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The British Darts Organisation, or the BDO for short, is a darts organisation. It was founded on 7 January 1973 by Olly Croft, OBE in the front room of his home in Muswell Hill. The BDO is a founder member of the World Darts Federation which was formed in 1976.
The BDO comprises 64 member counties in Britain and organises tournaments for grass roots players right the way up to professional level.
The BDO set the rules which govern the game of darts, including the size of the throwing oche (2.37m / 7ft 9 ¼ inches) and the height and dimensions of the board. The BDO organised the first World Professional Darts Championship in 1978, known for many years as The Embassy - due to its sponsorship by Imperial Tobacco. It is now known as the Lakeside World Professional Darts Championship - or Lakeside for short.
The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation, established in the United Kingdom during 1992, when a group of leading professional players split from the officially-recognised British Darts Organisation. Barry Hearn, a long-time established sports promoter, is its current chairman.
The PDC developed and holds several championship competitions including its own annual World Professional Darts Championship. It also runs its own world rankings based on players' performances. The PDC has various ranking competitions that are held in the annual calendar such as the UK Open, Las Vegas Desert Classic, World Matchplay and the World Championship held at the Alexandra Palace, London.
The World Darts Federation (WDF) was formed in 1976, by representatives of fifteen (15) nations. Membership is open to the official National organizing body for Darts in all nations. The WDF encourages the promotion of the Sport of Darts among and between those bodies, in an effort to gain international recognition for Darts as a major Sport.
All major British Darts Organisation and Professional Darts Corporation darts tournaments
The World Professional Darts Championship is the most important tournament in the darts calendar. Originally held as an annual event between 1978 and 1993, players then broke off into two separate organisations after a controversial split in the game. Each organisation, the British Darts Organisation (BDO) and the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) now organise their own World Championship in January. As a result there is no longer a unified World Champion in the game.
The BDO have organised their version dating back to 1978, when it was held at the Heart of the Midlands nightclub, Nottingham. The following year it moved to the Jollees Cabaret Club, Stoke, where it stayed until 1985. Since then it has been held at the Lakeside Country Club at Frimley Green, Surrey.
The PDC version started in 1994 after "the split", with a field of players containing all active previous World Champions from the BDO. It was originally staged at Purfleet's Circus Tavern, Essex before moving to Alexandra Palace for the 2008 World Championship.
Raymond van Barneveld (born 20 April 1967 in The Hague, Netherlands), nickname Barney and The Man, is a professional darts player. He is a five time World Darts Champion, two time UK Open Champion and the Las Vegas Desert Classic Champion. From January to June 2008, he was the PDC world number one ranked player.
His victory in the 2007 final, added to his four previous BDO Championships brought him level with Eric Bristow as a five-time world champion. He is the most successful Dutch darts player ever, and has a significant effect in putting the game of darts on the map in the Netherlands.
The Whyte & Mackay Premier League is a darts tournament which launched on January 20, 2005 on Sky Sports. The league is now played weekly from February to May, having originally started as a fortnightly fixture. The tournament originally featured seven players and now sees eight of the biggest names from the PDC circuit competing in a double round-robin format, with matches held across the country at different venues.
The current sponsors are Whyte & Mackay who succeeded Holsten having signed a three-year contract to support the event in October 2007.Whyte & Mackay to sponsor Premier League planetdarts.tv The prize fund will rise from £265,000 to £340,000 in 2008 - with the guaranteed minimum of £20,000 (previously £15,000) for each player that qualifies. The top prize of £100,000 matches the prize of the 2008 PDC. World Champion.
Phil Taylor has dominated this event, winning all four competitions to date. He went unbeaten throughout the first three seasons before James Wade ended his 44 match run in the first match of the 2008 season.
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The split in darts refers to an acrimonious dispute between top professional darts players and the game's governing body which began in 1992 and resulted in the formation of a new organisation to arrange tournaments - including a second version of the World Professional Darts Championship. The effect of this split is visible many years later as there are still two pools of players, two organisations and two world championships.
The Topic International Darts League was a darts tournament held at the Triavium in Nijmegen, Netherlands. Raymond van Barneveld dominated the tournament, held in his home country, winning it on three of the five occasions it was held. Gary Anderson was the final champion, having claimed the title in 2007, when the tournament also became the first major event to witness two nine dart finishes.
