We’re all familiar with the PDC and the wonderful tournaments under its banner such as the Cazoo World Championships, the Jack’s World Series of Darts and the Betfred World Matchplay, however the PDC wasn’t the original big darts organisation that belonged to the British Darts Organisation (BDO). It wasn’t until after the rise, then decline in popularity of darts in the 1970’s and 1980’s that the PDC in its original incarnation of the World Darts Council (WDC) was formed.
1970’s- mid 1980’s Darts First Glory Period
Led by the British Darts Organisation (BDO), darts had a glory period in the 1970’s and mid 1980’s regularly having televised tournaments and some darts players being famous sportsmen in the UK. Names such as Jocky Wilson, Eric Bristow and John Lowe became household names during this period. By the end of that decade, the popularity of darts had
plummeted with the only tournament televised being the Embassy World Championship. Sponsorship and prizemoney dried up leading to dissent amongst the top BDO players.
Having no confidence with the way the BDO (and darts) was being run, the top 16 ranked BDO players (along with input from promoters elected to form their own organisation, the World Darts Council and broke away from the BDO.
Birth of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC)
During the glory years darts tournaments featured on the BBC and ITV and was covered in detail in the print and on popular sports programs such as World of Sport. The BBC first broadcast darts with the 1975 British Open, while ITV covered tournaments such as the British and World Matchplay as well as some international tournaments.
By the late 1970’s darts was booming, experiencing its highest ever popularity with increased levels of sponsorship and prizemoney. It wasn’t to last though.
Darts coverage (and revenue) had declined in the late 1980’s (also not helped with the ending of the World of Sport program) with all darts tournaments removed from television coverage except for the Embassy World Championship. Top players were dismayed at the perceived lack of leadership at the BDO and did not believe the BDO could turn the situation around.
Player and manager disharmony eventually culminated in the 1992 bombshell creation of the WDC. The original formation of the PDC was as the World Darts Council (WDC), made up of the top 16 players in the world along with (and funded by) Tommy Cox, Dick Allix and John Markovic.
Whilst the WDC aligned players initially played in the BDO tournaments (wearing a WDC logo on their shirts during tournaments) the BDO banned the rebels players eventually leading to legal action from the WDC. The was the beginning a bitter, acrimonious period for darts with hundreds of thousand of pounds spent on legal fees, money that could have been put towards prize money and the growth of the game.
Rise of the PDC
While the legal action between to two parties was happening in the background, the WDC was growing. Given they had the best players in the world under their organisation, the control of darts could only the way of WDC and they continued to go from strength to strength.
After legal hostilities between the BDO and the WDC ended in 1997 (as a result of a Tomlin order), the PDC (as they were now known as) grew exponentially, as did the levels of prizemoney, sponsorship and most importantly coverage and fan engagement.
The PDC signed an extensive broadcasting agreement with Sky Sports (still a broadcaster of darts to this day) with Sky Sports introducing a wide range of broadcast initiatives that also helped grow the game of darts. ITV also began to cover PDC tournaments and in 2016 the BBC eventually became a PDC broadcaster with the Champions League of Darts.
International broadcasters of PDC darts include Fox Sports in Australia and Dazn in countries such as Germany and Canada. The BDO did their best to compete however nearly all the top players ended up with the PDC and as a result BDO prizemoney kept decreasing until the BDO eventually folded in 2020.
The PDC, under the stewardship of Barry Hearn (PDC owner since 2001) kept growing both within the UK and also abroad, establishing events all over the world with including strong European dart pockets in countries like The Netherlands and Germany as well as increasing exposure in the USA, Asia and Australia.
PDC major tournaments and prize money
We’ve previously discussed the PDC calendar here, however in summary the major PDC tournaments and their prizemoney are:
Cazoo World Darts Championship (2021 £2,500,000)
Cazoo Premier League (£1,000,000)
Cazoo Masters (£220,000)
Cazoo Players Championship Finals (£600,000)
Cazoo UK Open (£450,000)
Cazoo World Cup of Darts (£350,000)
Betfred World Matchplay (£800,000)
Boylesports World Grand Prix (£550,000)
Whilst the BDO under Olly Croft initially took darts into the mainstream it was clear that darts had lost its way and needed a new way forward. The WDC now PDC was needed and has taken the proverbial torch from BDO and continued to lift this great game to greater heights.
Darts is very strong in countries like The Netherlands and Germany and is gaining a footprint in other European countries such as Belgium and Spain. Asia and the USA are the next frontiers to conquer.
Darts is now in a great place. That’s not to say that the sport doesn’t owe a debt of gratitude to pioneers such as Croft however the game is now in a great place under the PDC and only keeps growing.