The split in the darts world

 Since the 1993 there has been 2 darts governing bodies the BDO & the PDC but that has not always been the case & some would say it shouldn’t be the case now.

Before I start giving my opinions on this here is some background information on the matter

The BDO was formed in 1973 and would be the event organisers for grassroots players (pub players) through to the elite players of that period , once it started gaining popularity TV companies started taking an interest and showing various events such as The News of the World Championship , World Masters , British and World Matchplay and various others which meant prize money started to increase.

However during the mid 80’s ITV decided to stop showing the events therefore prize money started to fall & the lack of exposure made it harder for the players that were probably part-time players to earn what they would call a living through events or personal appearances & exhibitions.

When things didn’t start to improve 16 players Phil Taylor , Eric Bristow , John Lowe , Dennis Priestley , Alan Warriner , Bob Anderson , Jocky Wilson , Rod Harrington , Keith Deller , Cliff Lazarenko , Peter Evison , Jamie Harvey , Ritchie Gardner , Mike Gregory , Chris Jones and Kevin Spiolek decided to break away & try to set their own governing body which would enable them to hold their own events & eventually their own World Championships , obviously the powers that be of the BDO weren’t too keen to lose there best attributes (their best players) so threatened legal action against them all and banning them all from competing in any further BDO tournaments

After a long drawn out legal battle the 16 rebels as they were described were awarded the right to form their own governing body which became the PDC and the rest as they say is history……

Here is my opinion on this subject , the BDO does do good in the fact it holds its own women’s tournament and on the grassroots aspect of the sport & yes in my opinion darts is a sport  but that is where it ends as far as I’m concerned.

The lack of quality on what they call the World Championships is shocking and any of their good talent soon defects to the PDC where there is more exposure due to Sky’s excellent coverage and a lot lot more money to be earned.

Anyone that watches any tournament on Sky can see that it’s a spectacle for the everyone involved , from the MC usually the excellent John McDonald , the commentators ,  the walk on girls , the players walk on music , the players shirts & especially the fans , they cheer for their favourites and boo the ones they don’t like , its all part of the excitement.

The BDO events are like watching 2 blokes throw darts in a morgue with the odd hand clap when someone eventually hits a 180 (maybe a little harsh but I simply can’t watch the BDO)

Since the PDC have been running the Grand Slam of Darts where they invite the more successful BDO players to compete against PDC players it gives them a good opportunity to earn some good money and see if they are good enough , the ones that do well tend to switch codes soon after.

One man who has declined every invitation to play against the best is one Martin “Wolfie” Adams who is Mr BDO but in my opinion wouldn’t be in the top 8 maybe top 16 in the PDC.

Now this is a man who is a 3 time World Champion so in theory at the time he would have been the best the BDO had to offer , why wouldn’t you take the chance to test yourself further & prove to the darting world that you are the very best dart player in the world & play in the mentioned tournament??

A point about my comment about Adams wouldn’t be very high in the PDC is I’ll use another former BDO world champion who has since switched in Ted Hankey , granted he has had some health issues which he has now recovered from but he is currently ranked 88^th and hasn’t qualified for this years World Championships. This is a player that quite often dominated tournaments in the BDO so tells me there is a huge gulf in the standard.

When was the last time anyone seen a 9 darter in a BDO event , granted only a couple are shown on TV but I can’t remember any to be honest , where they are quite a regular occurrence at PDC events.

Should there be 2 different World Champions , in my opinion no – how can you call someone the World Champion of darts when in my eyes you have one tournament where the players are averaging in the 100’s constantly and you really do have to play well to win a match never mind the whole tournament & the other I’d imagine averages don’t go much higher than high 80’s & is basically players that play in a pub on a Monday night ( probably slightly better than your average Joe).

There has only ever been one head to head Champion vs Champion in 2004 which saw the BDO World Champion “The Viking” Andy Fordham vs the PDC World Champion Phil Taylor which in the end was a no contest when Fordham conceded the match due to breathing difficulties & an asthma attack believed to be brought on by the heat of the lights on stage. Taylor was 5-2 up at the time.

This should happen every year then that person would have certainly earned the right to be called the best player in world but I doubt will happen again.

Back to my point of comparing the two governing bodies , my next gripe is the prize money!! Last years PDC Champion received a cheque for £200,000 and the total prize money available was  £1,015,000 compare that to the BDO where the champion received a cheque for £100,000 and a total of £258,000.

Personally I would like to see governing body so at least then all the players would have the chance to play for big money in front of big crowds & then we would finally find out who the best darts player in the world actually is , my money would still be on Phil Taylor followed by MVG , Adrian Lewis and if I’m being honest the only BDO player who would possibly be in the top 16 would be Scott Waites (who has had success in the GSOD) but he is another one that is refusing to switch , I guess being a big fish in a small pond suits some people , whether they just find it easier or its an ego thing where they can say that they’re the best of a bad bunch.

I can never see it happening as a couple of years ago Barry Hearn offered to buy the BDO for £1 million but it was rejected & Hearn has said it would have been a waste of his money as he’d be lucky to one or two good players out of the deal.

Would Phil Taylor have won 16 World titles if the two were unified we’ll never know but my guess would be if not all 16 he’d be very close to that number and in my opinion is the greatest player ever to have played the game.