Chris Dobey

Christopher Dobey (born 31 May 1990) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number nine; he reached a peak ranking of world number seven in 2025. A PDC Tour Card holder since 2015, Dobey has since won six ranking Players Championship titles. Nicknamed "Hollywood", he won his first major title at the 2023 Masters, defeating Rob Cross 11–7 in the final.

Chris Dobey
Dobey in 2025
Personal information
Nickname	"Hollywood"
Born	(1990-05-31) 31 May 1990 (age 34) Bedlington, England
Darts information
Playing darts since	2010
Darts	23g Target Signature Gen 1
Laterality	Right-handed
Walk-on music	"Let's Get Ready to Rhumble" by PJ & Duncan (Televised events) "L'amour toujours" by Gigi D’Agostino (European Tour events and European Championship)
Organisation (see split in darts)
BDO	2013–2015
PDC	2015– (Tour Card: 2015–)
Current world ranking	(PDC) 10 1 (21 April 2025)[1]
WDF major events – best performances
World Masters	Last 32: 2014
PDC premier events – best performances
World Championship	Semi Final: 2025
World Matchplay	Quarter Final: 2023
World Grand Prix	Semi Final: 2019
UK Open	Last 16: 2018, 2020, 2021
Grand Slam	Quarter Final: 2016
European Championship	Semi Final: 2022
Premier League	7th: 2023
PC Finals	Semi Final: 2019
Masters	Winner (1): 2023
World Series Finals	Quarter Final: 2024
Other tournament wins
Players Championships (x6) Players Championship (Barnsley) 2021 Players Championship (Coventry) 2021 Players Championship (Leicester) 2024 Players Championship (Milton Keynes) 2024 Players Championship (Wigan) 2024 Players Championship (Rosmalen) 2025

He is a one-time World Championship semi-finalist, reaching the last four at the 2025 PDC World Championship.

Early life

Dobey was born in Bedlington in 1990. He comes from a darting family; his father Gordon and uncle Arthur both played league darts.^[2] Prior to playing darts, Dobey worked in traffic management.^[3] He played football in the Northern Football Alliance with his local team.^[3]

Career

Dobey started playing darts in 2010 at a local club. He received the nickname "Hollywood" due to wearing a baseball cap while playing darts.^[4]

2015

Dobey's first major TV appearance came in the 2015 UK Open where he lost to Nathan Aspinall 5–1 in the first round.^[5] At Players Championship 11 he had deciding leg victories over Jan Dekker, Kim Huybrechts and Max Hopp to reach the last 16 of a PDC event for the first time, where he was defeated by Mark Webster 6–2.^[6] Dobey qualified for the 2015 World Series of Darts Finals and lost in a last leg decider to Terry Jenkins 6–5.^[7]

2016

At the 2016 German Darts Masters, Dobey saw off Ben Davies 6–1 and then averaged 100.64 in a win over Robert Thornton and 102.25 whilst beating Dave Chisnall 6–4.^[8] In his first PDC quarter-final he averaged over 100 again, but lost to world number one Michael van Gerwen 6–5, having led 5–4.^[9] At Players Championship 19 Dobey beat Stephen Bunting 6–3 to reach the semi-finals and took out a 120 finish after Adrian Lewis had missed match darts. This meant he played in his first senior final, but lost Simon Whitlock 6–4.^[10] He qualified for the 2016 European Championship and was eliminated by Joe Cullen 6–2 in the first round.^[11] Dobey also played in the Grand Slam of Darts for the first time and wins over Lewis and Scott Mitchell saw him advance to the knockout stage, where he hit a ten dart leg to move 9–5 up on Jamie Hughes. However, Hughes closed the deficit to force a deciding leg which Dobey took to advance to his first major quarter-final, but he was outclassed by James Wade who won 16–5.^[12][13][14]

His performances gave him a PDC Pro Tour spot in the 2017 World Championship, where he beat Justin Pipe 3–1 in the first round.^[15] In the second round he lost to Dave Chisnall 4–2.^[16]

2018

At the 2018 World Championship, Dobey drew Phil Taylor in the first round. Taylor was appearing in his final World Championship following his decision to retire after the conclusion of the event. Dobey lost 3-1.

