PRESS RELEASE DUTCH DARTS ASSOCIATION – RIJSWIJK – January 11th 2012

The Dutch Darts Association is delighted to announce that a provisional agreement has been made with Eurosport for the 2012 Dutch Open, which will be played from February 3rd to 5th, 2012.

Eurosport 2 will broadcast all the highlights from the stage finals on Sunday, February 5th starting at 23.00 CET. These highlights will be repeated on Eurosport 1 on Monday, February 6th at 15.00 CET. Eurosport and Eurosport 2 will repeat the highlights on several occasions during the week. Through the Eurosport Network, 59 countries can follow the 34th edition of the 2012 Dutch Open Darts Championships. Final details are currently under discussion, but no problems are expected.

‘We have been striving very hard to make the Dutch Open Darts event available to an international audience”, says Tournament Director Niels de Ruiter. “and we hope that the tournament can be broadcast by Eurosport. Following live internet streaming on www.dutchopendarts.nl this is another huge step for the biggest „Open‟ darts tournament within the WDF/BDO circuit‟.

“In recent years, the Dutch Open Darts has been broadcast live and included the first ever live televised 9-darts finish by Shaun Greatbatch in 2002. Raymond van Barneveld won the Championship in 2006 and his final was watched by 780,000 Dutch viewers!‟.

The 2012 Open will take place in the NH Conference Centre, Koningshof, Veldhoven, the Netherlands. All the top players from the WDF/BDO circuit will be present, including Lakeside World Champions Martin Adams and Trina Gulliver, who will be defending their 2011 Dutch Open Darts titles. Also, the top Dutch players, including the eight Lakeside players, including Jan Dekker, Christian Kist, Wesley Harms and Willy van de Wiel.

Entries for the 2012 Dutch Open have been extended to January 16th at 12.00 CET. Go to www.dutchopendarts.nl for all entries, latest news and tournament information.

Editorial note:
The tournament is organized by the Dutch Darts Association.
For further details and press accreditation please contact:
Dutch Darts Association
Janet Kroondijk

+31 (0) 70 366 72 06

The entries for the Dutch Open Darts 2012 are going fast at the moment. Already 1.600 men singles, 195 woman singles, 770 men pairs and 90 woman pairs registered for the upcoming event in Holland. This is a positive development in comparison with last year. The organization is very pleased with the numbers and expect that the current media focus on darts will only increase the registrations. Therefore the organization has decided to extend the registration until Monday January 16th. All seniors can register trough our website www.dutchopendarts.nl. Non-Dutch players must complete the entire procedure but the entry fee will be paid at the front desk during the Dutch Open.

The Dutch Open Youth will take place on Sunday February 5th. For the first time in history the WDF launched an international youth ranking. Logically the Dutch Open Youth is included in this ranking. The organization has noted a lot of interest for this tournament among the (international) youth and expect more players then last year. There is also contact with a youth group from Russia who will travel to Veldhoven. The youth finals promises to be spectacular again because all finals will be played on the famous and big Dutch Open stage! Youth members who wish to participate in the tournament can register on the day itself (registration fee € 5,-)! It is not possible to register online.

So: register for the Dutch Open 2012 and experience a great weekend together with a lot of other darts fans.

The draw will take place several days after the registration is closed and will be published on the website. Keep up with the latest information and developments by visiting www.dutchopendarts.nl