The 2003 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship was the tenth World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since its split from the British Darts Organisation in 1993. The tournament took place between 27 December 2002 and 5 January 2003 at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet, England. Ladbrokes (who sponsored the 1996 event with their Vernon's brand) took over sponsorship of the event from Skol. The field at the televised stages was expanded for the first time since 1999, adding an extra qualifying round that increased the total number of players from 32 to 40. John Part defeated the defending champion and number one seed, Phil Taylor, in the final. This ended Taylor's streak of eight successive World titles and 44 successive victories at the Circus Tavern. This was Part's second world championship, having also won the 1994 BDO World Championship (the first tournament after the split). As Raymond van Barneveld won the rival BDO World Darts Championship the same year, this was the first time that both versions of the world title were held by a player from outside the British Isles.

Qualifying criteria

The qualifying criteria for the World Championship were as follows:

Seeds

• #🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Phil Taylor • #🇨🇦 John Part • #🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ronnie Baxter • #🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Alan Warriner • # Roland Scholten • #🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Peter Manley • #🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Colin Lloyd • #🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Dennis Smith • #🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Denis Ovens • #🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Andy Jenkins • #🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Richie Burnett • #🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Dave Askew • #🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 John Lowe • #🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Kevin Painter • # Jamie Harvey • #🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Peter Evison

Prize money

Results

First round

All matches are the best of 7 sets.

Last 32

Representation from different countries

This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the 1st round.