He played in the 2018 UK Open in Minehead, reaching the fifth round before losing out to Corey Cadby.

Dobey reached 2 finals on the Pro Tour in 2018, losing to Michael van Gerwen 6–2 in the final of Players Championship 5 despite having an average of over 109,^[17] and then losing to Krzysztof Ratajski 6–2 in the final of Players Championship 21.^[18] These performances aided him in qualifying for the 2018 Players Championship Finals where he had a run to the quarter-finals, losing out to eventual winner Daryl Gurney 10–2.

2019

He qualified for the 2019 PDC World Darts Championship via the Pro Tour, reaching the last 16 stage with 3–0 whitewash wins over Boris Koltsov, and Steve Beaton and a 4–3 win over Vincent van der Voort. He lost to Gary Anderson 4–3, in a match which saw 28 180s thrown, 15 of them by Dobey.

Following Gary Anderson's withdrawal from the 2019 Premier League, Dobey was selected as one of nine 'Contenders'. He would play a one-off match against Mensur Suljović on night one in Newcastle. Dobey started well leading 5–1 before Suljović would win 5 consecutive legs to lead 6–5. Dobey would win the final leg to draw the match 6–6.

Dobey reached his fourth PDC final at the 2019 Danish Darts Open, winning through as a non seed, but lost to Dave Chisnall 8–3.

He reached the semi-finals at both the 2019 World Grand Prix and 2019 Players Championship Finals.

2020

At the 2020 PDC World Darts Championship, Dobey was seeded into the second round for the first time as 22nd seed. He defeated Ron Meulenkamp 3–2 in his opening match. This set up a tie against Fallon Sherrock in the third round, who had beaten Ted Evetts to become the first woman to win a match at the PDC World Championship before eliminating 11th seed Mensur Suljović in the next round. In their match, Dobey came back from 2–1 down to defeat Sherrock 4–2.^[19] He then exited the tournament after a 4–3 loss to Glen Durrant.

Following the end of the World Championship, Dobey was once again selected as a 'Challenger' (re-brand of 'Contender') for the Premier League.^[20] He played on Night 7 in Milton Keynes where he lost 7–2 to Daryl Gurney.^[21]

2021

In 2021, Dobey won his first PDC ranking title at Players Championship 18 in Coventry. Along the way he defeated Jeff Smith, Luke Humphries, William Borland, Jonny Clayton, Stephen Bunting, Maik Kuivenhoven & José de Sousa.^[22][23][24] Dobey then went on to claim his 2nd ranking title at PC28 in Barnsley, he defeated Rob Cross in the semi-finals where the pair threw a combined average of 224.68 (111.73 for Dobey).^[25]

2022

At the 2022 PDC World Darts Championship, Dobey won his opening match 3–2 against Rusty-Jake Rodriguez. He was originally supposed to play Michael van Gerwen in the third round, but van Gerwen withdrew from the tournament after testing positive for COVID-19.^[26] Dobey received a bye to the fourth round, where he lost 4–3 to Luke Humphries despite leading the match 3–1.^[27] He avenged his loss to Humphries in the first round of the 2022 World Grand Prix, beating Humphries 2–0. He faced Adrian Lewis in the second round and won the match in a last-leg decider after Lewis missed a match dart on the bullseye.^[28] He was eliminated by Michael van Gerwen in the quarter-finals.

Dobey got a surprise win against Michael van Gerwen in the first round of the 2022 European Championship, beating him 6–5 and claiming his first ever career win against the three-time World Champion.^[29] He defeated José de Sousa in the next round and Dave Chisnall in the quarter-finals to reach his third televised semi-final.^[30] He lost to eventual champion Ross Smith 11–9.

2023

At the 2023 PDC World Darts Championship, Dobey reached a World Championship quarter-final for the first time.^[31] He defeated Martijn Kleermaker in his opening match before eliminating former World Champions Gary Anderson and Rob Cross. In the quarter-finals, he lost 5–0 to Michael van Gerwen.