Held in May, it was the second leg of the BDO’s Grand Slam title of televised majors, along with the World Darts Trophy, the Winmau World Masters and the Lakeside World Professional Championship.
It began as a tournament for BDO players, but following van Barneveld's move to the PDC, Dutch broadcaster SBS-6 were able to grant five invitations to non-WDF affiliated players for the first time in 2006, in order to maintain interest in the event. The number of invitations was increased to 20 in 2007 as more Dutch players, including Jelle Klaasen and Michael van Gerwen, had moved to the PDC. This was done with the agreement of the Schoofs Management & Events/Maximum Score - the owner and promoter of the tournament. http://www.dartswdf.com/aa_darts/newsarchives/newsarchjan2006.html.
The Winmau World Masters is one of the longest running and most prestigious professional darts tournaments, which began in 1974 - even before the current World Professional Championship. The tournament has been sponsored by Darts board manufacturer, Winmau for 30 years and they have currently extended their contract to sponsor the event until 2010.
It was the final leg of the BDO’s Grand Slam title of televised majors, along with the Topic International Darts League, the Bavaria World Darts Trophy and the Lakeside World Professional Championship. However, it is now the only major other than the World Championship. It is the second biggest tournament on the BDO circuit, being one of only two majors currently available. The champion is prestigiuosly referred to as the World Master
The Masters of Darts has a unique place in darts history as it was the first televised tournament featuring the darts players of the two rival organisations, the British Darts Organisation (BDO) and the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) since they separated in 1993. There had been two "champion versus champion" matches held, but this tournament held in 2005 was the first major event featuring players from each organisation.
The first Masters of Darts took place between February 7 and February 13, 2005 at the ExpoCenter in Hengelo, The Netherlands. The best four players from both federations were invited. The tournament was arranged by PenH Events, who managed to secure a three-year contract with Raymond van Barneveld, a BDO player at the time, taking part in the tournament. The host broadcaster was RTL5 in the Netherlands, who had also secured a three-year deal to broadcast the event. The tournament was not held in 2006 and by the time it was revived for 2007, SBS6 took over as Dutch broadcasters for the event.
At the time the 2007 tournament details were announced there were four BDO players, five PDC players and an unnamed wildcard scheduled to appear. In the weeks leading up to the event all four BDO players switched to the PDC making the tournament effectively a PDC tournament.
The Professional Darts Corporation's World Championships began in 1994 as a result of a breakaway from the British Darts Organisation. See also World Professional Darts Championship
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The 2008 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship, sponsored by Ladbrokes, was the 15th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The 2008 event began on December 17, 2007 (a tradition for the event to begin in the previous calendar year) and the final was played on New Year's Day for the second year in succession. There was no play on December 23, 24, 25 or 31. Tournament structure and prize money
John Part won his third World Championship, beating the qualifier Kirk Shepherd 7-2 in the final. He joined Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld, Eric Bristow and John Lowe as the only people to have won more than two world titles. He also became only one of two players to have won the PDC World Darts Championship more than once, along with Taylor. In addition, he became the first player to have won World Championships in three different venues; the Lakeside, the Circus Tavern and the Alexandra Palace, although this accolade was matched in 2009 by Phil Taylor.
Raymond van Barneveld was the defending champion having won the PDC World Championship at the first attempt in an epic final against Phil Taylor in 2007. He was knocked out in the third round with a 4-2 loss to Kevin Painter.
Phil Taylor failed to reach the final of the competition, for the first time in PDC World Championship history, after losing 5-4 to Wayne Mardle in the quarter-finals.
After being staged at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet for 14 years, the tournament moved to the Alexandra Palace in London.New venue announcement The championships had been considered to have outgrown the Circus Tavern whose capacity of 800-900 spectators was considerably smaller than some Holsten Premier League darts events in 2007 which saw crowds reaching 5,000. The Alexandra Palace was the venue of the News of the World Darts Championship between 1963 and 1977 and boasts a capacity for 2008 of 2,500.
Darts currently has two versions of the World Championship, following an acrimonious split in the game during 1992-93. The British Darts Organisation (since 1978) and the Professional Darts Corporation (since 1994) both currently stage an annual World Championship, with players only allowed to compete at one of the tournaments each year.
The Blue Square UK Open is an innovative PDC darts tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, 128 players compete in a single elimination tournament to be crowned champion.
