2004 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship
Tournament information
Dates	27 December 2003 – 4 January 2004
Venue	Circus Tavern
Location	Purfleet
Country	England
Organisation(s)	PDC
Format	Sets Final – best of 13
Prize fund	£257,000
Winner's share	£50,000
High checkout	170 Peter Manley 170 Ronnie Baxter
Champion(s)
Phil Taylor
«2003 2005»

The 2004 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship was the 10th anniversary of the PDC version of the World Darts Championship. The tournament took place between 27 December 2003 and 4 January 2004 at the Circus Tavern, Purfleet, England.

An extra round was added, with the top 16 seeds given a bye to the third round, bringing the total players at the televised stages to 48. Ladbrokes, who sponsored the event initially for one year in 2003, decided to extend their deal and the prize fund was increased to £256,000. The Dutch television station, RTL 5 and Sky Sports both extended their deals with the PDC by three years. PDC chairman Barry Hearn announced that the tournament would be shown in Malaysia on pay-per-view.

Defending champion and number two seed, John Part suffered a surprise first-round defeat to Mark Dudbridge, his first match of the 2004 campaign.

The final became only the second ever (and first PDC) world final to go to a sudden-death leg. The first time it happened was when Phil Taylor beat Mike Gregory in the 1992 BDO final, Taylor was again involved and came out victorious against Kevin Painter. He came from 4–1 down to win his 11th world title.

The two losing semi-finalists came from different ends of darts experience. 56-year-old Bob Anderson, a World Champion 16 years earlier lost to Painter and Wayne Mardle was making his first PDC World Championship semi-final appearance. Mardle lost to Taylor for the second year running, following a third-round defeat as an unseeded player in 2003.

Seeds

There were sixteen seeds in the World Championship.^[1]

Prize money

New format

To accommodate the change in the number of entries into the competition to 48, the format of the World Championship was again changed. 16 qualifiers would contest the first round, with the eight winners going through to the second round to meet players ranked between 25 and 32 inclusive in the PDC. These eight winners would go through to join the top 24 in the third round, where the tournament proceeded from the last 32 to the Final.

The 1st round was between 8 PDPA Qualifiers & 8 international qualifiers

PDPA:

Colin McGarry,

Ritchie Buckle,

Steve Maish,

Erik Clarys,

Alex MacKay,

Wayne Atwood,

Steve Smith,

Robbie Widdows

International

Highest Placed North American in the Desert Classic: Tony Payne bt Ricky Villanueva

American Darters Association: Dan Lauby bt Ray Carver

Oceanic Masters: Barry Jouannet bt Mick Parker

RTL Television Holland Playoff: Jan van der Rassel bt Bert Vlaardingerbroek

Canada Winner: Rory Orvis bt Gerry Convery

Japan Winner: Toru Sano bt Hiroshi Watanobe

Caribbean Winner: Norman Madhoo bt Anthony Forde

Ireland Winner: Henry O'Neill bt John MaGowan

⇘==Results== Players in bold denote match winners.^[3][4][5]

	First round (best of 5 sets) 27 December				Second round (best of 5 sets) 28 December
	Rory Orvis 82.00	0			Mark Holden 75.63	0
	Colin McGarry 88.60	3			Colin McGarry 86.21	3
	Ritchie Buckle 87.15	3			Steve Brown 83.42	0
	Jan van der Rassel 83.76	1			Ritchie Buckle 91.71	3
	Tony Payne 73.21	0			Cliff Lazarenko 80.53	2
	Steve Maish 82.04	3			Steve Maish 82.20	3
	Dan Lauby 65.59	0			Mark Walsh 72.29	0
	Erik Clarys 79.24	3			Erik Clarys 79.21	3
	Barry Jouannet 75.51	2			Lionel Sams 85.83	3
	Alex MacKay 85.15	3			Alex MacKay 84.77	2
	Wayne Atwood 77.34	3			Mick Manning 80.57	0
	Toru Sano 66.52	0			Wayne Atwood 87.94	3
	Norman Madhoo 74.06	1			Mark Dudbridge 81.70	3
	Steve Smith 80.49	3			Steve Smith 78.26	0
	Robbie Widdows 84.64	3			Simon Whatley 80.34	3
	Henry O'Neill 82.06	2			Robbie Widdows 81.86	1

	Third round (best of 7 sets) 29–31 December					Fourth round (best of 7 sets) 1 January					Quarter-finals (best of 9 sets) 2 January					Semi-finals (best of 11 sets) 3 January					Final (best of 13 sets) 4 January
	1	Phil Taylor 97.89	4
		Colin McGarry 81.79	0
						1	Phil Taylor 94.50	4
						16	Dennis Priestley 87.06	1
	16	Dennis Priestley 83.02	4
		Ritchie Buckle 84.18	3
											1	Phil Taylor 98.15	5
											9	Alan Warriner 90.35	1
	8	Denis Ovens 85.70	3
		Alex Roy 85.49	4
							Alex Roy 85.33	3
						9	Alan Warriner 82.97	4
	9	Alan Warriner 94.95	4
		John Lowe 90.26	3
																1	Phil Taylor 99.61	6
																12	Wayne Mardle 96.49	2
	5	Colin Lloyd 98.62	4
		Peter Evison 78.84	1
						5	Colin Lloyd 87.39	3
						12	Wayne Mardle 91.01	4
	12	Wayne Mardle 92.61	4
		Steve Maish 87.09	2
											12	Wayne Mardle 87.93	5
												Simon Whatley 77.24	1
	4	Roland Scholten 88.05	2
		Lionel Sams 88.78	4
							Lionel Sams 83.77	1
							Simon Whatley 82.84	4
	13	Richie Burnett 82.21	3
		Simon Whatley 80.06	4
																					1	Phil Taylor 96.00	7
																					10	Kevin Painter 90.47	6
	2	John Part 90.09	3
		Mark Dudbridge 88.99	4
							Mark Dudbridge 84.36	4
							Steve Beaton 77.62	1
	15	Jamie Harvey 79.00	0
		Steve Beaton 87.58	4
												Mark Dudbridge 83.37	1
											10	Kevin Painter 90.26	5
	7	Ronnie Baxter 86.85	4
		Erik Clarys 82.53	2
						7	Ronnie Baxter 89.62	2
						10	Kevin Painter 90.74	4
	10	Kevin Painter 88.62	4
		Paul Williams 82.47	3
																10	Kevin Painter 96.71	6
																	Bob Anderson 88.95	0
	6	Dennis Smith 81.77	4
		Les Fitton 82.24	2
						6	Dennis Smith 86.21	3
							Bob Anderson 86.23	4
	11	Andy Jenkins 77.97	1
		Bob Anderson 83.98	4
												Bob Anderson 90.91	5
											3	Peter Manley 89.87	2
	3	Peter Manley 89.34	4
		Wayne Atwood 85.60	3
						3	Peter Manley 93.33	4
							Keith Deller 92.58	2
	14	Dave Askew 75.32	3
		Keith Deller 76.60	4

Representation from different countries

This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including round 1&2.

	ENG	NED	SCO	AUS	WAL	NIR	BEL	CAN	USA	JPN	GUY	Total
Final	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Semis	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4
Quarters	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8
Round 4	16	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	16
Round 3	25	1	1	0	2	1	1	1	0	0	0	32
Round 2	11	0	1	0	1	1	1	0	1	0	0	16
Round 1	5	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	16
Total	32	2	2	1	2	1	1	2	3	1	1	48