The new tournament, offering £30,000 prize money, will culminate in the final to be held at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool on Sunday July 25, shown live on Sky Sports ahead of the World Matchplay Final.

Ahead of that, players will compete in two stages as the event works down to the final, with the first stage being knockout qualifying tournaments held in Rileys clubs around the UK or International Qualifiers.

The 20 Rileys Qualifiers will be joined by 12 International Qualifiers in playing off at the Barnsley Metrodome on Saturday June 12.

Play in Barnsley will be down to the last two players, who will compete in the final on stage ahead of the World Matchplay Final in Blackpool on July 25.

In the UK, 20 Rileys Darts Zones will hold knockout qualifiers for women, with the winner of each progressing to play in Barnsley.

Those players will be joined in the last 32 by International Qualifiers from the following countries:
Ireland x2
PDC Europe x2
North America x2
Australia x1
New Zealand x1
Sweden x1
Finland x1
TBC x1
Entry information can be found below for these events

In addition, Russia’s former Lakeside Champion Anastasia Dobromyslova – as the only active female member of the PDPA – will be seeded into the last 32 of the tournament.

As well as a £10,000 first prize and £5,000 runner-up prize, the finalists will be invited to compete in the Grand Slam of Darts and also to receive a PDC ProTour Card in 2011 and 2012.

No entrants to the PDC Unicorn Women’s World Championship will be required to sign a PDC contract, although should either of the finalists accept their invitation to compete in the Grand Slam of Darts then they must sign a playing contract for that event, and acceptance of a PDC ProTour Card would also require this.

All qualifying games and games from the last 32-final will be the best of seven legs, with the final the best of 11 legs.

The PDC Unicorn Women’s World Championship is open to any woman who will be aged 18 or over on July 25 2010.

Entry for women into the knockouts held in Rileys Darts Zones will be free and is available by (clicking here). Any player who enters a knockout must be available to compete in the last 32 in Barnsley on June 22 and the final Blackpool on July 25, should they qualify.

Rileys clubs staging qualifying events will be:
May 8: Bournemouth
May 15: Hull, Victoria, Worcester
May 23: Bootle, Cardiff, Norwich, Oxford, Wolverhampton
May 29: Aberdeen, Chorlton
May 30: Brighton, Burton, Chester, Coventry, Croydon, Edinburgh, Exeter, Gillingham, Solihull
Visit www.rileys.co.uk/herecomethegirls to enter, or ask in-club. Entries close on April 30 2010.
Click here to download the event poster

IRISH QUALIFIER
The Irish Women’s Matchplay will be held on Saturday May 22 at the Silver Springs Moran Hotel in Cork, as part of the Maytime Darts Festival.
The entry fee is €20 per player and the closing date for receipt of
entries is Wednesday May 19, with entry open to all Irish female players aged 18 years or over on July 25 2010,
Entry forms and full details are available from either Michael O’Sullivan on 00353 (0)87 264 8291, Joe Coyne on 00353 (0)85 159 6550 or via www.dartsinireland.com.
Two women from this event will qualify for the last 32.

PDC EUROPE QUALIFIER
The PDC Europe Qualifier will be held at the Renaissance Hotel in Salzburg on Saturday May 15, at 8pm.
Entry must be made in advance and can be done via the PDC Europe website.
Two women from this event will qualify for the last 32.
Click here for PDC Europe Qualifier Information

NORTH AMERICAN QUALIFIER
Details are currently being finalised and will appear here when confirmed.
Two women will qualify for the last 32.

AUSTRALIAN QUALIFIER
The Australian Qualifier for both the PDC Unicorn Women’s World Championship and PDC Unicorn Under-21 World Championship will be formed from results across eight tournaments on the Australian Grand Prix circuit in March, April and May.
Entrants must be in possession of a 2010 DPA Tour Card.
The events will be held on the following four weekends:
March 27 & 28 – DPA NDDA South Australia Darts Open (Adelaide)
April 17 & 18 – DPA Criterion Hotel Open (Young, NSW)
May 8 & 9 – DPA Goulburn Workers Club Open (Goulburn, NSW)
May 22 & 23 – DPA Redcliffe Darts Club Open (Redcliffe, QLD)
A separate qualification table will run for Women and Under-21s, and points will be awarded as follows:
Two points per win during the round-robin stage of each event
One point awarded if the player qualifies for the knockout stages
Two points per win during the knockout stages.
The woman who has accumulated the most points from the eight events will qualify for the last 32.
For further details, visit www.dartplayersaustralia.com

NEW ZEALAND QUALIFIER
Details are currently being finalised and will appear here when confirmed.
One woman from this event will qualify for the last 32.

