Introduction
Henry Coates produced one of the stories of the darts season. On 28 July 2026, the 20-year-old from Matlock in Derbyshire won Players Championship 25 in Hildesheim, Germany, beating Australia’s Damon Heta 8-4 in the final with a 104.88 average.
What made it remarkable was that Coates did not hold a PDC Tour Card. He only got into the event as a top-up player from the Challenge Tour after a wave of withdrawals, and became just the fifth player ever to win a PDC ranking title without a Tour Card.
Searches for “Henry Coates age” and “Henry Coates darts” often return unrelated people with the same name. This biography focuses on Henry Coates the darts player and covers his age, family background, junior career, title wins, earnings and personal life, using only facts we could source.
Contents
Henry Coates Quick Bio
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Full name | Henry Coates |
| Date of birth | 3 July 2006 |
| Age | 20 |
| Home town | Matlock, Derbyshire, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Profession | Darts player |
| Started darts | Aged two, with a magnetic dartboard |
| Junior academy | Jamie Caven’s academy in Derby |
| Education | Chesterfield College (Level 3 Sport) |
| Family business | Butcher’s shop in Darley Dale |
| Junior highlight | Captained England to Junior Darts World Cup win in Gibraltar (2022) |
| Development Tour title | Event 24, Wigan (October 2024) |
| Biggest title | Players Championship 25, Hildesheim (28 July 2026) |
| Final score | Beat Damon Heta 8-4 |
| Tour Card | No (Challenge Tour player at time of win) |
| Prize money for PC25 | £15,000 |
| Nine-darter | Challenge Tour, June 2024 |
| Equipment sponsor | Unicorn Darts (deal signed 2022) |
| Signature darts | Unicorn Henry Coates Phase 2 (steel tip) |
| Girlfriend | Has a girlfriend, name not publicly confirmed |
| Height | Not publicly confirmed |
| Net worth | Not publicly confirmed |
Early Life and Family Background
Henry Coates was born on 3 July 2006. A 2022 report on his sponsorship deal noted he would turn 16 on that date, and later reports fit that timeline, describing him as 19 in early June and 20 after his July title. He grew up in Matlock, Derbyshire.
He comes from a family of butchers. Coates has said he is the fifth generation of his family to work in the trade, and he works part-time at the family butcher’s shop in Darley Dale. He joked that he prefers to stay away from the heaviest butcher’s knives.
Darts runs in the family too. His father played in a local pub darts league, and Henry has an older brother. Names and details of other family members have not been made public, and we have not included private information about them.
How Henry Coates Started in Darts
Coates caught the darts bug remarkably early. When he was two, he was given a magnetic dartboard, and by his third Christmas he was asking for a proper board and real darts. Recalling his parents’ stories, he said he was “running around in a nappy not wanting to stop”.
Because he was too small to reach the board, he practised standing on a chair to throw from regulation height. He joined a local pub league as a young boy, and reports say he was regularly beating adults by the age of eight. At ten he hit a 180 for Derbyshire.
He then joined Jamie Caven’s junior darts academy in Derby, where he won his first official competition aged nine. He has said he was inspired as a youngster by Terry “The Bull” Jenkins, and he later returned to the academy to help coach younger players.
Education
Coates studied for a Level 3 qualification in Sport and Physical Activity at Chesterfield College. In 2022 the college described him as the number one ranked junior darts player in the world.
He told the college he hoped to go into coaching or football analytics after his course, giving him a career to fall back on if darts did not work out. Football remains one of his other interests.
Henry Coates Career
Junior Darts and England Captaincy
Coates competed on the Junior Darts Corporation circuit from 2019 to 2023. In June 2019 he won his first JDC title at Event Nine of the International Junior Tour in Sheffield, beating Nathan Care 5-3.
He worked his way up from England’s B team to the A team, and in November 2022 he captained England to victory at the Junior Darts World Cup in Gibraltar. That England side included a young Luke Littler, who later became a world champion. Coates also featured in a BBC documentary following elite junior darts.
In June 2022 he re-signed with Unicorn Darts on a three-year deal. “Unicorn have been so supportive of me from day one really,” he said at the time.
Q-School and the Challenge Tour
Coates tried to win a PDC Tour Card at Q-School in 2023 and 2024 but missed out both times. That left him playing on the Challenge Tour and the Development Tour, the PDC’s second tier and youth series.
On 7 June 2024, aged 17, he hit his first nine-dart finish on the PDC circuit, at Challenge Tour 11, opening a leg with two 180s and a 141 checkout against Steve Haggerty. He still lost the match 5-3.
First Development Tour Title
In October 2024 he won his first Development Tour title, beating Owen Roelofs 5-3 in the final of Event 24 at Robin Park Tennis Centre in Wigan.
Challenge Tour Form
Coates reached the final of Challenge Tour 11 in Hildesheim on 1 May, losing 5-3 to Levy Frauenfelder. By late September he was 11th on the Challenge Tour Order of Merit.
He also started picking up ProTour call-ups. On 4 June, at Players Championship 20 at Arena MK in Milton Keynes, the then 19-year-old beat Andrew Gilding and Danny Noppert, then edged Joe Cullen 6-5 in the quarter-finals. In only his fourth Players Championship appearance, he lost the semi-final 7-6 to Ross Smith after missing three darts at double 20 for a place in the final. Smith went on to win the event.
Henry Coates, Darts Sensation: Players Championship 25
The win that turned Henry Coates into a darts sensation came in Germany. Sky Sports reported that he had “sensationally won his maiden title”, and German broadcaster ran.de headlined his victory as a “crazy sensation” (“irre Sensation”) by a newcomer. At the time he was ranked around 125th in the world, according to ran.de.
