World Darts Federation

World Darts Federation

Abbreviation	WDF
Formation	1974; 50 years ago (1974)
Type	Darts organisation
Website	www.dartswdf.com

The World Darts Federation (WDF) is a sport governing body^[1][2] and (along with the PDC) a tournament organiser for the game of darts. It was formed in 1974 by representatives of the original fourteen founding members.^[2] Membership is open to the national organising 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 Global Association of International Sports Federations, 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 two 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.

After the collapse of the British Darts Organisation in September 2020, the WDF announced plans to launch the WDF World Championship and WDF World Masters.^[3] Both competitions took place for the first time in 2022, starting with the 2022 WDF World Darts Championship in April.^[4]

76 national full members plus 3 interim nembers (Mauritania, Yemen, Papua New Guinea) :^[5]

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". The rankings tables are "rolling tables", and points from an event are counted until that event occurs the following year. If a particular event does not occur in the following year, points are deleted after a calendar year.^[6]

A player's WDF Ranking is based on the points they have accrued from their best 10 performances over the previous 12 month rolling period.^[7] The eligible tournaments include a selection of Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze level tournaments with decreasing points at each level.

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)

Points are currently awarded as follows:^[8]

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 categorised events and prize money and at the end of the season the leading players receive monetary bonus rewards from the WDF.^[9]

WDF Men's World Rankings as of 14 November 2023.^[10]

Rank	Change	Player	Points
1	6	Andy Baetens	1221
2		Neil Duff	970
3	2	Jelle Klaasen	948
4		Haupai Puha	904
5	4	James Hurrell	673
6	3	Luke Littler	667
7	49	Wesley Plaisier	666
8	2	Ben Robb	664
9		Danny Lauby	565
10	1	Raymond Smith	563
11	17	Kai Fan Leung	531
12	6	Mark Barilli	516
13		Darren Johnson	492
14	6	Chris Landman	487
15	11	Barry Copeland	485
16	8	Thibault Tricole	458
17		Peter Machin	458
18	2	Martyn Turner	449
19	1	Alexander Merkx	446
20	12	Leonard Gates	444
21		Gary Stone	444
22		Liam Maendl-Lawrance	425
23	12	James Richardson	416
24		Danny Porter	416
25	3	László Kádár	411
26	1	Patrik Kovács	409
27		Jonny Tata	402
28	9	Moreno Blom	391
29	8	Antony Allen	388
30	17	Benjamin Pratnemer	385

WDF Women's World Rankings as of 5 September 2022.^[11]

Rank	Change	Player	Points
1	4	Beau Greaves	1641
2	1	Deta Hedman	1190
3	9	Kirsty Hutchinson	784
4		Anca Zijlstra	710
5	9	Suzanne Smith	625
6		Anastasia Dobromyslova	594
7	17	Jo Clements	565
8	6	Fallon Sherrock	560
9	2	Lorraine Winstanley	508
10	7	Aileen de Graaf	504
11		Rhian O'Sullivan	502
12	3	Laura Turner	482
13	25	Lorraine Hyde	455
14	3	Wendy Harper	443
15	5	Paula Jacklin	427
16	1	Paula Murphy	386
17	4	Nicole Regnaud	373
18	22	Vicky Pruim	371
19	18	Corrine Hammond	355
20		Mikuru Suzuki	354
21	102	Anna Forsmark	348
22	6	Tori Kewish	319
23	9	Veronika Ihász	318
24	16	Maria O'Brien	316
25	7	Priscilla Steenbergen	312
26	19	Jitka Cisarova	307
27	184	Aletta Wajer	283
28	43	Natalie Gilbert	283
29	6	Margaret Sutton	268
30	15	Elena Shulgina	253

^[12]

Year	Men	Women
1976	Alan Evans	No rankings
1977	John Lowe	No rankings
1978	Leighton Rees	No rankings
1979	John Lowe (2)	No rankings
1980	Eric Bristow	No rankings
1981	Eric Bristow (2)	No rankings
1982	Jocky Wilson	No rankings
1983	Eric Bristow (3)	No rankings
1984	Eric Bristow (4)	Sandy Reitan
1985	Eric Bristow (5)	Lilian Barnett
1986	John Lowe (3)	Linda Batten
1987	Bob Anderson	Maarit Fagerholm
1988	John Lowe (4)	Jayne Kempster
1989	Bob Anderson (2)	Sharon Colclough
1990	Eric Bristow (6)	Sharon Colclough (2)
1991	Phil Taylor	Sharon Colclough (3)
1992	Rod Harrington	Mandy Solomons
1993	Leo Laurens	Mandy Solomons (2)
1994	Steve Beaton	Deta Hedman
1995	Richie Burnett	Deta Hedman (2)
1996	Martin Adams	Deta Hedman (3)
1997	Martin Adams (2)	Deta Hedman (4)
1998	Ronnie Baxter	Francis Hoenselaar
1999	Raymond van Barneveld	Trina Gulliver
2000	Raymond van Barneveld (2)	Trina Gulliver (2)
2001	Mervyn King	Trina Gulliver (3)
2002	John Walton	Trina Gulliver (4)
2003	Martin Adams (3)	Trina Gulliver (5)
2004	Raymond van Barneveld (3)	Trina Gulliver (6)
2005	Raymond van Barneveld (4)	Trina Gulliver (7)
2006	Jelle Klaasen	Trina Gulliver (8)
2007	Gary Anderson	Trina Gulliver (9)
2008	Scott Waites	Francis Hoenselaar (2)
2009	Tony O'Shea	Trina Gulliver (10)
2010	Martin Adams (4)	Deta Hedman (5)
2011	Scott Waites (2)	Deta Hedman (6)
2012	Stephen Bunting	Deta Hedman (7)
2013	James Wilson	Deta Hedman (8)
2014	Alan Norris	Deta Hedman (9)
2015	Darius Labanauskas	Deta Hedman (10)
2016	Darius Labanauskas (2)	Deta Hedman (11)
2017	Scott Mitchell	Aileen de Graaf
2018	Jim Williams	Deta Hedman (12)
2019	Nick Kenny	Aileen de Graaf (2)
2020	Wayne Warren	Deta Hedman (13)
2021	Brian Raman	Deta Hedman (14)
2022	Jelle Klaasen (2)	Beau Greaves
2023	Andy Baetens	Beau Greaves (2)

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 or more 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 of amateur darts, is the one that is recognised by the WDF.

• Kramer, Anne (2013). The Ultimate Book of Darts A Complete Guide to Games, Gear, Terms, and Rules. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. ISBN 9781626365261.
• McNeely, Scott (2012). The ultimate book of sports. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 9781452121871.
• editors, John Nauright, Charles Parrish (2012). Sports around the world : history, culture, and practice. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781598843002. {{cite book}}: |last1= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• World Darts Federation (WDF)
• Professional Darts Corporation (PDC)
• Catalan Darts Federation (FCD)
• Latvia Darts Organisation (LDO)
• Polish Darts Organisation (PDO)
• Romanian Darts Organisation (BDO)