SWEDISH QUALIFIER
The Swedish Qualifier will be held on Saturday April 24 at the Malmo Open, which is being held at the Malmo Dart Centre. Entries can be made at the event, and for further information see www.malmodart.se
One woman from this event will qualify for the last 32.

FINLAND QUALIFIER
The winner of the Finnish Women’s National Championship, being held on Saturday March 27, will qualify for the last 32 of the PDC Unicorn Women’s World Championship.
This event is being held at the Sokos Hotel in Vantaa.

PDC players jetted off to Gibraltar in early February for two Players Championship events with Colin Lloyd and Denis Ovens bringing home the bacon. Lloyd’s win pushed him up a couple of places to 18th and Ovens jumped 5 places to number 43 on the back of his first title for some time.

This was followed later in the month by events in Swindon and Derby. Mervyn King bagged a Swindon double, winning the Players Championship event and the UK Open Qualifier, and in the process consolidating his lofty UWDR position of 6th. King has truly cemented his status as one of top PDC pros and has fully realised the undoubted potential that he showed when playing under the BDO banner. Future world champion perhaps?

Current and perpetual world champion, Phil Taylor, returned to competitive action in Derby but didn’t have it all his own way. He took Saturday’s Players Championship event but was beaten in Sunday’s UK Open Qualifier by Mark Walsh. In addition to the scalp of Taylor, Walsh nudged into the top 20, rising two places to number 19.

Over the road in the BDO, Martin Adams won the Dutch Open to leapfrog Tony O’Shea into second place in the UWDR. Adams also benefited from those around him losing points that lapsed after the rolling two year period. There was little other movement in the top 10 with Scott Waites’ final appearance in the Dutch Open seeing him swap places with Terry Jenkins at number 7.

The Scottish Open took place on the 20th and Stuart Kellet took the title. The UWDR point he gained for this shot Stuart up 37 places to 47th. The man he beat in the final was Dennis te Kloese, who rose a meteoric 90 places to 63rd.

Another player who had a good February was Steve Douglas – a semi final spot at the Dutch Open saw him leap 48 places to 66th. Jamie Lewis was rewarded for his good run at the Scottish Open with 864 points and 58 place rise to 72nd.

Highest new entry was a joint effort with Ian Lilley, Patrick Loos & Paul Telford all crashing in at number 132, reward for their performances at the Dutch & Scottish Opens.

The highest climber inside the top 100 was Remco van Eijden who soared 104 places to 81st following his run to the Scottish Open semis. Highest climber overall was Paul Gibbs who marched 216 places up the table to 123rd. Paul reached the Dutch Open quarter finals to amass 432 UWDR points.

Final mention goes to Chris Mason who halted his slide with a semi final appearance at the Derby Players Championship event. This was his best result was a long time and the UWDR points earned pushed him up 22 places to 98th. Chris is trying to give it a real go again this year and we watch with interest to see if he can keep climbing the UWDR table.

Remember, UWDR points last for two years but become worth less as each month goes by. So points come off as well as going on. A player who stands still could go backwards as well as forwards. The only way to prevent a fall is to keep winning! Simples.

Following the decision, by a majority vote, of the BDO County Associations not to agree to discuss the detail of the PDC’s offer to acquire the British Darts Organisation nor to grant the PDC access to its books of accounts in order for normal due diligence to be carried out the Board of the PDC can issue the following statement:

The Board of the PDC find the decision of the BDO County Associations not to engage in discussions as to how to distribute the PDC’s proposed cash injection of £2m into amateur darts contrary to the best interests of the membership they represent.

