ELEVEN SPORTS NETWORK has signed an agreement to bring live and exclusive coverage of the 2016/2017 William Hill World Darts Championship to fans in Belgium.
Featuring 72 of the best players in the world, the 24th edition of the event will be held at Alexandra Palace in London from 15 December 2016–2 January 2017, and fans can look forward to 87 hours of live and exclusive action available on TV, online, and on mobile via the ELEVEN SPORTS platform.
The PDC World Darts Championship has a rich history of past winners including reigning two-time champion Gary Anderson, multiple-time winners such as the legendary Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis, and Dutch pair Raymond van Barneveld and Michael van Gerwen, who have both claimed the title once.
Belgian darts fans will hope brothers Kim and Ronny Huybrechts can maintain their form and qualify for the tournament later this year, alongside emerging youngster Dimitri Van den Bergh, who made his World Championship debut last December.
"Darts is a fantastic, fun-filled spectator sport and we are delighted to sign this agreement with Matchroom and the PDC to bring one of the most high-profile tournaments in the game to fans in Belgium," says Danny Menken, Group Managing Director, ELEVEN SPORTS NETWORK.
"We are sure our fully localised coverage will be a hit with the growing number of darts fans across the country."
As part of the agreement, viewers can also enjoy 15 hours of highlights from the PDC World Cup of Darts, which took place earlier this year in Frankfurt, Germany, and was won by the English team of Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis, with the Belgian side represented by the Huybrechts brothers, progressing to the semi-finals.
"Led by the achievements of Kim Huybrechts over the past five years, darts has never enjoyed as high a profile as it currently does in Belgium, so this is an exciting agreement for us," said Barry Hearn, Chairman of Matchroom Sport and the PDC.
"Fans in Belgium will now be able to enjoy every dart thrown at the William Hill World Darts Championship, in what has grown to be the greatest tournament in darts."
Darts and a host of other world-class sport can be accessed anytime, anywhere on the ELEVEN SPORTS platform at www.elevensports.be, and via the app which can be downloaded from Google Play and the App Store.
The network's channels are also available in Belgium on Proximus TV, Telenet, VOO, Orange and SFR, with some of the network's premium content shown on free-to-air broadcaster RTL.