International Darts Federation

This article is about the darts organization. For most recent season, see 2024 PDC Pro Tour. For the upcoming 2025 season, see 2025 in PDC.

Professional Darts Corporation

File:Professional Darts Corporation logo.svg
Photo of the stage at the 2010 PDC World Darts Championship
Abbreviation	PDC
Formation	16 January 1992 (1992-01-16)
Type	Professional darts organisation
Headquarters	Mascalls, Mascalls Lane Brentwood, Essex CM14 5LJ England, United Kingdom
Membership	221
Chairman	Eddie Hearn
Chief Executive	Matthew Porter
Staff	30
Website	www.pdc.tv
Formerly called	World Darts Council

The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the World Darts Council (WDC). Sports promoter Eddie Hearn is the PDC chairman.

The PDC developed and holds several competitions, including the annual PDC World Darts Championship, the World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, UK Open, Premier League, and Grand Slam. It also runs its own world rankings based on players' performances.

History

Main article: Split in darts

Darts had experienced a boom in the 1980s. A number of tournaments were televised on BBC and ITV, which allowed the top players to make a full-time living from the sport and turn professional. However, darts steadily dropped from television schedules and by 1989 the only remaining televised event was the annual Embassy World Championship. Some of the players felt that not enough was being done by the governing body, the British Darts Organisation, to encourage new sponsors into the sport and arrange more television coverage. BDO chairman Olly Croft stated "I don't owe any dart players a living" and refused to guarantee more televised tournaments or permit the players to organise their own.

As a result, 16 professional players, including every previous BDO world champion who was still active in the game, created their own darts organisation, the World Darts Council (WDC), in January 1992. The players were led by sports promoters Tommy Cox and Dick Allix, both of whom used their own money to fund the fledgling organisation.

File:Wdcbadges.jpg

The badges worn by WDC players at the 1993 World Championship

They wanted to appoint a PR consultant to improve the image of the game. The 1993 Embassy World Championship was the last time there was one unified world championship. The WDC players wore their new insignia on their sleeves during the tournament but were told to remove them by the BDO. The WDC players decided that if they were not going to be recognised by the BDO they would no longer play in the Embassy tournament.

The BDO took the step of banning the rebel players from playing in county darts and even threatened to ban any player who participated in exhibition events with WDC players.

Tomlin order

The WDC players took the matter to court in a dispute which accrued large and perhaps unaffordable costs during a protracted legal process. The two bodies reached an out-of-court settlement on 30 June 1997 in the form of a Tomlin order.

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. The PDC accepted and recognized the World Darts Federation (WDF) as the governing body for the sport of darts worldwide, and the BDO the governing body for darts in the UK. The stated purpose of the agreement was to promote the freedom of individual darts players to participate freely in open competition.

Another condition of this Tomlin order is that the top 16 players, and any Home Country players ranked between 17 and 32 in each year's BDO Championship, and the top 16 players in each year's PDC Championship, shall not be permitted to enter the other competition in the immediate following year.

Despite this condition, Raymond van Barneveld switched to the PDC within weeks of reaching the 2006 BDO final, later playing in (and winning) the 2007 PDC World Championship – the Tomlin order should have made him ineligible to play.

There was further controversy following the 2007 BDO World Championship, when Jelle Klaasen announced that he would be switching to the PDC. As a BDO World Champion, he signed a three-year deal in 2006 to return to the Lakeside event. The BDO threatened to take legal action for breach of contract, but with previous damage and costs incurred by other legal cases it has become less likely that any action will be taken in future with regards to player contracts and the Tomlin Order. 2007 semi-finalist Mervyn King also moved to the PDC, seemingly against the contracted condition that semi-finalists and finalists were bound to appear the next year.

In January 2012, the PDC invited the four semi-finalists of the BDO world championships, after obtaining a written agreement to release any player without penalty. Ted Hankey was the first player to move, as well as several players (who were not guaranteed a pro tour card due to not reaching the BDO semi finals) entering the PDC qualifying school, including Dean Winstanley, Tony West, Steve West, and Stuart Kellett.

Television coverage

Following the breakaway groups first televised event in 1992 (the Lada UK Masters on Anglia Television), satellite broadcaster Sky Sports signed a deal to exclusively cover three PDC tournaments each year. To capitalise on its investment, the channel introduced a number of new techniquesTemplate:Vague to make the coverage more interesting for armchair fans.Template:Citation needed

Unlike the BDO world championship, which was covered via the general entertainment BBC Two channel, Sky's dedicated sports channel allowed the PDC matches to be covered in their entirety. Over ten hours per day of live darts on Sky Sports is not uncommon.Template:Citation needed The British Darts Organisation's events were more limited to selected matches and highlights, although in recent years the BBC increased its interactive TV coverage allowing viewers to see many more events live.

Sky television is an advertisement and subscription based channel, and generally after each set a commercial break is taken. Planet Funk's 2000 single "Chase the Sun" is played in the auditorium and it has become a cult track amongst darts fans, who tend to dance along to the tune during the breaks.

Currently Sky Sports broadcasts six tournaments live each year in both Ireland and the United Kingdom. PDC events are also televised in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, South Africa and the United States (One World Sports).

The PDC signed a three-year deal with ITV in 2007 with the inaugural Grand Slam of Darts from 2007 and the inaugural Players Championship from 2009. The matches are shown live on ITV4 with highlights on ITV1. ITV being an advertisement channel like Sky Sports, commercial breaks are taken after 5 legs; the tournaments that ITV cover do not play in sets. The Fratellis 2006 single "Chelsea Dagger" is played during the breaks on ITV. In 2010, Bravo signed a contract to show the European Championships.

In 2007, Sky Sports decided to extend their coverage of the Premier League Darts to 2010 following the high number of viewers to previous tournaments.

In February 2016, it was announced the BBC would cover the PDC for the first time with a new tournament being formed using the top 8 players on the PDC Order of Merit after the World Matchplay, known as the Champions League of Darts. As a result, the BBC dropped coverage of the BDO World Darts Championship, which they covered from 1978 to 2016 (this was the original World Championship prior to the formation of the PDC). DJ Ötzi's "Hey! Baby" is played during the breaks on the BBC.