Nevertheless the PDC Board has accepted this decision and intends to move on with its plans for the expansion of the professional game of darts offering all players the opportunity to compete with the elite of world darts for prize money at a level never before experienced.

As the first stage of these new exciting plans we are proud to make a number of announcements:

1) PDC World Cup of Darts

To be screened live by Sky Sports from December 3 to December 5 2010 with 24 competing countries drawn from the PDC’s Order of Merit and offering prize money of £150,000.

2) PDC Unicorn Under-21 World Championship

The PDC’s official darts equipment provider Unicorn will sponsor this open competition available to any darts player over 18 but under 21 on January 3 2011.
Regional events will be played at Rileys Dartzones with the winners playing down to the two finalists who will compete for the title live on Sky Sports at Alexandra Palace before the final of the Ladbrokes.com World Championship.

A total of £30,000 in prize money will be paid as follows:

Winner £10,000
Runner- Up £5,000
Semi-finalists £2,500 each
Quarter-finalists £1,250 each
Last 16 losers £625 each

Additionally, the two finalists will also be invited to become PDC ProTour card holders for 2011 and 2012 and would receive sponsorship from Rileys Dartzones, the PDC’s staging partners in this event.

3) PDC Unicorn Women’s World Championship

The PDC’s official darts equipment provider Unicorn will sponsor this open competition open competition available to any female over 18, with regional events to be played at Rileys Dartzones between May and July with the two finalists competing for the title live on Sky Sports at the Winter Gardens before the final of the World Matchplay.

Prize money and PDC ProTour card invitations will be granted on the same basis as for the Under-21 World Championship with sponsorship again provided by Rileys Dartzones, the PDC’s staging partners in this event.

4) Grand Slam of Darts

The finalists of the PDC Unicorn Under-21 and Women’s World Championships will be invited to compete in the Grand Slam of Darts in November 2010.

Invitations previously issued to the BDO Women’s World Championship and Winmau World Masters will be withdrawn, although the four invitations from the Lakeside Championship continue to apply.

The PDC feels that with eight players seeded through to the final stages and a level of prize money below standard PDC ProTour Weekends the Winmau World Masters does not reach credible qualification criteria.

5) PDC ProTour Cards

In addition to the automatic granting of PDC ProTour cards for the finalists of the PDC Unicorn Under-21 and Women’s World Championship events the PDC will grant PDC ProTour card membership to the four semi-finalists of the BDO Lakeside Championship on application.

The PDC remains totally committed to the PDC ProTour card and its instigation in January 2011 and will be looking to substantially increase PDC ProTour prize funds in 2011.

PDC ProTour Cards will be issued to the top 88 players from the PDC Order of Merit who have competed in at least ten events on January 4 2011.

The remaining 32 PDC ProTour cards will be allocated as follows:

- Top 4 from BDO Lakeside Championship (semi-finalists and finalists)
- Top 2 from PDC Unicorn Under-21 World Championship (finalists)
- Top 2 from PDC Unicorn Women’s World Championship (finalists)
- Top 24 from January 2011 PDC ProTour Q School

As tournaments will be comprised of 128 players only, the remaining eight places, plus any that have been created by a deficit in entries, will be filled by players from Friday night qualifying competitions held before PDC ProTour events. These qualifying competitions will only be open to players who have competed in the January 2011 Q School.

Full details on the PDC ProTour and ProTour Cards for 2011 and beyond, including entry criteria for non-UK events, will be announced by the end of March 2011 following further consultation with the PDPA.

6) PDC UK Open

To thank the eight counties who voted in favour of at least discussing the PDC’s offer to the BDO, the PDC would like to offer each of those counties one spot in to the 2010 PDC UK Open, with the qualification criteria to be discussed individually with each relevant county.

Following these announcements, PDC Chairman Barry Hearn commented:

“The aim of our offer to the BDO was to unify the sport of darts and this remains our long-term objective despite the decision by the BDO County Associations.

