The game of Darts, like many other games and sports around the world, can be both a pastime that some people play to relax and an intense competition with lots of money behind it.
To be a professional darts player requires several years of practice, with dedication and determination. Michael van Gerwen and Phil Taylor are two of the most renowned names in darts, and both have been playing every day for decades.
We’ll talk about how much a professional dart player makes annually in this article, like how tournament winnings pay and sponsorships.
Approximate Annual Income of a Professional Dart Player
The yearly income of dart players may vary. It depends on their efficiency.
A dart player’s earning depends on his experience and consistency of winning, etc.; on average; a player makes $65,000 – $70,000 a year.
Players can earn millions as cash prizes for taking part in league games. Also, the professionals have corporate sponsorships that endorse them and pay them money.
A single league tournament can have a payout of around $3 million.
If you want to see professional or amateur darts played near you find a local tournament and go along. The money is nowhere near the top level, but the best players even at the local level often make some compensation.
Some of the Highest-Paid Dart Players
Quite a few players get paid a good amount of money for dart games and tournament winnings. Over the last two years, the players with the most prize money won are: Gerwyn Price with £1,302,500, followed by Peter Wright with £1,024,250, and then Michael van Gerwen with £1,019,500.
Michael van Gerwen is a Dutch professional dart player who held the top position from 2014-2021. He alone has earned more than £6 million at the PDC World Championship and other tournaments.
Peter Wright defeated Michael van Gerwen in the 2020 PDC World Darts Championship. He is a Scottish professional dart player with a net worth of around £4 million.
The most famous and best dart player of all time is Phil Taylor, nicknamed The Power. He is an English professional darts player, having a net worth of around £10 million. He appeared in the PDC World Darts Championship 25 times, out of which he won it 14 times, and secured runner-up position five times. He won 8 titles in a row from 1995 to 2002.
Event Prize Money
In a competition, the prize money is often split in some way between the top 5 or 10 finishers.
For example, in the PDC World Dart Championship, the winner, gets £500,000, and the Runner-up gets £200,000. Semi-finalists get £100,000, and Quarter-finalists earn £50,000; this way, the total money gets divided among players, and those who place among the top finishers all get fairly compensated.
When a player fulfills other criteria during the course of a match, for example, two consecutive 9s, he could get an additional prize as well.
PDC Darts World Championship:
The PDC World Darts Championship is the highest darts tournament in the world, and is held every year by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).
There have been ten players that have won the tournament, which has been operating for 27 years. With 14 wins from 25 appearances, Phil Taylor has by far the most wins in the competition’s history, last winning it in 2013.
PDC has a distinct prize money distribution: The winner gets £500,000, and the Runner-up receives a prize of £200,000. The Semi-finalists get a cash prize of £100,000.
The Quarter-finalists get a cash prize of £50,000. The Fourth-round finishers get a participation prize of £35,000. The Third-round finishers get a participation prize of £25,000. The Second-round finishers get 15,000, and the First round finishers get £7,500. This has a sponsorship contract, so you will get an extra amount of money simply for your appearance in the competition as well.
Other Championships
The BDO World Darts Championship is a world championship competition in darts organized by the British Darts Organization (BDO) and has been held 43 times from 1978 to 2020.
The winner of this tournament earns £23,000, the Runner-up gets £10,000, Semi-finalist gets £5,000, Quarter-finalist gets £4,000.
Second round finishers get a prize of £3,000. First-round finishers get a cash prize of £2,000, and Preliminary round finishers get a participation prize of £1,500. This is the prize distribution for men.
For women, the winner gets a cash prize of £10,000. The Runner-up receives an amount of £4,500. The Semi-finalist gets £2,000, and the Quarter-finalists are £1000. The First-round finishers get a participation prize of £500.
Conclusion
It is possible in darts to earn lots of money, but that takes many years of hard work, determination, and dedication. You have to be in the top 5 to 10 players in the world to truly make a lot. Below that, you can easily make a standard living, but nothing extraordinary.
Dart professionals like Phil Taylor used to train for 12 hours a day. With that level of practice, you too can earn money as a professional dart player.
