Split in Darts - Standing of Organisations

Standing of Organisations

Opinion is split as to which is the most prestigious title to win. The prize money is far greater in the PDC World Championship and the field contains arguably more than half of the best players in the world. However the British Darts Organisation title has been in existence since 1978 and is generally better known to the UK public due to its coverage on the BBC.

At the time of the split itself all the previous World Champions and top ranked players left to join the WDC/PDC. The WDC/PDC stayed a "closed shop" for several years which protected the exposure of the players who made the switch. The World Championship featured a group stage which guaranteed at least two television appearances for its players. Several of these players including Jocky Wilson, who retired shortly after the split in 1995, Eric Bristow, Keith Deller and Cliff Lazarenko had all been in a downward spiral of form for a few years. The group stage was scrapped for the 1999 championship, and the tournament has been conducted in a single elimination format since then with the number of participants gradually increasing.

The BDO began to bring through several players from their county system which continued to improve the standard of the organisation which had been decimated by the split. Nevertheless, a good number of professionals including top players Ronnie Baxter, Wayne Mardle, Chris Mason, Kevin Painter and former BDO World Champions Mark Webster, John Part, Steve Beaton, Richie Burnett, Raymond van Barneveld, Jelle Klaasen and Anastasia Dobromyslova have switched and further increased the standard in the Professional Darts Corporation.

There is no definitive World Champion in the game, although Phil Taylor has won 16 world titles (14 PDC and 2 BDO before the split). Taylor has also twice beaten the incumbent BDO World Champion in the only ever head-to-head challenge matches. However, the existence of the two events still leads to uncertainty as to how many titles he would have won had the game been unified - for instance Ted Hankey produced a devastating run of form in the 2000 BDO World Championship, destroying the field and might have delivered a sterner test than Taylor received that year. Former BDO stalwarts John Part and Raymond van Barneveld have won the PDC World Championship having previously won the BDO version demonstrating that players from the one system do have the ability to win the other world championship. In addition, BDO World Champion Mark Webster defeated PDC World Champion John Part 10–2 in legs in the second round of the 2008 Grand Slam of Darts.

It wasn't until the 2002 PDC World Darts Championship that the winners cheque and total prize fund of the PDC version overtook the BDO event but by the 2010 and 2011 PDC World Darts Championship there is now a record prize fund of £1,000,000 with the winners receiving a record £200,000. The 2010 BDO World Darts Championship prize fund was £325,000 with the winner Martin Adams taking £100,000.