The Split in Darts | Love Darts

The Split in Darts

In 1992 a dispute between top professional darts players and the game's governing body resulted in the split of darts. The split formed two organisations and two world championships.

Before the split
The British Darts Organisation (BDO) was formed in 1973. They became the governing body of the game in the United Kingdom and would organise darts events for grassroots players right through to the best players in the world.

The amount of prize money and mass coverage in the game led to several players turning professional - now able to make a full-time living from the game.

Players unrest
Many players had turned professional during darts peak years and the withdrawal of all the television coverage left them with very little prize money to play for. The top players felt that not enough was being done by the governing body, the BDO to encourage new sponsors into their sport and television coverage should be greater than just one event a year.

As a result, 16 professional players including every previous BDO World Champion who was still active in the game, created their own darts organisation originally named the World Darts Council (WDC) in January 1992

The Defectors
Originally 16 players "defected" from the BDO to form the WDC:

	Phil Taylor
	Dennis Priestley
	Rod Harrington
	Alan Warriner
	Peter Evison
	Ritchie Gardner
	Jocky Wilson
	Eric Bristow
	Keith Deller
	John Lowe
	Bob Anderson
	Cliff Lazarenko
	Kevin Spiolek
	Jamie Harvey
	Mike Gregory
	Chris Johns

The PDC
A three year legal battle opened between the rebel players and the BDO which incurred big costs for both sides. The BDO took the step to ban the players from playing in county darts and even threatened to ban any player who participated in exhibition events with WDC players.

The two bodies reached an out-of-court settlement on 30 June 1997.

The BDO recognised the WDC and agreed that all players shall have the freedom of choice as to which open events they wish to play in. The WDC dropped its claim to be a world governing body and renamed itself the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).