Split in darts
The split in darts refers to the acrimonious 1993 dispute between professional darts players and the game's governing body, the British Darts Organisation, resulting in the creation of a rival darts circuit under the banner of the World Darts Council, which eventually became the Professional Darts Corporation.
Darts had boomed as a televised sport in Britain in the 1980s, and the resulting influx of sponsorship and prize money allowed many players to turn professional. But by the end of the decade, television coverage had dropped to just one tournament. In 1993, 16 top players, disillusioned by the BDO's running of the sport and what they saw as its inability to reverse the decline in television coverage and sponsorship, left the BDO to run their own tournaments as the World Darts Council.
The BDO responded by imposing a worldwide ban on the rebel players and anyone who associated with them. A costly four year legal battle ensued, culminating in a compromise Tomlin Order in 1997. The BDO lifted the ban and formally recognised the WDC and the right of players to freely participate in darts competitions. In return, the WDC dropped its claim to being a world governing body and renamed itself the Professional Darts Corporation. Thereafter, each organisation had its own pool of players and tournaments, and each staged its own version of the World Professional Darts Championship.
The BDO folded into administration in September 2020 and the World Darts Federation took over control of BDO events, so the split in darts remains. The WDF subsequently established its own version of the World Darts Championship and the inaugural event took place in 2022.
Background
The darts boom
The British Darts Organisation was formed in 1973 by Olly Croft. It gradually superseded the existing National Darts Association of Great Britain as the governing body of darts in the UK and by the early 1980s had established a monopoly on organised darts in Britain, running super league darts, county darts and major tournaments, including the annual World Championship. The BDO became a founder member of the World Darts Federation in 1974. The BDO would preside over darts' rise from a pub game to a worldwide sport.Darts first appeared on British television in May 1937 when the BBC broadcast a darts and shove ha'penny competition from Alexandra Palace. In 1962, Westward Television broadcast the Westward TV Invitational to the south-west of England. In 1972, ITV started broadcasting the News of the World Championship. ITV producer Donald Baverstock stated:
"Twelve thousand darts fans turn up at the Ally Pally drunk as skunks. They cheer on their heroes just like a football crowd. They have banners, gonks, rattles, the lot. It will be great telly."
The following year, ITV commissioned The Indoor League, a series presented by Fred Trueman and produced by Sid Waddell which showcased various indoor sports and games; one of its features was a darts tournament involving some of the world's best players. Initially only shown in the Yorkshire Television region, it was broadcast throughout Britain on the ITV network from the second series onwards. Its venue, the Leeds Irish Centre, was recognised in 2010 as "the birthplace of TV darts".
Televised darts proliferated during the 1970s and 1980s. ITV began covering the new World Masters in 1974. The BBC soon followed suit; its first event was the British Open in 1975. Then, in 1978, the BBC picked up the inaugural World Professional Darts Championship, in part because it was "a cheap way to fill the schedules at a time of year when the rest of the sporting programme was decimated by weather." Other major events which emerged included the MFI World Matchplay and MFI World Pairs, the BDO Gold Cup, the British Professional Championship, the Butlins Grand Masters and the World Cup.
By 1983, there were 23 televised events. In that year's world final, Keith Deller, a qualifier and 66/1 tournament outsider, defeated the heavily-favoured Eric Bristow 6–5 in an epic match. Described as the sport's zenith in its first boom period, it was watched by a Saturday afternoon audience of 8.3 million, a record for a darts match. Darts was also the centrepiece of a new gameshow, Bullseye, which aired from 1981 to 1995 and attracted audiences of 20 million at its peak; virtually every darts player of note would appear on the show. Players like Eric Bristow, Jocky Wilson, John Lowe and Bobby George became household names. The abundance of prize money, sponsorship and television coverage, and with it the increased demand for exhibitions, meant that many top players were able to become full-time professionals.
