What is the UK Open?

The UK Open is an annual PDC tournament that was founded in 2003. It is the second of seven ranked majors that take place during the course of the year.

When does it take place?

The tournament is currently played over the first weekend of March, from Friday to Sunday.

Where is it played?

Since 2013, the UK Open has been hosted at Butlin's Minehead. For the first 11 years' of its existence, it was played at Bolton Wanderers’ stadium.

Who takes part?

As of 2019, all 128 PDC Tour Card holders qualify automatically. They are then joined by 16 qualifiers from the PDC Unicorn Challenge Tour Order of Merit and 16 Rileys Amateur Qualifiers.

What is the format?

The UK Open does not have any seedings, meaning any player can be drawn against each other in each round.

The first round is contested between the 32 players ranked 97-128 in the world and the 32 qualifiers.

The second round is contested between the 32 players to progress, plus the 32 players ranked 65-96 in the world.

Both the first and second round are played over a best-of-11-legs format.

The third round is then contested between the 32 players to progress, plus the 32 players ranked 33-64 in the world.

The fourth round is contested between the 32 players to progress, plus the 32 players ranked 1-32 in the world.

The 32 players remaining are then drawn against each other in the fifth round and quarter-finals.

All games between the third round and quarter-finals are a best-of-19-legs format.

The semi-finals and final are then played over a best-of-21-legs format.

Where can I watch it on television?

The tournament is shown live on ITV4.

What is prize for winning?

The total prize pool for the 2020 tournament was £450,000, which was split among the final 96 players.

The winner earned £100,000 and the runner-up £40,000, with the two losing semi-finalists awarded £20,000 each.

Who are the previous winners?

Phil Taylor is the most successful player in the tournament's history with five wins (2003, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2013), followed by Michael van Gerwen with three (2015, 2016, 2020).

Raymond van Barneveld (2006, 2007) and James Wade (2008, 2011) have both won twice each.

The other six tournaments have been shared between Roland Scholten (2004), Robert Thornton (2012), Adrian Lewis (2014), Peter Wright (2017), Gary Anderson (2018) and Nathan Aspinall (2019).

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