Surprise package Justin Hood leads Gary Anderson in race for Ballon d’Art trophy at the World Darts Championship

The World Darts Championship is underway, and at Alexandra Palace the focus these weeks is not only on the Sid Waddell Trophy. For the third year running, players are also competing for an individual side award that has now become a fixture at the tournament: the Ballon d’Art.

The Ballon d’Art is awarded to the player who hits the most 180s during the Worlds. The award does not come with direct prize money for the winner, but it does carry a clear social impact. For every maximum scored at Ally Pally, sponsor Paddy Power donates one thousand pounds to Prostate Cancer UK, as part of the campaign The Even Bigger 180.

While players themselves do not receive a financial reward for their 180 tally, the race for maximums has built significant impact beyond the oche. In the first two years of Paddy Power’s sponsorship, a total of two million pounds was raised for prostate cancer research.

Perfect legs also benefit a good cause. For every nine-darter thrown at the Worlds, £180,000 is split between three parties: the player who produces the leg, Prostate Cancer UK, and one randomly selected spectator in attendance at the session in which the nine-darter is hit.

Luke Humphries was the first Ballon d’Art winner in 2024. The Englishman posted 73 maximums that year, adding an extra accolade to his strong World Championship campaign. A year later, it was Luke Littler who took over the trophy. The teenage sensation, who became world champion at just seventeen, racked up no fewer than 76 180s.

Before the Ballon d’Art was introduced, maximums were mainly a statistic without separate recognition. Some achievements still stand out, though. Michael Smith holds the record for the most 180s in a single Worlds. In 2022 he put together an impressive run of 83 maximums, comfortably surpassing Gary Anderson’s old mark of 71.

The surprise leader at the current World Darts Championship is Justin Hood. The World Championship debutant drove Danny Noppert to distraction with a steady stream of 180s in the second round and is already up to 16 maximums.

Hood is closely followed by Gary Anderson, who has already hit the highest possible score fifteen times. Gian van Veen and James Hurrell share third place among the players still in the tournament. Both men have already thrown thirteen 180s.

Callan Rydz and Martin Schindler sit on twelve, while the entire world’s top four — Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen, and Stephen Bunting — are all on eleven 180s.