Sky Sports is supporting the Darts of Destiny charity challenge for Prostate Cancer UK at this year’s World Darts Championships.
Paddy Power has created the chance to win £180,000 live on stage ahead of the World Darts Championship final.
In the first-ever Darts of Destiny sports challenge, one randomly selected person will have their chance at glory if they score 180 points in up to nine darts on Saturday 3 January.
People can enter via the Darts of Destiny Just Giving page set up to help raise vital funds for Prostate Cancer UK, with one person being drawn from a hat to win a huge prize.
If they can score 180 points from nine darts in front of a packed crowd just minutes before the best players on the planet take the stage, they will start the new year with £180,000 in prize money. That’s £20,000 less than the semi-finalists lost in the tournament.
After raising more than £2m for Prostate Cancer UK in the first two years of World Darts Championship sponsorship, the scheme for the next tournament promises to raise even more needed funds for groundbreaking research such as the TRANSFORM trial in Prostate Cancer UK, a project that is leading the way in prostate cancer screening programs and could save thousands of lives every year.
Steve Smith, Executive Director of Content sky sportssaid: “Sky’s platform was instrumental in enabling 180,000 men to check their risk of prostate cancer at last year’s World Darts Championships. We look forward to broadening our reach to help more men check their risk and hopefully change their lives.”
In conjunction with the Darts of Destiny challenge, Paddy Power is renewing its pledge to donate £1000 to Prostate Cancer UK for every 180 hits in the tournament. This amount reached £914,000 (rounded up to £1m) in 2023/24 and £907,000 at last year’s tournament.
This is all part of Paddy Power’s The Even Bigger 180 campaign for 2025/26. Following the huge success of The Big 180 and The Bigger 180 campaigns in the first two years of tournament sponsorship, Professional Darts Corporation and Sky Sports have once again joined Prostate Cancer UK as partners in the hugely successful fundraising initiative.
Also returning this year is the 9-dart bonus, with a prize of £180,000 for every perfect leg of the tournament split equally between the player who achieved it, Prostate Cancer UK, and one fan from the audience at Ally Pally.
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Michael van Gerwen came agonizingly close to a 9-darter in the Paddy Power Perfect Challenge.
After more than 250,000 men were screened for prostate cancer risk in the first two years of the campaign, the plan calls for 180,000 men to be screened for their risk of prostate cancer over the course of the tournament.
Laura Kerby, chief executive of Prostate Cancer UK, said: “We’re delighted to be back in Oche with Paddy Power again this festival season when The Even Bigger 180 returns.
“The game has changed for men over the past two years. More than £2 million was raised amidst the intense 180-at-a-time darts drama. The campaign has had a huge impact in making men across the UK more aware of the risks of prostate cancer and what they can do about it. This is vital as the disease often has no symptoms in its early, treatable stages. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, and my dad’s 1 in 8 men have prostate cancer Unfortunately, too many men are diagnosed at a later stage when it is much more difficult to treat.
“Yet prostate cancer is the last major cancer in the UK without a screening program. We are working to create a world where no one dies from prostate cancer, and the future of screening is already underway. Thanks to the incredible efforts of PDC players, supported by Paddy Power, the funds raised will be used to support game-changing research such as the TRANSFORM trial, which will build a safe and effective screening program for all men and find the missing pieces needed to detect prostate cancer early and save thousands of patients. It will help you live.”
Who will win the Paddy Power World Darts Championship? Watch every match live exclusively on Sky Sports’ dedicated darts channel from December 11 to January 3 (Sky Channel 407 from December 10). Stream darts and other top sports with NOW.
