STEPHEN BUNTING is one of the top darts players in the world and among the most popular with fans – which has only grown with his incredible run to the semi-finals of the World Championships.
Here we take a look at his background and his phenomenal career in the sport so far.
Stephen Bunting, born on April 9, 1985 in Fazakerley, north Liverpool is a professional darts player who goes by the nickname The Bullet and is currently ranked 16 in the world.
In October 2012 he won the Winmau World Masters and Zuiderduin Masters, finishing the year as the British Darts Organisation (BDO) and World Darts Federation (WDF) world number one.
Stephen successfully defended his World Masters title in 2013 — becoming only the fourth man to do so after Bob Anderson, Eric Bristow and Martin Adams.
Following winning the BDO World Darts Championship in 2014, Bunting joined the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) the same year and rapidly climbed up the organisation’s world rankings.
He made an immediate impact on the circuit by winning his very first PDC Pro Tour event at a UK Open Qualifier.
In 2015 Stephen made his Premier League Darts debut after reaching the quarter-finals in his first PDC World Championship at Alexandra Palace, and then made the semi-finals of the UK Open weeks later.
During his run at Ally Pally, Prince Harry was in attendance as Bunting defeated James Wade 4-1.
After the match he said: “I didn’t know Harry was here. I’m going to have a pint with him now! But it is great that darts is getting this type of coverage.”
Stephen has also made the semi-finals of the World Grand Prix and reached the same stage during the 2021 World Championship.
He won his third PDC ranking event at the Players Championship in July 2021.
The Bullet made a cracking start to the 2024 season after he beat Michael van Gerwen to win the Cazoo Darts Masters, Bunting’s first televised PDC title.
He claimed a whopping £65,000 for his triumph in Milton Keynes.
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The World No16 walks out onto the oche to the David Guetta club banger Titanium featuring Sia.
Bunting is married to Keila and the couple have two sons, Toby, who was born in 2012 and Theo – who was born nine months to the day after Bunting won the Masters.
Bunting has also become a major social media sensation with the slogan ‘Let’s Go Bunting Mental!’
He has an army of fans who cheer him in every match and has racked up 200k followers on TikTok, 170k on Instagram and another 100k on Twitter.
Bunting is currently ranked No 8 in the PDC Order of Merit and has racked up prize money of £486,000 in the last two years.
That puts him ahead of the likes of former world champions Gerwyn Price, Gary Anderson and Peter Wright.
As mentioned above, he had a brilliant win at the Masters in Feburary, scooping £65k.
He also reached the fourth round of last year’s World Darts Championships – which would have landed him £35,000 – and got to the quarter-finals of the UK Open in March, which netted another £15,000.
Bunting has been in decent form all year, reaching three quarter-finals (£6,000 each) and two semi-finals (£8,500 each) on the European tour as well as SIX finals for the Players Championship.
Although he didn’t win any of those finals in that series, he didn’t finish second in the overall rankings with £97,000 of prize money.
In total, he has earned career prize money of over £1.8million.
It is estimated that Bunting can make up to £300 for a branded post on social media, but will depend on the platform and the partner.
Bunting also has several endorsement deals that bring in an undisclosed amount of cash.
According to his website he has deals with Target darts, Tuff Stuff workwear and various other groups.
There is also personalised merchandise available to purchase.
His incredible run to the semi-finals of the World Darts Championship has also landed him a guaranteed £100,000 – at least.
Should he beat Michael van Gerwen he could either win £200,000 as the runner-up of the £500,000 overall top prize.