“To turn down £2m without even sitting down with us to discuss the details of our offer is, in my opinion unbelievable, when you consider the poor state of health financially of the amateur game. I would like to congratulate the eight counties who voted to at least consider the offer in detail by way of meeting – they have done their membership and the sport of darts proud and can hold their heads high and we are delighted to offer each of those counties one entrant into the 2010 PDC UK Open. Now we move forward with the beginning of a new era for darts.

“The PDC Unicorn Women’s World Championship carries prize money of £30,000 plus £10,000 of sponsorship, compared with the Lakeside version of just £12,000 total prize fund. The PDC Unicorn Under-21 World Championship carries prize money of £30,000 plus £10,000 of sponsorship, compared with the BDO Teenage Championships prize fund of £2,000 and the World Youth Masters that carries no prize money at all.

“The PDC World Cup carries prize money of £150,000 compared with the WDF version which carries no prize money at all.

“The PDC ProTour in 2011 will see over 35 events with prize money of at least £35,000 with around a dozen weekends offering £70,000-plus in prize money – truly the basis for a proper professional tour.

“We shall continue to drive this great sport forward undismayed by the intransigencies of the amateur game which is built on inept financial management, self interest and mediocrity.

“The future is exciting for all players and I hope today’s announcements show that the PDC is a vibrant, efficient and effective body well qualified to take the sport of darts to an entirely new level.”

Unicorn Managing Director Edward Lowy added:
“Unicorn are delighted to support the PDC’s initiatives in creating opportunities for female and youth dart players by sponsoring the PDC Unicorn Women’s World Championship and the PDC Unicorn Under-21 World Championship.

“For too long, ladies and younger players have suffered from a lack of investment in competitive tournaments and a lack of prize money to enable them to develop their game. Sky televising the Finals of these tournaments live will be the vital oxygen that will start to breathe new hope and new life into aspiring – and extremely capable – lady and youth competitors.

“We applaud Rileys for their ongoing contribution to the sport of darts and look forward to partnering with them through the qualifying rounds of these two exciting PDC Unicorn tournaments.”

PDPA Chairman Peter Manley said:

“The PDPA is delighted to give the PDC its full support as continues to take darts to new levels. We are excited about these new tournaments and the opportunities they will offer both our current and future membership.

“We applaud the PDC’s vision and determination to continue developing darts around the world and look forward to an exciting year ahead.”

The BDO believe Hearn’s move to be a cycnical one motivated by a control fetish and not in the best interests of darts.

The BDO had better be very sure of what they are doing, and they had better have some solid plans for the future if they end up rejecting the offer as expected. It is apparent to all but the most staunch BDO loyalist that their Organisation is creaking at the seams and losing both faith and credibility as each day passes.

In the meantime the saga continues with Hearn quipping that he has just saved himself two million quid but now having to get down to the nitty gritty of the detail, where the devil is always lurking.

Barry Hearn                                                                                                                       21^st January 2010

Chairman

Professional Darts Corporation

Mascalls

Mascalls Lane

Brentwood

Essex  CM14. 5LJ.

Dear Mr Hearn

Open response to your open letter of 20 October 2009 ‘relating to the future of Darts’

The Board of Directors and the Members of the British Darts Organisation Limited (the ‘BDO’) have asked me to respond, in open form, to your open letter to them of 20 October 2009 ‘relating to the future of Darts’, which was published on 21 October 2009 on the PDC’s website and in The Sun newspaper.

Your letter, including your offer to buy the BDO for £1 million, was discussed at length at the BDO Full Council meeting on Sunday 15 November 2009 in Coventry.  It is fair to say that many Members were sceptical about your approach.  However, after careful consideration, it was resolved that I should come back to you with a request for further details of your vision for the future of darts, so that your approach can be assessed properly, based on complete information.

Your vision for the future of British darts

As we understand your position, the purpose of your offer to purchase the BDO is to ‘bring the BDO into the PDC fold’, so that you control the whole of the sport.  (See BBC Sport website, 11.01.10:  ‘I want to buy it all so I control all of it.  I want to sling everybody else out and make sure it’s all done properly instead of just owning the PDC.’).