On 29 January 2023, Dobey reached his first televised final at the 2023 Masters. He beat reigning Masters champion Joe Cullen, Luke Humphries, Dirk van Duijvenbode and reigning World Champion Michael Smith before defeating Rob Cross 11–7 in the final.^[32][33] The following day, Dobey was confirmed to be in the 2023 Premier League, his first full-time inclusion in the event after two years as a 'Challenger'.^[34]

Dobey reached three consecutive quarter-finals in televised ranking events, beginning at the 2023 World Matchplay where he defeated James Wade and Michael Smith^[35] before losing 16–12 to eventual champion Nathan Aspinall. At the 2023 World Grand Prix, he beat Dimitri Van den Bergh in the first round and earned a 3–2 win over Michael van Gerwen in the next round to progress to the quarter-finals.^[36] Despite leading the match 2–1, he was eliminated after a 3–2 loss to Joe Cullen.^[37] Dobey lost to eventual champion Peter Wright in the quarter-finals of the 2023 European Championship.^[38]

On 1 September 2023, Chris Dobey announced that he signed with darts manufacturer Target Darts.^[39]

Premier League Darts

In his full-time Premier League debut, Dobey won night one with victories over Peter Wright and Nathan Aspinall before winning a last-leg decider in the final against Michael van Gerwen with a 160 checkout.^[40][41] This placed Dobey at the top of the Premier League table. On night two in Cardiff, he lost his opening match to Gerwyn Price 6–5, who won the night in front of his home crowd.^[42] Dobey continued to lose in the first round of each night until he reached the final on night seven. His run to the final included a historic 6–0 win over Michael van Gerwen, making Dobey the first player to whitewash van Gerwen in the Premier League. Dobey lost 6–4 to Gerwyn Price in the final.^[43] The next week on night eight, he played in front of his home crowd in Newcastle. Dobey marked the occasion with a special walk-on, using "Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero" by Mark Knopfler as his walk-on song due to the song's connection to Dobey's favourite football club Newcastle United.^[44] He won his opening match 6–4 against Michael Smith but lost to Gerwyn Price 6–4 in the semi-finals.^[45][46] Dobey only registered two more wins in the latter half of the league stage and finished in seventh place after being overtaken by Dimitri van den Bergh, who won night sixteen.^[47]

2024

At the 2024 PDC World Championship, Dobey whitewashed defending champion Michael Smith 4–0 in the fourth round to reach his second consecutive World Championship quarter-final.^[48] He played Rob Cross for a place in the semi-finals and established a 4–0 lead, one set away from winning. However, Cross then won five consecutive sets to beat Dobey 5–4.^[49]

Dobey topped the 2024 PDC Players Championship (PC) Order of Merit ranking,^[50] winning three titles. He won PC7, defeating Josh Rock 8–4 in the final. He hit a nine-dart finish in his win over Mickey Mansell.^[51][52] In August, Dobey won PC19, defeating Cameron Menzies 8–6 in the final.^[53] In October, he won PC25, defeating Stephen Bunting 8–3 in the final.^[54]

2025

Dobey made it three successive PDC World Championship quarter-finals at the 2025 event, defeating Alexander Merkx, Josh Rock and Kevin Doets along the way. In the quarter-finals, Dobey faced Gerwyn Price. Dobey went 2–0 down before leveling the match at 2–2. He won the next two sets to go 4–2 up but missed five match darts, allowing Price to reduce the gap to 4–3. However, Dobey won the next set to win the match 5–3 and reach his first World Championship semi-final.^[55][56] Dobey was denied a World Championship final by Michael van Gerwen, who defeated Dobey 6–1.^[57] He was subsequently announced as part of the 2025 Premier League line-up on 6 January.^[58]

After finishing as runner-up in the second Players Championship event, Dobey won his first title of the year at Players Championship 3, defeating Jelle Klaasen 8–4 in the final.^[59]

Personal life

Dobey is a supporter of Newcastle United.^[60] He has two sons born in 2017 and 2023.^[61]

World Championship results

PDC

• 2017: Second round (lost to Dave Chisnall 2–4)
• 2018: First round (lost to Phil Taylor 1–3)
• 2019: Fourth round (lost to Gary Anderson 3–4)
• 2020: Fourth round (lost to Glen Durrant 3–4)
• 2021: Third round (lost to Daryl Gurney 1–4)
• 2022: Fourth round (lost to Luke Humphries 3–4)
• 2023: Quarter-finals (lost to Michael van Gerwen 0–5)
• 2024: Quarter-finals (lost to Rob Cross 4–5)
• 2025: Semi-finals (lost to Michael van Gerwen 1–6)

Career finals

PDC major finals: 1 (1 title)

Legend
Masters (1–0)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score[N 1]
Winner	1.	2023	Masters	Rob Cross	11–7 (l)

1. (l) = score in legs, (s) = score in sets.

