Raymond van Barneveld (born April 20 1967 in The Hague, Netherlands), nickname Barney, is a professional darts player. As of 2006 he has been crowned BDO World Darts Champion on four separate occasions. He is the most successful Dutch darts player ever, and has single-handedly put the game of darts on the map in The Netherlands.

Following a 3-6 defeat to Welshman Richie Burnett in the 1995 World Championship final, the former postman took his first world title in 1998 by overcoming his former conqueror by a scoreline of 6-5. He successfully defended the trophy one year later by the same winning margin, this time against Ronnie Baxter of England. He is only the second player in the tournament's history to have launched a successful defence of his title; the other being Eric Bristow. It wasn't until 2003 before Raymond appeared in another world final, duly completing a hat-trick of victories by beating Richie Davis of Wales 6-3.

A fourth title followed in 2005 (with a 6-2 triumph over Martin Adams of England) and on January 15, 2006 van Barneveld entered his sixth final aiming to equal Eric Bristow's record of five BDO world titles. On this occasion however, his hopes were ended by 21 year old fellow countryman Jelle Klaasen who prevailed 7-5.

He has also won the prestigious Winmau World Masters title twice: once in 2001 when he recorded a win in the final over Jarkko Komula of Finland and again in 2005 when he beat Swedish sausage maker, Goran Klemme in the final. Other major darts tournaments that he has won at least twice include The World Darts Trophy and The International Darts League.

On February 15, 2006, van Barneveld announced his move from the BDO to the PDC. Subsequently, he was also chosen to take part in the 2006 Premier League Dart competition. For five months, van Barneveld and six of the biggest names from the PDC circuit will compete in a league table, with matches held across the country at different venues. Within 24 hours after his big move, he won his first match in the Premier League Darts Competition, against Ronnie Baxter: 8-1.

The following month, on March 23rd in a PDC match in Bournemouth, van Barneveld hit his first televised nine dart finish on the way to beating Peter Manley 8-3. After the match, he said "It's unbelievable - I've hit a few nine-darters in smaller tournaments but never on television".

"I've not got many dreams left in darts any more. One of them is to become the PDC World Champion and another was to hit a televised nine-darter, so I've achieved one of them."

Later that night, van Barneveld took on 13-time World Champion Phil Taylor, in a match billed as "the greatest darts match in years." In a match where neither player was at his best, "The Power" took a 7-4 lead before van Barneveld powered back to earn a 7-7 draw.