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.
Darts first appeared on British television in 1962 when Westward Television broadcast the Westward TV Invitational to the south-west of England. In 1970, ITV broadcast the News of the World Championship and from 1972 the Indoor League, which featured a darts tournament.
Gradually televised events began to appear more regularly. ITV broadcast the World Masters, British Matchplay, the World Matchplay, the World Cup and other International competitions - usually on its Saturday afternoon sports anthology show World of Sport.
When the World Championship began in 1978, the BBC picked up the event and also went on to cover the Bullseye Darts Championship, British Gold Cup, British Professional Championship and others in later years.
The mass of coverage and amount of prize money in the game led to several players turning professional - now able to make a full-time living from the game.
Read more about this topic: Split In Darts
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