The 2011 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship was the 18th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event took place at the Alexandra Palace, London from 16 December 2010 and 3 January 2011. A total of 72 players took part, 16 of whom began at the preliminary round stage, with the eight winners joining the remaining 56 players in the first round proper.
Phil Taylor was the defending champion, having won the 2010 tournament. He was knocked out of the tournament at the quarter-final stage by Mark Webster, who in turn was defeated by Adrian Lewis in the semi-finals. Lewis went on to win the tournament, beating Gary Anderson 7–5 in the final to become only the fifth different PDC World Champion and the first to have won it without having won the rival BDO World Championship.
The final between Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson was notable for being the last match that Sid Waddell commentated on at the PDC World Darts Championship before his passing in 2012. It was also notable for the first ever nine-dart finish in a PDC World Championship final, hit by Lewis in the third leg of the match and not accomplished again until Michael Smith did so in 2023 against Michael van Gerwen.
4-time PDC World Championship semi-finalist Wayne Mardle was a notable absentee, missing out on his first World Championship since 1999. The 3-time PDC World Championship finalist Peter Manley was also another notable absentee, having missed out since 1998.
Format and qualifiers
The televised stages featured 72 players from a minimum of 22 countries. The top 32 players in the PDC Order of Merit on 29 November 2010 were seeded for the tournament. They were joined by the 16 highest non qualified players in the Players Championship Order of Merit from events played on the PDC Pro Tour.
These 48 players were joined by two PDPA qualifiers (which were determined at a PDPA Qualifying event held in Derby on November 29, 2010), and 22 international players: the 4 highest names in the European Order of Merit not already qualified, the 2 highest names in the North American Order of Merit not already qualified and 16 further international qualifiers determined by the PDC and PDPA.
Some of the international players, such as the 4 from the European Order of Merit, and the top American and Australian players were entered straight into the first round, while others, having won qualifying events in their countries, were entered into the preliminary round.
Order of Merit
Pro Tour
Steve Farmer
Richie Burnett
Steve Brown
Justin Pipe
Tony Eccles
Dennis Smith
Nigel Heydon
Brendan Dolan
Steve Hine
Steve Maish
Kevin McDine
Mark Hylton
Chris Thompson
Peter Wright
Steve Evans
Joe Cullen
Kirk Shepherd
European Order of MeritFirst round qualifiers
Antonio Alcinas
Andree Welge
Bernd Roith
Mensur Suljović
PDPA qualifiersFirst round qualifier
Alex Roy
Preliminary round qualifier
Matt Padgett
International qualifiersFirst round qualifiers
Darin Young
Shane Tichowitsch
Rob Modra
Preliminary round qualifiers
Gary Mawson
Jyhan Artut
Dietmar Burger
Magnus Caris
Juanito Gionson
Morihiro Hashimoto
Boris Krčmar
Per Laursen
Scott MacKenzie
Norman Madhoo
Mickey Mansell
Devon Petersen
Preston Ridd
Roland Scholten
Veijo Viinikka
1 Rob Modra was unable to get a visa, so therefore, he was replaced by Kirk Shepherd, the next highest ranked player in the Players Championship Order of Merit.
Prize money
The 2011 World Championship featured a prize fund of £1,000,000 – the same as in the previous year. The Third Place Playoff did not take place this year.
The prize money is allocated as follows:
Schedule
Preliminary round
The preliminary round was played from Dec 16 to Dec 23 with one match per day. The format was best of 7 legs.
Last 64
The winner of the eight preliminary-round matches joined 56 other players in the first round.
The first round draw took place on Tuesday 30 November live in the studio of Sky Sports News, and was conducted by 1983 World champion Keith Deller and Sky Sports darts' analyst and former World Matchplay champion, Rod Harrington.