World Darts Federation
The World Darts Federation (WDF) is the official world sport governing body [1] and tournament organisers and (one of two) for the game of darts. It was formed in 1974, by representatives of the original fifteen founding members. Membership is open to the national organizing body for darts in all nations. The WDF encourages the promotion of the sport of darts among and between those bodies, in an effort to gain international recognition for darts as a major sport. The WDF is a full member of SportAccord, which is the governing body for international sports federations.
The WDF stages a world championship (called the WDF World Cup), as well as continental championships such as the WDF Americas Cup, the WDF Asia-Pacific Cup and the WDF Europe Cup. The country that is first in the overall leader board (overall best result in the three events, singles, pairs, teams) becomes the world champion. Winners of any of the events can also call themselves the official World Champion. Winners of continental championships can call themselves the official champion of their own areas.
One of its member organisations is the BDO, the official darts governing body in Britain stages the Lakeside World Professional Darts Championship every January which is a recognized WDF Major tournament.
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Members
68 national members:[2]
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- Australia
- Austria
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belgium
- Belize
- Bermuda
- Brazil
- Brunei
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Catalonia
- Cayman Islands
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- England
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Guyana
- Hong Kong
- Hungary
- Iceland
- India
- Iran
- Isle of Man
- Italy
- Japan
- Jersey
- Korea
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malaysia
- Malta
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Northern Ireland
- Nepal
- Nigeria
- Norway
- Pakistan
- Philippines
- Poland
- Rep. of Ireland
- Romania
- Russia
- Scotland
- Serbia
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Africa
- Spain
- St. Lucia
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Trinidad & Tobago
- Turkey
- Turks & Caicos
- USA
- Uganda
- Ukraine
- Wales
One of the member organisations is the British Darts Organisation (BDO), which is the official darts body for Britain, the leading darts country. It is one of two rival British darts organisations, the other being the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), which runs its own world championship.
The WDF Rankings, as defined by the World Darts Federation, are the "objective merit-based method used for determining qualification for entry and seeding in all of its tournaments for both male and female singles, pairs and team, except as modified for the ...... The rankings period is "the previous past 12 months, except for: tournaments that are only entered into the system on the second Monday following the tournament's week. Once entered, all tournaments, except for the ....., remain in the system for 52 consecutive weeks.
Tournament levels and points allocation
A player's WDF Ranking is based on the total points they have accrued over the previous 12 month period that run from December to December according to the tournament schedule [3] from the following 85 tournaments:
- The five World Darts Federation Major tournaments.
- The thirteen World Darts Federation Category One tournaments.
- The twenty six World Darts Federation Category Two tournaments.
- The thirty seven World Darts Federation Category Three tournaments.
- The four Major international events WDF World Cup (singles, pairs, team), WDF Americas Cup (singles, pairs, team), WDF Europe Cup(singles, pairs, team) and WDF Asia-Pacific Cup(singles, pairs, team).
Ranking method
Since the formation of the WDF rankings in 1974 the method used to calculate a player's ranking points has changed several times. Notes: The WDF international tournaments have six categories for both men and women (singles, pairs and teams)
Current points distribution
Points are currently awarded as follows:
| Tournament category | W | F | SF | QF | R16 | R32 | R64 | R128 | |
| WDF Major tournaments | 180 | 120 | 100 | 60 | 30 | 15 | 8 | 4 | |
| WDF Category One tournaments | 150 | 100 | 80 | 48 | 24 | 12 | 6 | ||
| WDF Category Two tournaments | 120 | 80 | 60 | 36 | 18 | 9 | 4 | ||
| WDF Category Three tournaments | 90 | 60 | 40 | 24 | 12 | 6 | 3 | ||
| WDF Major international tournaments | 180 | 120 | 100 | 60 | 30 | 15 | 8 | 4 | |
| WDF international tournaments | 150 | 100 | 80 | 48 | 24 | 12 | 6 |
Current WDF World Rankings
The rankings are based on a cumulative points system similar to ATP Rankings in tennis they are done on a rolling one year basis. When a tournament is played, the previous year's results are removed from the rankings. This list is used to determine seeds for some of the WDF Opens. The World Darts Federation also have a ranking system designed to provide a measure of the global activities of darts players in every WDF recognised darts event. It used to be very similar to the BDO system but was revised in January 2007 to include categories by country and by events, and the distribution of ranking points reflect the levels of prize money on offer and the numbers of entries in a tournament. Therefore, the WDF World Rankings give a better reflection on BDO player world ranking. The leading players gain points in different levels of categorized events and prize money and at the end of the season the leading players receive monetary bonus rewards from the WDF.[4]
Men
Women
WDF World No1 men's and women's players 1976-current
The rankings show Deta Hedman and Trina Gulliver as consistently being the leading women's player's, having been number one on a record ten occasions each. No male player has held the number one position as many years Gulliver and Hedman, although Eric Bristow has held the top position for a record six times. The rankings for the men has become even more complex since the inception of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) formerly the World Darts Council (WDC). The leading ranked players in 1993/94 split from the BDO and they have their own world ranking system known as the Order of Merit. The players from the PDC are not included in the rankings because the BDO, which is the British governing body, is the one that is recognised by the WDF. WDF tournamentsSee alsoReferences
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