More specifically, our understanding is that you would use this control to reorganise the sport by winding down the professional events currently organised by the BDO, leaving the PDC to run the whole of the professional branch of the sport, for the benefit of its shareholders, while the BDO (as a PDC subsidiary) runs the amateur game as both a leisure activity for the masses and as a pipeline of new talent for the PDC Tour.

We can of course see the economic benefits for the PDC if this came to pass.  It would remove at a stroke the only competition that currently exists to the PDC’s events, and would mean that you were the sole option for players, fans, and commercial partners who wanted to be involved in professional darts.  In short, it would give you a monopoly in the market for professional darts.  (See your comment on BBC Sport, 11.01.10:  ‘I can’t afford to have my market place polluted by a poor case of commercial exploitation. You’ve got to make sure that the market is controlled so that you deliver a standard product, and their product is not good enough.’).

However, you say that you are also making the offer in order ‘to help the game of amateur darts’, that help to come in the form of a £1 million investment into the amateur game, as well as PDC management, administration and commercial exploitation of BDO activities, which you believe will create greater playing opportunities at all levels of the sport.

I would be grateful if you would let me know if our understanding of your position is in any way incorrect.

Ownership of British darts

In order to achieve your objectives, you offer the sum of £1 million to the current owners of the BDO in exchange for ‘100% ownership of the British Darts Organisation Limited.’

Please note, however, that while the PDC may be an orthodox commercial enterprise, whose purpose is to run professional darts events for profit in order to generate a return for its shareholders on their investment, in contrast the BDO is a company limited not by share capital but by members’ guarantee, reflecting its purely sporting objective, set out in its memorandum of association, ‘to promote the popularity of, interest and participation in, and foster the skills and growth of the Game of Darts in all its variations and in every aspect, social, competitive or professional in the United Kingdom or Overseas’.

The 66 officially constituted British county darts organisations (43 from England, 16 from Scotland, and 7 from Wales) who are the current members of the BDO “invest” heavily in the sport, in terms of the voluntary time and effort they put in day after day.  However, the return they are looking for is not a financial one but rather a purely sporting one:  all of the activities of the BDO and its members, and the revenues generated from those activities, are devoted solely to supporting a pyramid of 800+ events a year that enable thousands of men, women and youth players to participate in the sport at an amateur level, as well as the best players to compete at professional events such as the Lakeside World Professional Darts Championship and the Winmau World Masters, as well as at national representative events such as the British International Championships, the Six Nations Cup, the WDF Europe Cup and the WDF World Cup.

This purely sporting agenda is enshrined in the BDO’s constitution, which mandates that ‘the income and property of the Company, whencesoever derived, shall be applied solely towards the promotion of the objects of the Company as set forth in this Memorandum of Association; and no portion thereof shall be paid or transferred directly or indirectly by way of dividend, bonus or otherwise howsoever by way of profit, to the Members of the Company.’ And it is also enshrined in the eligibility requirements for membership of the company:  membership is restricted to county darts organisations who have a constitution in approved form, democratically elected officers, and an executive council.  Anyone who does not meet these criteria may not be admitted as a member of the company, i.e., only the county darts organisations can own the BDO.

With this in mind, while some have characterised your offer of £1 million to acquire ownership of the BDO as a gross undervaluation of the company, given its various assets and the significant commercial contracts it has secured through to 2013 (and given what you recognise to be the ‘huge commercial potential’ of the BDO name, and its potential to be ‘hugely profitable’), it seems to us that the issue is more fundamental than that:  as a company limited by guarantee rather than share capital, membership of which is limited to officially constituted British county darts organisations, the BDO is a sports governing body, not a commercial enterprise, and as such simply cannot be bought and sold (or run) for private profit, but rather must always remain in the hands of its current owners (the member county organisations), and must remain an enterprise dedicated solely to the governance, administration and development of the sport.

Technically, I suppose, the current strict criteria for membership of the BDO could be changed, as could the provisions in the constitution that require all profits generated to be re-invested in the sport, and prohibit members taking profits out for their own personal gain.  But would it be in the best interests of the sport to make such changes, and then to transfer ownership and control from the member county organisations to a private limited company that is run for the profit of its shareholders?