Performance timeline

Tournament	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
PDC Ranked televised events
World Championship	DNQ			2R	1R	4R	4R	3R	4R	QF	QF	SF
World Masters[N 1]	Did not qualify							2R	DNQ	W	2R	1R
UK Open	1R	2R	DNQ	4R	5R	3R	6R	6R	4R	5R	5R	5R
World Matchplay	Did not qualify					1R	DNQ	1R	1R	QF	2R
World Grand Prix	Did not qualify					SF	1R	DNQ	QF	QF	1R
European Championship	DNQ		1R	DNQ		2R	DNQ		SF	QF	1R
Grand Slam	DNQ		QF	Did not qualify				RR	DNQ	2R	DNQ
Players Championship Finals	DNQ		1R	3R	QF	SF	1R	1R	2R	2R	1R
Non-ranked televised events
Premier League	Did not participate					C	C	DNP		7th	DNP
World Series Finals	NH	1R	DNQ	2R	Did not qualify					DNP	QF
Career statistics
Year-end ranking	-	107	47	38	36	22	22	30	22	17	15

PDC European Tour

Season	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
2015	Did not participate						EDT 1R	EDM DNQ	EDG DNQ
2016	DDM DNQ	GDM QF	GDT DNQ	EDM 2R	ADO 2R	EDO DNQ	IDO 2R	EDT DNQ	EDG DNQ	GDC 1R
2017	GDC 1R	GDM DNQ	GDO DNQ	EDG 1R	GDT DNQ	EDM 1R	ADO 3R	Did not qualify				EDT 2R
2018	EDO 3R	GDG 2R	Did not qualify				GDT 3R	DDO 1R	EDM 2R	Did not qualify
2019	EDO DNQ	GDC DNQ	GDG 1R	GDO 2R	ADO 2R	EDG 2R	DDM DNQ	DDO F	CDO 3R	ADC 1R	EDM DNQ	IDO DNQ	GDT 2R
2020	BDC DNQ	GDC 2R	EDG 1R	IDO DNQ
2022	IDO DNQ	GDC 2R	GDG 2R	Did not qualify				DDC 3R	EDM 2R	HDT 2R	GDO DNQ	BDO 1R	GDT 2R
2023	BSD DNP	EDO 2R	IDO DNQ	GDG 3R	ADO 2R	DDC DNQ	BDO 2R	CDO DNQ	EDG 2R	EDM DNP	GDO DNQ	HDT DNQ	GDC 2R
2024	BDO 2R	GDG 3R	IDO SF	EDG 2R	ADO 2R	BSD 1R	DDC 3R	EDO 3R	GDC 3R	FDT SF	HDT 2R	SDT 2R	CDO 2R
2025	BDO 2R	EDT 2R	IDO 2R	GDG DNP	ADO	EDG	DDC	EDO	BSD	FDT	CDO	HDT	SDT	GDC

