2008 Championship League Darts

The 2008 Championship League Darts is the inaugural edition of a darts competition - the Championship League Darts. The competition is organised and held by the Professional Darts Corporation and has a maximum prize fund of £189,000.

The format of the tournament is similar to the Premier League Darts tournament, also organised by the PDC, except it is contested by a larger pool of players who are split up into a number of groups.

In a first for darts the tournament will be shown in its entirety on the internet. Every match can be watched in the UK on the Ladbrokes and bet365 websites. The tournament will also be available globally through the internet, except in the United States of America where it can't be shown for legal reasons.

The first group will consist of the top 8 players from the PDC Order of Merit who are available for the competition. These 8 players will play each other over the course of a day and receive points for their performance. A win will earn a player two points, whilst a draw will earn them 1 point. All matches will be contested over 10 legs with a player winning the match when the reach 6 legs or the match being declared a draw should the score reach 5-5. When all players have played each other, the four players with the most points will progress to the semi-finals with the winners of those matches progressing into the final.

The winner of the final will progress to the winners group which shall take place at the end of the competition. The runner-up, losing semi-finalists and the players finishing fifth and sixth will move into group two, where they will be joined by the next three players in the Order of Merit. The format of the second group will be the same as the first group with players moving into the third group. In total there will be 8 groups before the final group takes place.

This format ensures that all players who don't win the group or finish in the last two positions will have another chance to qualify for the winners group.

Players must have been in top 29 places in PDC Order of Merit following 2008 World Matchplay Darts in order to qualify. 31 places used because of Raymond Van Barneveld and John Part withdrawing.

PDC Order of Merit following 2008 World Matchplay Darts.

...
Wikipedia