I do not know of any other sport where a private limited company ‘owns’ the sport, and runs the sport for the personal financial benefit of its shareholders.  It would certainly imperil the BDO’s current favourable tax and charitable status, as well as its eligibility to have its governing body status  recognised by UK Sport and the Home Country Sports Councils.

Further details required

This should not be a concern for you, however, since apparently what you really want to achieve is PDC monopoly ownership of the professional branch of the sport (which you can run as a private limited company, distributing profits to shareholders), and PDC control over the amateur branch of the sport (so that you can ensure that it complements and supports the professional branch of the sport and so maximises the profits for those shareholders).  For this, you do not need to “own” the BDO; rather, you just need to control it so that you can wind down its professional events and dedicate it instead solely to amateur activities.

It is impossible, however, for members to assess whether your proposals are in the best interests of the sport as a whole, taking into account all of its stakeholders (professional and amateur, men and women, boys and girls), based only on the rather general statements that you have made to date about ‘taking darts to its next level with the financial support and rewards the players deserve.’ That would seem to us to be the key part of your proposal, yet there is no detail about it whatsoever in your letter.  All you mention is a proposed £1 million investment in the amateur game, without any details as to where or how such investment would be made, at what level, or over what period of time; nor is there any indication of what the PDC would expect in return for that investment.

Nor is that detail provided in your subsequent letter of 3 November 2009 to member darts organisations.  Instead, there is again just a broad general statement that ‘[t]he time for change is now and the PDC vision of a unified sport with clearer separation of the professional and amateur game all financed by the PDC investment, together with greater exploitation of the BDO activities, will mean a rosy future for everyone playing darts at any level.’

I would therefore be grateful if you would provide us, in writing, with further details of the ‘quantum leap’ that you propose to take for British darts, so that the BDO Board of Directors and Members can properly assess your approach.  In doing so, I would be grateful if you could provide detailed answers to the specific questions set out in the Appendix to this letter.   I would be glad to distribute your response not only to the BDO Board of Directors but also to each of the BDO member county organisations, for careful consideration and discussion.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Dave Alderman

Dave Alderman

Chairman

Appendix:  Questions to Barry Hearn / PDC

1. Ownership and control of the BDO

1.1          Under your proposals, who would elect the board of directors of the BDO?  Would the county organisations remain in ultimate control of the BDO?  If not, who would have such control?

1.2          Would you be proposing to make any changes to the criteria for membership of the BDO?  If so, what?  Who would own the BDO moving forward?

1.3          If the PDC would own the BDO moving forward, who owns the PDC?  And are there any restrictions on transfer of ownership of the PDC, or could anyone buy it?  Would there be any restrictions on transfer of ownership of the BDO, or could you sell it to anyone?

1.4          Would you be proposing to make any changes to the provisions in the BDO constitution requiring all revenues generated by BDO activities to be re-invested in the sport?  In particular, would you be proposing to remove the prohibition on distribution of profits to the owners of the BDO?

1. The county structure

2.1          Would you plan to change the current Super League structure?  If so, how?

2.2          Would you plan to change the current British Inter-County Championship structure?  If so, how?

2.3          How would these changes be managed, if not by the direct input and involvement of the 66 member county darts organisations (as happens now)?

2.4          The current system is self-sustaining financially, with participation fees kept low.  Would that change?  What new financial support and rewards would the PDC’s proposed changes deliver?

2.5          Would participants in Super League and BICC events be required to pay increased membership and/or entry fees, and/or to use venues, transport facilities, and accommodation specified by the PDC?

1. The women’s game

3.1          The women’s game currently does not generate any commercial revenues.  Instead, the BDO finances the women’s game not only through its support for the county structure but also through women’s draws in competitions like the Lakeside World Pro, the Winmau World Masters, the BDO British Open and the BDO British Internationals.  Would you continue to provide this support for women’s darts?

3.2          What changes would you propose to make to the women’s game?  What new financial support and rewards would those changes deliver for the women’s game?

