[1] The tournament was first announced on the official PDC website in mid-April under the name 'Championship of Darts'.
The inaugural championship – the 2008 Championship League Darts – was held at the Crondon Park Golf Club in Essex and featured a prize fund of £189,000 and a place in the Grand Slam of Darts for the winner.
The choice to broadcast the tournament over the Internet had been partly inspired by the Championship League snooker event and was also a successor to the live streaming of certain matches from the Blue Square UK Open regional finals from the PDC Pro Tour.
The streaming was aided by the company Perform, a digital sports agency.
[1] Live streaming of every game was available on several sports betting websites, and was available internationally except in the United States of America where, for legal reasons, the Championship could not be shown.