2021 World Matchplay
darts competition
The 2021 Betfred World Matchplay was the 28th annual staging of the World Matchplay, organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. The tournament returned to the Winter Gardens, from 17 to 25 July 2021, with the 2020 staging of the event having been moved to the Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dimitri Van den Bergh was the defending champion, after beating Gary Anderson 18–10 in the 2020 final. However he was defeated by Peter Wright 18–9 in the final. Wright won his first World Matchplay, and became the fifth player to win both the PDC World Championship and the World Matchplay.
Prize money
The prize fund remained at £700,000, with the winner's earnings being £150,000.
Format
All games have to be won by two clear legs, with a game being extended if necessary for a maximum of six extra legs before a tie-break leg is required. For example, in a first to 10 legs first round match, if the score reaches 12–12 then the 25th leg will be the decider.
The first round is played first to 10 legs, second round first to 11 legs, quarter-finals first to 16 legs, semi-finals first to 17 legs and final first to 18 legs.
Qualification
The top 16 players on the PDC Order of Merit at the cut-off point on 10 July were seeded for the tournament.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “2021 World Matchplay” is darts competition. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through World, Matchplay and darts, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “darts competition” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q104701387. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2021 and 2020.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “2021 World Matchplay”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 2021 World Matchplay primary sources, 2021 World Matchplay archive and World research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “2021 World Matchplay”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “2021 World Matchplay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.