1. Youth darts

4.1          Youth darts does not generate any commercial revenues.  Instead, the BDO supports the youth game through its affiliation with the Northern Youth Darts Organisation and the Southern Youth Darts Organisation, its organisation of the BDO British Teenage Championships, the BDO Inter-County Youth Knock-Out Cup, and the Winmau World Masters (Boys and Girls), and its financial support for the participation of youth national representative teams from England, Scotland and Wales participating in the WDF Europe Cup (Youth).  Would you continue to provide this support for youth darts?

4.2          What changes would you propose to make to the game at youth level?  What new financial support and rewards would those changes deliver for the game at youth level?

1. The international game

5.1          The BDO actively contributes to the development of the sport internationally.  It is a founder member of the World Darts Federation, which was formed in 1976, and supported the WDF’s recent successful application for membership of Sport Accord (formerly the General Assembly of International Sports Federations).  In addition, the BDO provides financial support for the participation of the senior national representative teams of England, Scotland and Wales (men and women) in the British International Championships, the Six Nations Cup, the Europe Cup and the World Cup.  Would you propose to continue this record of contribution to the sport at the international level?

5.2          Would you propose to change this contribution to the sport internationally in any way?  If so, what?  What new financial support and rewards will those changes deliver for the international game?

5.3          The BDO has a strong relationship with the International Dart Players Association, an organisation that is officially recognised by the WDF and its member national associations and that counts a substantial number of players of both sexes who compete in BDO competitions among its members. Would you propose to change this relationship in any way?

1. The professional game

6.1          The Lakeside World Professional Darts Championship, played annually since 1978, and open to men and women from some 70 countries, is the crown jewel in the BDO calendar, with extensive live and highlights coverage on the BBC and BBCi (4.5 million viewers for the 2009 Men’s Final, a 13% audience share), as well as in more than 100 countries around the world via SBS-6, BBC Worldwide, Eurosport, and Eurosport Asia.  It therefore acts as a massive showcase for the sport both here in Britain and internationally, gaining exposure that coverage on pay-television simply cannot come close to matching.  In addition, the commercial arrangements for the World Pro, currently in place until 2013, generate substantial revenues that are used not only to pay prize money to competitors but also to subsidise the BDO’s broader developmental activities.  You yourself are on record as saying the event has much greater potential value, which you believe you can exploit.  If so, then what are your plans for the World Pro, if you want your own World Darts Championship to be the sole world championship?  If you would change it, how would you replace the commercial revenues it generates?  How would you replace the massive free-to-air television exposure that it brings to the sport?  And how would you honour the contractual commitments that have been made to the BDO’s commercial partners until 2013, if you change the World Pro from being the pinnacle professional event of the BDO circuit?

6.2          The Winmau World Masters, played annually since 1974, is the oldest established ‘major’ in world darts, and the only one with 4 separate finals (Men, Women, Boys, Girls).  It is televised by the BBC, and sponsored by Winmau, the darts equipment supplier (and the major rival of the PDC’s official partner, Unicorn Darts).  Again the commercial arrangements for this event are in place until 2013, and generate revenues that are used not only to pay prize money to competitors but also to subsidise the BDO’s broader developmental activities.  What changes would you make to the Winmau World Masters, in the short-term or the long-term?  What guarantees will you be offering, if any, as to its long-term future?

6.3          While the Lakeside World Pro and the Winmau World Masters are undoubtedly the two most prestigious events in the BDO calendar, the BDO organises many other professional events each year, such as the BDO British Open, the BDO International Open, the British Classic, and the BDO Gold Cup.  What are your plans for these professional events?  What guarantees will you be offering, if any, as to their long-term future?

In October 2009, the PDC offered £1 million to purchase the BDO, with a further £1 million which would then have been invested in amateur darts.

However, a meeting of the BDO Counties on Sunday voted by a majority to reject the offer.

PDC Chairman Barry Hearn said: “We are disappointed with their decision but while we acknowledge their right to make that decision, we are disappointed on two counts.

“Firstly, we wanted a meeting with the member counties and clearly the majority did not want that meeting.”

“Secondly, we wanted due diligence on their records. They did not want us to look at their books.”

“When you look at their decision, it shows the ineptitude of the amateur game.”