Decline
Darts players smoked and drank alcohol on stage, a reflection of the game's origins in pubs. In 1980, this was mocked in a sketch on the satirical BBC comedy show Not the Nine O'Clock News. The sketch features a match between two overweight darts players, played by Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith, but instead of throwing darts, they take turns drinking shots of alcohol while a Geordie commentator narrates the action as they get progressively more drunk. The sketch is often blamed for damaging darts' public image and reducing it to a laughing stock. Eric Bristow felt it "didn't do the sport any favours, especially with the media luvvies who ruled the BBC and the other channels." According to darts historian Patrick Chaplin, it "indelibly seared the 'fat belly' image of darts players into the minds of the nation forever."In 1984, the British Gold Cup, Butlins Grand Masters and British Matchplay were all dropped from television schedules. A bigger blow came in September 1985 when ITV cancelled its long-running World of Sport, which had shown darts on a regular basis. However, 1988 was "cataclysmic" for the sport. At the start of the year there were still 14 televised events, but then the BBC decided to cut down on "minority" sports like darts and consequently reduced its darts coverage to just one tournament. Then, shortly afterwards, ITV cancelled all of its darts coverage, which had included the World Masters and the World Matchplay. Tournaments shown on ITV regional channels were dropped too. The only televised event that remained by 1989 was the Embassy World Championship. John Lowe called this "the darts world’s equivalent of the Wall Street crash."
Sid Waddell said "it was the yuppie era that did for us." He added: "they thought the audience was all Cs, Ds and Es, all yobs." Darts had not lost viewers, but Greg Dyke, ITV's director of programmes, wanted to attract younger and more affluent audiences to the channel. He associated darts with older people and lower income groups, saying: "It's all about image. Young viewers are just not interested." Alan Yentob, who became controller of BBC2 in 1987, had a similar negative view of darts.
While the decline of television coverage was partly due to policy changes at the BBC and ITV, the BDO were also blamed for allowing the game to stagnate and not doing enough to improve its image. Dick Allix, manager of Eric Bristow, said "If the BDO wants to accept the accolades of success, it must accept the responsibility of failure." The BDO banned smoking on stage during matches in 1988, which was followed soon afterwards by a ban on alcohol. However, it had little impact and more televised darts did not materialise. As Bobby George put it: "It made no difference at all to the fading interest in the game... They thought if beer and fags were banned, everything in the garden would be rosy again, but that didn't turn out to be the case."
Players' unrest
Several players had longstanding grievances with the BDO and its running of darts, such as why players had no say in how events were run and why players lost money when they played in international matches. Players were not allowed to wear personal sponsors when playing in competitions, but had to promote the BDO's sponsors. John Lowe noted that he was obliged to advertise Winmau, a BDO sponsor, on his shirts for free even though he was sponsored by Unicorn, a competitor of Winmau. Eric Bristow argued that the players did not receive a fair share of the money now coming into the game, and that while the BDO excelled at bringing through amateur players, it was ill-equipped to support the top-32 professionals. When told by Olly Croft that "the BDO put you where you are today", Lowe replied: "Have you ever considered that I and the other professionals all helped to put the BDO where they are today?" Meetings were held in which the players aired their concerns, but little changed.However, there was no serious player unrest until darts' popularity started to wane in the mid-1980s. As major tournaments disappeared, this meant reduced prize money, sponsorship and television exposure, which in turn led to fewer bookings for exhibition matches. Players who had become full-time professionals during the boom years were no longer able to make a living from the sport and began to voice their concerns. They felt that not enough was being done by the BDO to encourage new sponsors and increase television coverage from more than one event per year. Rod Harrington summarised the players' issue: "The trouble with the BDO is that, after the world championships and its great prize money, there is virtually nothing. The top players simply can't earn a living on one event."
Croft himself also received criticism. Some players and managers resented the level of control he and the BDO had over darts; his attitude was variously described as "dictatorial" or "autocratic". In response to player concerns, Croft said: "It’s like your children. They say: ‘can I have an ice cream?’ and you say: ‘no’. We don’t owe anyone a living."
Another issue arose shortly after the 1992 World Championship, when the BDO and the BBC released a VHS videotape featuring extended highlights of that year's world final between Phil Taylor and Mike Gregory. It also included highlights of the 1983, 1985 and 1987 World Championship finals involving Eric Bristow, John Lowe and Keith Deller, and Paul Lim's 9-dart finish at the 1990 World Championship. Neither the players, nor their representatives, were consulted in advance or offered payment; the BDO argued that the players had signed over all their rights and so were not entitled to notice or payment.
In December 1986, the Professional Dart Players Association was formed to represent the players, but the BDO refused to recognise the body. In August 1988, a pressure group named the Darts Council was formed by a group of players and their agents. In January 1992, 16 professional players, including every previous BDO World Champion who was still active, created their own darts organisation named the World Darts Council. They wanted to appoint a public relations consultant to improve the image of the game and to get more tournaments on television. The WDC staged their first televised event in October 1992.
According to Bristow, he approached Croft on behalf of the WDC players shortly before the 1993 Embassy World Championship to air the players' concerns.