The 2008 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship, sponsored by Ladbrokes, was the 15th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The 2008 event began on December 17, 2007 (a tradition for the event to begin in the previous calendar year) and the final was played on New Year's Day for the second year in succession. There was no play on December 23, 24, 25 and 31st. ^[1]

John Part won his third World Championship, joining Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld, Eric Bristow and John Lowe as the only people to have won more than two world titles. He also became only one of two players to have won the PDC World Darts Championship more than once, along with Taylor. He beat the qualifier Kirk Shepherd 7-2 in the final.

Raymond van Barneveld was the defending champion having won the PDC World Championship at the first attempt in an epic final against Phil Taylor in 2007. He was knocked out in the third round with a 4-2 loss to Kevin Painter.

Phil Taylor failed to reach the final of the competition, for the first time in PDC World Championship history, after losing 5-4 to Wayne Mardle in the quarter-finals.

After being staged at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet for 14 years, the tournament moved to the Alexandra Palace in London.^[2] The championships had been considered to have outgrown the Circus Tavern whose capacity of 800-900 spectators was considerably smaller than some Holsten Premier League darts events in 2007 which saw crowds reaching 5,000. The Alexandra Palace was the venue of the News of the World Darts Championship between 1963 and 1977 and boasts a capacity for 2008 of 2,500.

Draw

Preliminary Round Draw

(best of nine legs, played Wednesday 19 December and Thursday 20 December)

Akihiro Nakagawa 2-5 Anthony Forde

Rizal Barellano 0-5 Miloslav Navratil

Alan Bolton 0-5 Erwin Extercatte

Ashfaque Sayed 0-5 Shi Yongsheng

First Round Draw

(best of five sets, sets are best of five legs)

Last 32 to Final

Second Round Saturday December 22 to Thursday December 27					Third Round Thursday December 27 and Friday December 28					Quarter Finals Saturday December 29					Semi Finals Sunday December 30					Final Tuesday January 1, 2008
1	Taylor 94.52	4
	Walsh 89.52	3			1	Taylor 96.71	4
16	A Jenkins 80.04	0			17	Tabern 93.42	3
17	Tabern 86.04	4								1	Taylor 92.32	4
8	Scholten 93.10	4								9	Mardle 92.20	5
25	King 90.31	2			8	Scholten 91.86	3
9	Mardle 89.61	4			9	Mardle 89.28	4
	Caven 82.35	1													9	Mardle 92.36	4
5	Manley 88.96	4														Shepherd 88.77	6
28	Warriner-Little 82.55	1			5	Manley 87.75	4
	v.d. Rassel 90.99	4				v.d. Rassel 86.76	1
21	Ovens 90.22	1								5	Manley 94.27	4
	Shepherd 87.18	4									Shepherd 89.70	5
29	McGowan 85.09	3				Shepherd 85.86	4
13	Bates 82.36	4			13	Bates 85.61	2
	Extercatte 84.00	3																			Shepherd 85.10	2
2	v Barneveld 92.31	4																		11	Part 92.86	7
	Clark 87.96	1			2	v Barneveld 90.75	2
15	Painter 92.04	4			15	Painter 95.20	4
18	Mason 83.91	0								15	Painter 87.51	5
7	Lewis 91.81	4								7	Lewis 86.26	2
26	v.d. Voort 96.46	2			7	Lewis 94.19	4
	Maish 87.29	3				Eccles 97.20	3
	Eccles 91.08	4													15	Painter 91.94	2
6	Hamilton 90.97	1													11	Part 92.84	6
27	Roy 91.33	4			27	Roy 85.16	0
11	Part 99.06	4			11	Part 91.32	4
	Suljovic 91.26	1								11	Part 94.81	5
3	Wade 90.92	4								3	Wade 91.48	4
30	Beaton 87.80	3			3	Wade 84.54	4
14	Baxter 91.82	2			19	Dudbridge 84.96	2
19	Dudbridge 87.92	4

Highest Checkouts: 170, Mervyn King, James Wade, Wayne Mardle

180's scored : 478

Most 180s Scored, Individual : 34 John Part, 33 Kirk Shepherd, 24 Wayne Mardle, 24 Kevin Painter, 22 Adrian Lewis.

