SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
William Hill has announced that it will bring back its ‘Nine-Darter’ charity pledge for the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace (15 Dec 2016 – 2 Jan 2017).
Starting this Thursday, tournament title sponsor William Hill will reward every nine-dart finish achieved at the 2016/2017 PDC World Dart Championship with a £9,000 donation to charity Parkinson’s UK.
Sky Sports Darts presenter and Parkinson’s UK supporter Dave Clark commented on the pledge
“I was really pleased to hear that William Hill will once again be making a donation to Parkinson’s UK for every 9-darter during the tournament. While nine-dart finishes are challenging, the odds of this happening during the William Hill World Championships are pretty good as we’ll see the best players in the world competing.
“Thank you to William Hill and I look forward to seeing a great standard of darts again this year, with hopefully a few more players throwing nine perfect darts.”
There have been nine previous nine-dart finishes in the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace, with Raymond van Barneveld hitting the first in 2009 and another in 2010.
Adrian Lewis then hit a perfect leg in the 2011 final against Gary Anderson, with Dean Winstanley and Michael van Gerwen achieving the feat two years later and the 2014 event seeing Terry Jenkins and Kyle Anderson landing nine-darters within an hour of each other in a memorable afternoon.
Lewis hit a second perfect leg during the 2015 event, with Gary Anderson then recording his own nine-darter in last year’s semi-final against Jelle Klaasen.
“We’re delighted to be supporting the PDC’s official charity Parkinson’s UK,” said David Lynn, Head of Sponsorship at William Hill. “A nine-darter is one of the most spectacular sights in sport and we’re hoping to see plenty of perfect games at this year’s world championship.”