It has earned the nickname, the "FA Cup of darts" due to the fact that the minnows can come up against the big boys. There are also no seedings for the top players which means the top players can be drawn against each other at any stage. Just like the FA Cup, a random draw takes place after each round to determine the matches for the next round. However, a slight change will be introduced from 2007 where a tournament bracket is introduced from the quarter-final stage to prevent players being forced into playing long back-to-back matches.
The tournament is well known for having a huge outsider in the final every year except 2004 (Scholten v Part).
Since 2003, the UK Open has been broadcast in June each year from the Reebok Stadium, in Bolton. Phil Taylor beat Shayne Burgess in the inaugural final. Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld won the tournament in 2006, the first ever ranking tournament with the PDC in which he has played. He knocked out 13-times World Champion Phil Taylor 11-10 en route to the final where he beat Barrie Bates 13-7. He also successfully defended the title in 2007, again beating Taylor en-route.
Taylor has achieved the perfect nine-dart finish four times in the UK Open in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008.
The 2008 Lakeside World Professional Darts Championship was the 31st World Championship staged by the British Darts Organisation and was held between January 5–13, 2008 at the Lakeside Country Club, Frimley Green, Surrey.
Martin Adams attempted to defend the title that he won at the 14th attempt in 2007 but he lost in the Semi-Finals to Mark Webster. Webster won the World Championship, beating Simon Whitlock 7-5 in the final.
Anastasia Dobromyslova won the Women's World Championship, becoming the first player to beat Trina Gulliver in the World Championship. Trina had won all of the previous seven titles.
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The 2008 Whyte & Mackay Premier League was a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). The prize money was increased by £75,000 compared to 2007. The overall fund was £340,000 with the eventual winner taking home £100,000.
Phil Taylor continued his dominance of this tournament by taking the title for the fourth year in a row despite losing for the first time in 44 matches, losing the opening game 8-6 to newcomer James Wade. Taylor beat Wade 16-8 in the final.
Sky Sports have secured television coverage of the event until 2010, and Whyte & Mackay will sponsor the tournament for the same duration - taking over from Holsten who sponsored the event in 2006 and 2007. Whyte & Mackay sign three year sponsorship deal planetdarts.tv
The 2000 Skol World Darts Championship was held between 28 December 1999–4 January 2000 at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet, Essex. The tournament is staged earlier in the calendar year than most World Championships in sport, and thus Sky television commentators claimed that Phil Taylor was the "First World Champion of the new Millennium".
Taylor continued his dominance of this event, notching up his sixth successive world championship, his eighth overall. Dennis Priestley must have considered himself unlucky to be around during these years - he suffered his fourth final loss to Taylor in five years and failed to add to his two world championship successes.
Eric Bristow's first round defeat to American, Steve Brown would virtually signal the end of the legendary player's career at the top-level. Bristow, who would continue to attempt to qualify for the championship a few times after 2000 made his last appearance in the championship, which ended his run of having appeared in a World Championship for 23 consecutive years spanning back to the inaugural World Championship of 1978. John Lowe became the only player with an unbroken appearance record.
The 1999 Skol World Darts Championship was held between 28 December 1998–3 January 1999 at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet, Essex. After five years, organisers the Professional Darts Corporation scrapped the group stages and the tournament became a straight knock-out for the first time. The third-place play-off which had been a feature for the previous two years was also abandoned. The field was expanded from 24 to 32 players - the biggest influx of players since the PDC separated from the British Darts Organisation in 1992/93.
Phil Taylor emerged as champion for the fifth successive year, taking his overall tally to seven World Championships. He had now eclipsed both Eric Bristow, who won five World Darts titles and Steve Davis and (at the time) Stephen Hendry six times World Snooker champions - both targets of Taylor when he began accumulating world championships.
The PDC Pro Tour is a series of non-televised darts tournaments organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). They comprise Professional Dart Players Association (PDPA) Players Championships and UK Open Regional Finals.
The Professional Dart Players Association (PDPA) is an organisation for professional dart players. Its intention is to look after the interests of professional players through an annually elected Board of six current professionals.
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Featuring all major PDC and BDO Darts tournaments staged in 2006.
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The 2007 Keukenconcurrent Masters of Darts was the second staging of a Dutch darts tournament featuring five top Dutch and five top English players.
The event witnessed a nine dart finish by Dutch teenager Michael van Gerwen, who became the youngest player to achieve the feat on television. Although the English players won the majority of the matches to clinch the team tournament 15-10, the singles title was won by a Dutchman, Raymond van Barneveld.
