Paddy Power to donate £1m after record scores at World Darts Championship

The bookmaker is rounding up its commitment from its Big 180 charity campaign.

UK.- The Flutter-owned bookmaker Paddy Power has announced that it will donate £1m to Prostate Cancer UK following the culmination of its charity initiative, The Big 180. As part of the Paddy Power World Darts Championship, the bookie had pledged to donate £1,000 for every 180 scored during the championship, aiming for a £1m target by the end of the tournament.

Reaching £1m would have required a record number of 180s. In the end, a new record was set, with 914 scores of 180 registered during the championship, beating the previous record of 901 set in 2023. That would have meant a total of £914,000 donated to the charity, but Paddy Power has pledged to round up the total anyway.

“A great tournament deserves a great donation. So we’re rounding up the 914 180s scored at the tournament and donating £1m,” it announced on Twitter.

The winner of the championship, Luke Humphries, has pledged to donate part of his £500,000 prize money too. He notched up 73 180s in the tournament, winning the Ballon d’Art trophy for the most maximums achieved in the World Darts Championship. In the final, he defeated 16-year-old Luke Littler 7-4, coming from four sets to two behind.

Professional Darts Corporation chief executive Matthew Porter said: “When our new sponsors Paddy Power suggested pranking our players two weeks out from the tournament to get the public’s attention, it sounded like a huge risk. Ultimately, it was one we were willing to take if it meant the millions of men who tune into the World Darts Championship, alongside their loved ones, are encouraged to take 30 seconds to check their risk.”

Paddy Power said the initiative had also helped encourage 51,381 men to complete a 30-second risk-check questionnaire on Prostate Cancer UK’s website since its launch. 

Prostate Cancer UK CEO Laura Kerby said: “Prostate cancer is curable if caught early, but early-stage prostate cancer often has no symptoms, so it is vital that men know their risk – and we hope 180,000 fans will do that during the tournament via our simple online risk checker.”

In October, Paddy Power announced the closure of 21 retail betting shops in its native Ireland. Flutter said the decision had been taken following a review of the brand’s operations.

The shops marked for closure were in Dominick Street in Galway, Skibbereen, Terenure, Greenhills, Stoneybatter, Goatstown, Dalkey, Old Bawn, Westgate Road in Clonmel, Cloghran, Michael Street in Waterford, Kilkenny, Rathdrum, Templemore, Kells, New Ross, Athy, Parkgate Street, Blackrock, Ennis and Dillon’s Cross in Cork.