 x 2
Quarter-Finalists: £ 500 x 4
9-DART
501: £52,000 (Men & Women)
Highest
Checkout: £ 3,000 (Men & Women)
TOTAL PRIZE FUND:
£310,000
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