The 2005 Masters of Darts was a unique darts tournament as it was the first televised confrontation between the darts players of the two rival organisations, the British Darts Organisation (BDO) and the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). There had been two "champion versus champion" matches held, but this tournament was the first major event featuring players from each organisation.
This inaugural Masters of Darts took place between February 7 and February 13, 2005 at the ExpoCenter in Hengelo, The Netherlands. The best four players from both federations were invited. The tournament was arranged by PenH Events, who managed to secure a three-year contract with Raymond van Barneveld, a BDO player at the time, taking part in the tournament. The host broadcaster was RTL5 in the Netherlands, who had also secured a three-year deal to broadcast the event. However, the tournament was not held in 2006 and by the time it was revived for 2007, SBS6 took over as Dutch broadcasters for the event.
The 2008 Blue Square UK Open was the sixth year of the PDC darts tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, players competed in a single elimination tournament to be crowned champion. The tournament was held at Bolton Wanderers' Reebok Stadium between June 5 and June 8, 2008.
James Wade won the tournament; his first UK Open title, and his third major championship inside 12 months. He defeated American Gary Mawson in the final by 11 legs to 7.
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:See also: 2008 in sports, 2007 in darts, 2009 in darts.
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The 2006 Topic International Darts League was a darts tournament held in Den Haag, Netherlands. The tournament is sponsored by Topic - a Dutch-based electronics software and hardware manufacturer.
It began as a tournament for BDO players but Dutch broadcaster SBS-6 invited five non-WDF/PDC players for the first time in this event. Raymond van Barneveld's switch to the PDC earlier in the year being the vital part in that decision.
The 2007 Winmau World Masters was a darts tournament being staged by the British Darts Organisation at Leisure World in Bridlington between November 16 and November 18, 2007. It also featured a qualifying event for the 2008 Lakeside World Professional Championship.
History was made by John Walton who became the first player to hit a perfect nine dart finish in the tournament. The event was broadcast by the BBC, however the nine-darter was not shown live as it was achieved in the last 16 before their live coverage began.
Michael van Gerwen was unable to defend his title, as he had decided to switch to rival organisation, the Professional Darts Corporation - thereby making himself ineligible under the BDO's rules.
Scotland's Robert Thornton surprised the field by beating Co Stompe, BDO world champion Martin Adams, Martin Atkins and Darryl Fitton to win the title and also seal a qualifying place for the 2008 BDO World Championship.
The 2006 Winmau World Masters was a darts tournament held at Leisure World in Bridlington between October 13 and October 16, 2006. It also featured a qualifying event for the 2007 Lakeside World Professional Championship.
Michael van Gerwen became the youngest winner in the 32-year history of the event when he defeated England captain, Martin Adams in the final.
==Prize Money== The prize fund increased by £30,000 on the previous year, with the winner now receiving £30,000. Winner £30,000 Runner-Up £15,000 Semi-Finals £10,000 Quarter-Finals £6,250 Last 16 £3,500 Last 32 £2,000 Total £150,000
The 1994 Proton Cars World Matchplay was the inaugural World Matchplay darts tournament organised by the World Darts Council (WDC, which became the Professional Darts Corporation in 1997).
American Larry Butler was a surprise winner of the tournament and defeated World Champion Dennis Priestley in the final by 16 legs to 12 having beaten Steve Raw, Jerry Umberger, Jocky Wilson and Shayne Burgess on his way to the final. 1992 World Champion Phil Taylor lost to 1988 World Champion Bob Anderson in the second round and 1993 World Champion John Lowe was surprisingly defeated 3-8 by Gerald Verrier in the first round.
The tournament differed from the World Championship by having a matchplay format of legs, rather than sets (which consist of best of 5 legs). Because the player who throws first in a leg has an advantage over his opponent, the format insisted on a player having to win by two clear legs to claim the match. This resulted in the second round clash between Keith Deller and Jim Watkins actually running longer than the final. Watkins eventually won 18-16 in a match that should have been the first to eight legs.
It was the second tournament to be organised by the WDC since 16 players separated from the British Darts Organisation the previous year. The tournament was broadcast on satellite channel Sky Sports in its entirety. Commentator Sid Waddell switched from BBC television and made his Sky debut at this event.
It was staged at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool which became the traditional home of the event.