Highest Tournament Dart Average (In A Single Match): John Part 99.06 vs Suljovic (Second Round).

Scores after player's names are three-dart averages (total points scored divided by darts thrown and multiplied by 3)

Statistics

Player	Played	Sets Won	Sets Lost	Legs Won	Legs Lost	100+	140+	180s	High Checkout	3-dart Averagedubious – discuss [3]
John Part	6	29	10	98	68	202	112	34	160	94.42
Kirk Shepherd	6	24	23	104	101	237	120	33	160	83.92
Phil Taylor	4	15	13	66	59	162	70	19	137	93.67
Michael van Gerwen	1	2	3	11	13	29	15	1	106	85.99
Adrian Gray	1	2	3	10	12	28	18	3	104	88.01
Mark Walsh	2	6	6	23	24	52	38	10	156	88.58
Andy Jenkins	2	3	6	14	19	31	15	9	142	83.42
Rizal Barellano	1	0	0	0	5	4	3	0	-	68.58
Miloslav Navratil	2	2	3	12	11	14	8	6	81	79.04
Alan Tabern	3	10	5	39	30	98	55	9	160	89.14
Per Laursen	1	1	3	8	10	30	10	2	68	84.17
Roland Scholten	3	10	8	36	40	103	56	19	140	93.07
Matt Clark	1	2	3	12	10	25	19	4	100	93.88
Mervyn King	2	5	6	26	24	57	47	10	170	93.14
Michael Rosenauer	1	2	3	11	13	29	18	3	116	86.60
Wayne Mardle	5	20	16	81	70	183	135	24	170	90.92
Ray Carver	1	2	3	8	11	26	7	7	110	90.30
Wes Newton	1	0	3	4	9	14	11	2	81	87.15
Jamie Caven	2	4	4	15	17	39	16	3	121	85.86
Peter Manley	4	15	9	57	49	167	80	14	156	90.27
Toon Greebe	1	2	3	9	12	22	17	4	94	89.60
Alan Warriner-Little	2	4	5	19	18	46	22	4	108	86.77
Ashfaque Sayed	1	0	0	0	5	4	2	0	-	72.03
Shi Yongsheng	2	1	3	10	11	23	13	0	119	77.33
Colin Lloyd	1	2	3	14	14	29	13	1	120	85.75
Jan van der Rassel	3	8	7	37	37	103	51	10	116	89.47
Denis Ovens	2	4	4	18	14	46	20	6	100	87.65
Colin Monk	1	0	3	0	9	4	4	0	-	69.48
Terry Jenkins	1	2	3	10	10	32	13	1	56	83.62
Mick McGowan	2	6	4	25	24	66	35	6	120	85.88
Jason Barry	1	0	3	5	9	13	13	1	64	87.75
Barrie Bates	3	9	7	36	28	101	34	6	120	83.66
Gerry Convery	1	0	3	1	9	10	4	2	82	79.50
Colin Osborne	1	1	3	8	9	14	6	10	144	90.33
Alan Bolton	1	0	0	0	5	3	0	0	-	60.38
Erwin Extercatte	3	6	5	27	24	61	18	5	147	79.91
Raymond van Barneveld	3	9	5	34	25	73	36	13	120	90.73
Akihiro Nakagawa	1	0	0	2	5	9	1	1	40	68.85
Anthony Forde	2	0	3	9	11	28	11	2	120	75.84
Bob Anderson	1	2	3	10	11	30	16	4	141	91.07
Jason Clark	2	4	6	19	24	53	32	9	104	88.83
Kevin Painter	5	18	10	69	45	159	77	24	137	92.23
Gary Mawson	1	0	3	2	9	14	4	2	96	83.86
Chris Mason	2	3	5	16	15	39	15	2	136	84.32
Steve Brown	1	1	3	3	11	20	7	0	67	77.61
Adrian Lewis	4	13	11	46	50	118	55	22	136	92.26
Dave Askew	1	1	3	8	10	25	11	3	62	90.46