The Professional Darts Corporation and Perform, the digital sports specialists, have launched the Championship of Darts - the first ever darts tournament to be solely broadcast on and funded by internet distribution.
In a world first for darts, all aspects of the tournament, which will take place in September and October, will be optimised specifically for an internet and betting audience, with matches scheduled between 11am and 9pm to maximise both workplace and home viewing.
With a prize fund of £200,000, the winner of the tournament will receive an invitation to the PartyPoker.com Grand Slam of Darts, ITV's flagship event won last November by Phil Taylor.
The decision to create a bespoke internet-only darts tournament follows the success of Championship League Snooker, a Perform/Matchroom Sports event which is broadcast exclusively on the internet, together with research which shows that betting turnover on events streamed live is up to five times greater than on matches that are not streamed live.
While the PDC streamed select live matches from the Blue Square UK Open Regional Finals in 2007 and 2008, the Championship of Darts will be the first event where the whole tournament is streamed live on the internet.
"This is an exciting new concept in darts," said PDC Chairman Barry Hearn. "The success of the live internet streaming of Blue Square UK Open Regional Finals this year showed the appetite of darts fans to see the best players in the world in competition.
"The players, venue, staging, cameras and production will all be of the highest quality but the distribution will be a completely new phenomenon for the sport. We are delighted to be partners in such a forward thinking initiative that could help fund all sorts of new sports events around the world."
Simon Denyer, Joint CEO, Perform, said: "The Championship of Darts shows that distribution via the internet is becoming an increasingly attractive model for sports events and sports rights holders.
"We will be distributing the Championship of Darts to a limited number of betting websites, and are in the process of concluding the final licensees to this ground breaking new event for the next three years.
"We will also be offering the Championship of Darts to global audiences on a pay-per-view basis through a global live sports web-TV site we will launch in the summer. With the growing global penetration of broadband connectivity, pay-per-view is becoming a sizeable market opportunity."
Championship of Darts Format
Eight groups, each consisting of eight top players. Group One will consist of the top eight available players from the PDC Order of Merit at July 27 2008, following the Stan James World Matchplay.
Each player plays the others in the league over best-of-ten leg matches in a round-robin format. Two points go to the winner, while the men secure a point each if their match ends 5-5. Once a player reaches six legs, they have won the match and no further legs are played.
At the end of the league phase, the top four move into the play-offs (semi-finals and then final). However, those finishing seventh and eighth in the league will be eliminated and out of the competition.
The winner of the play-offs advances into the Winners Group in October. The losing finalist, beaten semi-finalists and players fifth and sixth in the league phase move into the next group, with players seven and eight relegated and not available for further selection.
The players who qualify for the next group will then be joined by three new players where the process is then repeated. Eventually the eight players who have won each of the groups will move into a Winners Group.
Championship of Darts Prize Money
Group Phase
Group Matches - £50 per leg won
Play-Off Matches - £100 per leg won
Winners Group
Group Matches - £100 per leg won
Play-Off Matches - £200 per leg won
Semi-Final Losers - £2,500 each
Runner-Up - £5,000
Winner - £10,000 plus place in Grand Slam of Darts