| 2020 Unibet European Championship | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament information | |||
| Dates | 29 October–1 November 2020 | ||
| Venue | König Pilsener Arena | ||
| Location | Oberhausen | ||
| Country |  Germany | ||
| Organisation(s) | PDC | ||
| Format | Legs | ||
| Prize fund | £500,000 | ||
| Winner's share | £120,000 | ||
| Nine-dart finish |  José de Sousa(first round) | ||
| High checkout | 170Max Hopp (first round) | ||
| Champion(s) | |||
 Peter Wright | |||
| |||
The2020Unibet European Championship was the thirteenth edition of theProfessional Darts Corporation'sEuropean Championship tournament, which saw the top players from thefour European tour events compete against each other. The tournament took place from 29 October–1 November 2020 at theKönig Pilsener Arena inOberhausen,Germany, in front of smaller, masked, socially distanced crowds, having been moved from its original venue of theWestfalenhallen inDortmund.[1]
Rob Cross was the defending champion after defeatingGerwyn Price 11–6 in the2019 final. However, he was beaten 6–3 byMartijn Kleermaker in the first round, as was top seedJoe Cullen in another upset, who lost toWilliam O'Connor by the same scoreline.
Peter Wright won the tournament for the first time with an 11–4 win overJames Wade in the final.[2]
José de Sousa hit anine-darter in his first-round match withJeffrey de Zwaan, which he won 6–3.[3]
The 2020 European Championship has a total prize fund of £500,000, the same as its previous edition.[4]
The following is the breakdown of the fund:
| Position(no. of players) | Prize money (Total: £500,000) | |
|---|---|---|
| Winner | (1) | £120,000 |
| Runner-up | (1) | £60,000 |
| Semi-finalists | (2) | £32,000 |
| Quarter-finalists | (4) | £20,000 |
| Last 16 (second round) | (8) | £10,000 |
| Last 32 (first round) | (16) | £6,000 |
The 2020 tournament continued the new qualification system used in the two previous editions: the top 32 players from the European Tour Order of Merit qualified for the tournament.[5] The Order of Merit is solely based on prize money won in thefour European tour events during the season, reduced from the planned 13 due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.
As with the previous tournaments, players were drawn in a fixed bracket by their seeded order with the top qualifier playing the 32nd, the second playing the 31st and so on.
Glen Durrant (who would've been 23rd seed) had to withdraw from the tournament after testing positive forCOVID-19 the week before,[6] allowingWilliam O'Connor to enter the tournament as the 32nd seed.[5]
The following players qualified for the tournament:
Joe Cullen(first round)
Gerwyn Price(second round)José de Sousa(second round)
Devon Petersen(semi-finals)
Michael van Gerwen(second round)Michael Smith(second round)
Mensur Suljović(second round)Nathan Aspinall(second round)James Wade(runner-up)
Krzysztof Ratajski(first round)Danny Noppert(first round)Mervyn King(first round)Rob Cross(first round)Jonny Clayton(semi-finals)Peter Wright (champion)Jamie Hughes(second round)Dave Chisnall(first round)Gabriel Clemens(first round)Max Hopp(first round)Martijn Kleermaker(second round)Ian White(quarter-finals)Dirk van Duijvenbode(quarter-finals)Steve West(quarter-finals)
Steve Lennon(first round)Maik Kuivenhoven(first round)
Daryl Gurney(first round)Ross Smith(first round)
Darius Labanauskas(first round)Andy Hamilton(first round)Jeffrey de Zwaan(first round)
Kim Huybrechts(first round)William O'Connor(quarter-finals)