Coates was called into Players Championship 25 at Halle 39 in Hildesheim after 21 Tour Card holders withdrew. Before the event he had been called up for only eight of the previous 24 Players Championships.
He beat Filip Bereza, then won deciding legs against Karel Sedlacek and Mervyn King. He beat Bradley Brooks 6-4, whitewashed Christian Kist 6-0 with a 106.09 average, and beat Jeffrey de Graaf 7-3 in the semi-finals.
In the final against Damon Heta, who had once beaten him 6-0, Coates won 8-4, sealing the title with an 88 checkout on the bull. “This probably won’t sink in until next week,” he said. “Hopefully this is just the start.”
He joined Joe Murnan (2015), Krzysztof Ratajski (2018), Scott Williams (2022) and Wesley Plaisier (2024) as the only players to win a PDC ranking event without a Tour Card. The Weekly Dartscast noted he was the youngest to do so in the Tour Card era.
The Ratajski Rule
His win triggered the so-called Ratajski rule, which makes a non-Tour Card ranking title winner the first reserve for the remaining Players Championship events that year. Darts World reported that Coates was the first player who actually needed the rule to secure his place.
The next day, at Players Championship 26, he averaged 109.34 in one match before losing to Justin Hood. After the title he celebrated quietly: “We went for a Chinese and went back to the hotel and played a few cards.”
What Darts Does Henry Coates Use?
Henry Coates is sponsored by Unicorn Darts, a relationship that dates back to his junior days. He re-signed with the brand on a three-year deal in June 2022, aged 15, and has stayed with them since.
The phrase “Henry Coates darts Phase 2” refers to his signature dart, the Unicorn Henry Coates Phase 2. According to retailer A-Z Darts, which lists the steel-tip version, the dart was built in collaboration with Coates. The listing describes a straight, centre-balanced barrel made from 90% tungsten with a black PVD coating, Unicorn’s Wraith grip and precision V-cuts at the nose and rear.
The same listing gives the barrel length as 53.40mm and the maximum diameter as 6.30mm. It also names black Gripper 4 shafts, Unicorn “PLUS” UltraFly flights and black Volute steel points as the supplied set-up.
The weight details on that listing are inconsistent. The product title says 23g, while the specifications give 22g for the barrel and 24g for the full dart. Which weight Coates himself throws in competition is not publicly confirmed, and a set bought in the shops may not exactly match his own match darts.
The A-Z Darts listing also refers to Coates by the nickname “Treble H”. We have not found the nickname used by the PDC or in the match reports we checked, so treat it as a brand nickname rather than an official walk-on name.
Henry Coates Girlfriend and Personal Life
Coates has mentioned having a girlfriend. Asked who he would tell first after his Hildesheim win, he said: “It’ll probably be my dad or my girlfriend.” However, he has not named her publicly, so her identity is not publicly confirmed, and we have not speculated.
Away from the oche he works in his family’s butcher’s shop and follows football. Fellow young players Nathan Potter and Charlie Manby were among those he celebrated with after his title.
Prize Money and Net Worth
Henry Coates’s net worth is not publicly confirmed, and we do not estimate it.
His Players Championship 25 win was worth £15,000, according to German broadcaster ran.de, which also reported he had earned around £4,650 that year before the title. By 27 September he had £7,100 in Challenge Tour prize money, according to Wikipedia’s Challenge Tour records.
He also has an equipment deal with Unicorn Darts, though the value has never been disclosed.
Height and Playing Style of Henry Coates, Darts Player
Henry Coates’s height is not publicly confirmed by the PDC or any reliable source.
On the board he has shown he can score heavily. He averaged over 104 in three of his last four matches in Hildesheim, including 104.88 in the final, and later posted a 109.34 average at Players Championship 26.
Social Media
We could not verify which personal social media accounts Henry Coates officially runs, so we have not listed any handles. His results are covered by the PDC’s official channels, and Unicorn Darts has announced his sponsorship deals publicly.
Latest News About Henry Coates
Following his July win, Coates moved into provisional qualifying places for the PDC World Championship, the Players Championship Finals and, as a ProTour title winner, the Grand Slam of Darts. He was also first reserve for the remaining Players Championship events.
He has said he would like to earn a Tour Card. A strong run at the World Championship at Alexandra Palace could help him do so through the rankings. Final qualification for the end-of-year events had not been officially confirmed in the sources we checked.
FAQs
1. How old is Henry Coates?
Henry Coates was born on 3 July 2006, which makes him 20 years old.
2. Where is Henry Coates from?
He is from Matlock in Derbyshire, England, and works part-time at his family’s butcher’s shop in Darley Dale.
3. Does Henry Coates have a girlfriend?
Yes, he has mentioned a girlfriend in interviews, but he has not named her publicly.
4. Why is Henry Coates called a darts sensation?
He won PDC Players Championship 25 in Hildesheim on 28 July, beating Damon Heta 8-4 without holding a Tour Card. He became only the fifth player to do so, and earned £15,000 for the title.
5. What darts does Henry Coates use?
He is sponsored by Unicorn Darts and has a signature dart, the Unicorn Henry Coates Phase 2, a 90% tungsten straight barrel. The exact weight he throws in matches is not publicly confirmed.
6. Does Henry Coates have a PDC Tour Card?
No. He was a Challenge Tour player when he won in Hildesheim, though the win gave him first-reserve status for the remaining Players Championship events.
Conclusion
Henry Coates has gone from throwing at a magnetic dartboard as a toddler to beating one of the PDC’s top players in a ranking final. Along the way he captained England’s juniors to a world title, hit a nine-darter and won on the Development Tour.
His Players Championship 25 win put him in rare company and opened the door to the sport’s biggest stages. Without a Tour Card, he took his chance when it came.