PDC Players Championships

Season	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34
2015	BAR 3R	BAR 1R	BAR 2R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	COV 3R	COV 3R	COV 1R	CRA DNP	CRA DNP	BAR 4R	BAR 1R	WIG 1R	WIG 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	DUB 1R	DUB 1R	COV 1R	COV 1R
2016	BAR 1R	BAR 4R	BAR 4R	BAR 4R	BAR 4R	BAR 2R	BAR 2R	COV 2R	COV 4R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 2R	BAR 3R	BAR 1R	BAR 4R	BAR QF	DUB 3R	DUB 2R	BAR F	BAR 1R
2017	BAR 3R	BAR 3R	BAR 3R	BAR 3R	MIL 2R	MIL 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 2R	WIG 1R	WIG 2R	MIL 3R	MIL 2R	WIG 1R	WIG 3R	BAR 3R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	DUB 2R	DUB 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 3R
2018	BAR 2R	BAR DNP	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	MIL F	MIL 3R	BAR 4R	BAR 1R	WIG 1R	WIG 1R	MIL 2R	MIL 2R	WIG 1R	WIG 2R	BAR 4R	BAR 2R	BAR 2R	BAR 1R	DUB 1R	DUB 1R	BAR F	BAR 4R
2019	WIG 1R	WIG 4R	WIG SF	WIG 1R	BAR 2R	BAR 4R	WIG 4R	WIG 3R	BAR 2R	BAR 2R	BAR 3R	BAR 1R	BAR 3R	BAR 2R	BAR QF	BAR QF	WIG 2R	WIG 2R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	HIL 2R	HIL 3R	BAR 3R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	DUB 1R	DUB 2R	BAR 1R	BAR 4R
2020	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	WIG QF	WIG 2R	WIG DNP	WIG DNP	BAR 3R	BAR 1R	MIL 2R	MIL 3R	MIL QF	MIL 1R	MIL 4R	NIE 1R	NIE 4R	NIE 1R	NIE 2R	NIE 4R	COV 2R	COV 1R	COV 1R	COV 1R	COV 2R
2021	BOL 4R	BOL 1R	BOL 1R	BOL 1R	MIL 2R	MIL 1R	MIL 2R	MIL 1R	NIE 1R	NIE 1R	NIE 4R	NIE 1R	MIL 2R	MIL 4R	MIL 1R	MIL 1R	COV 4R	COV W	COV 2R	COV 3R	BAR 2R	BAR 2R	BAR 3R	BAR 4R	BAR SF	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	BAR W	BAR 3R	BAR 1R
2022	BAR 1R	BAR 3R	WIG 1R	WIG 2R	BAR 4R	BAR 1R	NIE 1R	NIE 1R	BAR QF	BAR 2R	BAR 1R	BAR 3R	BAR DNP	WIG 2R	WIG 3R	NIE 4R	NIE SF	BAR 3R	BAR 1R	BAR 2R	BAR 3R	BAR 3R	BAR QF	BAR SF	BAR 1R	BAR 3R	BAR 4R	BAR 4R	BAR 3R	BAR 4R
2023	BAR 3R	BAR 1R	BAR 3R	BAR 2R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	HIL 2R	HIL 1R	WIG 3R	WIG 3R	LEI 2R	LEI QF	HIL QF	HIL 1R	LEI 4R	LEI 1R	HIL 4R	HIL 3R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	BAR QF	BAR 3R	BAR QF	BAR 4R	BAR 1R	BAR QF	BAR 2R	BAR DNP	BAR 3R	BAR 2R
2024	WIG 3R	WIG 4R	LEI 3R	LEI F	HIL 3R	HIL 2R	LEI W	LEI 4R	HIL QF	HIL 1R	HIL DNP	HIL DNP	MIL 1R	MIL 1R	MIL SF	MIL 2R	MIL 2R	MIL 3R	MIL W	WIG 4R	WIG 1R	MIL 2R	MIL F	WIG DNP	WIG W	WIG 2R	WIG 4R	WIG 1R	LEI 4R	LEI 2R
2025	WIG 2R	WIG F	ROS W	ROS 2R	LEI 2R	LEI 2R	DNP		LEI 2R	LEI 3R	LEI 4R	LEI 1R	ROS 2R	ROS 4R	HIL	HIL	LEI	LEI	LEI	HIL	HIL	MIL	MIL	MIL	HIL	HIL	LEI	LEI	LEI	WIG	WIG	WIG	WIG	WIG

Performance Table Legend
W	Won the tournament	F	Finalist	SF	Semifinalist	QF	Quarterfinalist	#R RR Prel.	Lost in # round Round-robin Preliminary round	DQ	Disqualified
DNQ	Did not qualify	DNP	Did not participate	WD	Withdrew	NH	Tournament not held			NYF	Not yet founded

Notes

1. Before 2025 this was a non ranked event.