Christian Kist hits a nine-darter at WDC: Paddy Power donates £60k to Prostate Cancer UK
Imago
History was made on Wednesday night at the World Darts Championship, as Dutch darts player Christian Kist threw a noteworthy nine-darter. The 14th nine darter in World Darts Championship history proved a significant loss for Paddy Power, but for an excellent cause.
In just the fifth leg of their first round face-off, the 38-year-old started against Latvian opponent Madars Razma with a maximum score of 180 from his first three throws. He then followed that up with another 180, leaving 141 after throwing six darts.
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The treble 20 got the crowd excited, as did the treble 19 that succeeded it. However, the double 12 that was thrown afterwards meant that history was made.
Despite winning the first set, Kist fell to a 3-1 defeat against the 36-year-old Latvian who is ranked 44th in the world. However, he won’t forget his appearance at the 2025 World Darts Championship in a hurry, and neither will the bookmakers or another lucky winner.
‘The Lipstick’, as he’s nicknamed, admitted that “a nine-darter was nice” when speaking to the press post-match. However, he claimed that victory and advancing to the second round would have been even nicer.
“I lost the game and I’m a little bit disappointed but the nine-darter was great, of course,” began the Mairenberg-born history maker.
When asked if he’d ever thrown a nine-darter in practice before, he responded “I think two or three times in practice and my fourth time on the PDC tour.”
“AND IT’S YOU! YES, YOU, RIGHT THERE!”
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) December 19, 2024
🎥 The moment a lucky fan in the crowd was randomly chosen to win the £60k bonus after Christian Kist’s 9 darter, all thanks to Paddy Power’s The BIGGER 180 campaign.
This meant we also gave £60k to Kist and @ProstateUK.
18+ GambleAware pic.twitter.com/GUKz7sbhGa
However, Paddy Power’s loss is Prostate Cancer UK’s gain, as the Irish bookmaker has promised to give £1,000 for every 180 thrown. And for every nine-darter thrown at the World Darts Championship, they’ll donate a further £60,000.
The 102nd best player in the world earned £60,000 as a result of his perfect leg, a supposed three times his year’s earnings so far. And he also scooped a £60,000 prize for one lucky fan, chosen at random, in the crowd at the Alexandra Palace in London last night.
Kris, from Sutton, was attending the arrows courtesy of his grandad who bought him the ticket and the railway worker was ecstatic as Kist’s exploits scooped him a £60,000 grand prize.
“I didn’t expect it to happen to me, a free competition, just speechless. I’m shaking still!” as he became Kist’s biggest fan despite his new hero being knocked out of the competition.
When asked what he was going to do with the money, he stated: “No idea but me and my partner have literally just moved into a flat this year, so maybe we’ll stick some on the mortgage, maybe a nice holiday, I don’t know!”
Last year, Paddy Power gave £1m to support Prostate Cancer UK in The Big 180 campaign after a 180 was thrown 914 times before the bookie rounded it up to seven figures.
Despite the tournament only starting on Sunday, the total is already at £163,000 after 163 maximums. However, due to Kist’s nine darter, the bookmaker has already given away £223,000.
Darts legend Chris Hoy has also jumped on board The BIGGER 180 campaign, this year, to advocate for the prostate cancer charity and he thinks that the nine-dart bonus is "a chance to make a real difference".
