The 2020 BDO World Darts Championship has got concluded after a rocky build-up.
Hot on the heels of the 2020 PDC World Darts Championship (Professional Darts Corporation) is the similarly titled BDO World Darts Championship (British Darts Organisation) which kick-started the 2020 darts calendar in slightly subdued fashion after the high profile PDC competition.
After the PDC Championship saw Fallon Sherrock take the competition by storm and Peter Wright provide a huge upset in the final, the BDO Championship looks to bring things down to earth somewhat.
Despite both being dubbed the World Darts Championship, the BDO-ran competition has had a much rockier build-up to the start of play with a venue change and poor ticket sales leading to a controversial reduction in prize money.
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BDO World Darts Championship 2020 is underway!
The 2020 BDO World Darts Championship got underway on January 4th, 2020 at the Indigo at The O2 with live coverage and highlights available daily on the channel Quest (Freeview: 12 Virgin: 154 Sky: 144).
The change in venue from the Lakeside Country Club in Surrey, which has hosted the competition since 1985, has not been well received with ticket sales for the 2020 edition only reaching an estimated 15% of total capacity.
As a result, the prize money for the 2020 competition has been ‘somewhat reduced’ by the competition organisers.
The 2020 prize money
The total prize money for the 2020 BDO World Darts Championship was set to be in the region of £359,000.
However, that has now been reduced to £150,000 in total with the winner expected to take home £50,000.
The changes are expected half the prize money in each round of the competition although that is yet to be confirmed.
In 2019, the BDO prize money was as follows:
Winners: £100,000
Runners-up: £35,000
Semi-finalists: £15,000
Quarter-finalists: £6,500
Second round losers: £4,500
First round losers: £3,250
Preliminary round losers: £2,000
The 2020 prize money could be around half of these totals.
How it differs from the PDC World Championship
The PDC World Championship boasts some of the best prize money in all of darts with the total £2.5 million winnings broken down as follows:
Winners: £500,000
Runners-up: £200,000
Semi-finalists: £100,000
Quarter-finalists: £50,000
Fourth round losers: £35,000
Third round losers: £25,000
Second round losers: £15,000
First round losers: £7,500
The higher-paying prize money is seen as one of the reasons why three-time BDO World Champion Glen Durrant elected to make the switch to the PDC in January 2019.
The 2020 winner
After bowing out of the competition at the second round stage in 2019, Wayne Warren won 7-4 in an all-Welsh final to take home his first-ever World Championship.
The 57-year-old is expected to take home a reported £50,000 in prize money for his efforts.
Meanwhile, in the women’s edition of the tournament, Japan’s Mikuru Suzuki retained her title and takes home a much more subdued £8,000 in prize money.
Highlights and replays of Quest’s coverage of the 2020 BDO World Darts Championship can be found on the dplay website, the on-demand service for Quest.
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