“For us at the PDC, it saves us £2m which we can plough back into the development of our sport, but our door is always open to them.”

The unique Darts Academy will be a part of Stockport College’s highly successful Academy of Sport, and based at the Stockport College Town Centre Campus.

Equipped with Unicorn playing equipment, the Darts Academy will offer professional coaching for students alongside full-time education within Stockport College.
Stockport College Academy of Sport Manager Steve Mort said: “Due to the seven-year success of our Academy of Sport we felt that there was a unique opportunity to create the first ever professional Darts Academy in partnership with the PDC and sponsored by Unicorn.

“Players within the professional Darts Academy will benefit from full-time education and in addition from professional coaching in the sport.”

PDC stars Terry Jenkins, Colin Lloyd and Jelle Klaasen visited Stockport College in March and played exhibition games against a selection of students, as well as seeing the Academy of Sport’s facilities at first hand.

Mort added: “Since March we have been inundated with enquiries about our new professional Darts Academy, and the plans have now finally come into fruition and we are ready to welcome new players!

“The initial intake of players will be 16-19-year-olds but as the Academy develops we plan to broaden the age group of players who can join us.”

PDC Director Rod Harrington, who attended the launch of the Darts Academy along with leading professional players Colin Osborne and Wes Newton, said: “This is a very important step.

“This is the first ever professional Darts Academy and we hope others will follow the lead of Stockport College Academy of Sport.

“Development of future talent is something the Professional Darts Corporation take seriously in ensuring the ongoing growth of professional darts around the world.”

A number of independent darts academies have been formed in recent years around the UK, whose young players may now get the opportunity to compete against the Stockport College Academy of Sport students.

“Having championed and sponsored a number of darts academies in the past couple of years, we are now delighted to offer our support to the Stockport College Darts Academy,” said Unicorn Darts Managing Director Edward Lowy.

“This is the first time we have co-ordinated our sponsorship with the PDC and we hope it may signal the start of greater co-operation between us with academies.”

The Stockport College Darts Academy will:
• Provide participants aged 16-19 with the best opportunity to develop and excel while continuing their full-time education
• Provide participants with up to eight hours per week of practice, professional coaching and competition
• Provide competition in regional and national events
• Attendance at official PDC events
In addition, Stockport College provides a wide range of academic and/or vocational qualifications, excellent facilities and the expertise of professional staff.

Further information about the professional Darts Academy at Stockport College Academy of Sport can be found at www.stockport.ac.uk/sport or via 0161 958 3630.

Further information about the Professional Darts Corporation can be found at www.pdc.tv

Further information about Unicorn Darts can be found at www.unicorn-darts.com

The Professional Darts Corporation’s Chairman made the offer in an open letter to the BDO’s shareholders – its 66 member counties – and directors on Tuesday, but quotes from Croft, whose position within the BDO is described on its official website as ‘Founder’, reject the offer out of hand.

Hearn however, believes that Olly Croft as a Director of the BDO has a formal duty to take the PDC offer to his shareholders (the counties) to make the final decision.

“I don’t believe Olly Croft is in a position to turn down the offer,” Hearn said. “The BDO claim they have a democratically elected board and a county structure that form their shareholders – so why don’t they go through the proper procedures to discuss this offer?

“Croft’s claims are laughable: the public don’t buy his ideas about having the two best tournaments in the World and I would ask him to prove one recent instance of where the BDO has supposedly ploughed its profits back in to darts for the benefit of its players.

“The PDC subsidises tournaments for the benefit of our own players: we offer bigger prize money, more opportunities for television exposure, attract bigger crowds and stage superior events.

“These aren’t even boastful claims – anyone who has seen the two products will know they are accurate statements.

“The PDC wants to preserve darts long in to the future. The fact that the top players broke away from the BDO in 1992 and players continue to desert them for the PDC shows that the BDO has failed to do this in the past and is failing to do so again.

“I’m interested in the response of the counties to both the PDC’s offer and Olly Croft’s claims. They are the real decision makers and we have already heard from some of them that they are fed up with the way their Inter-Counties system is run with ridiculous schedules and heavy costs for scant rewards.

“It is up to the Counties to accept or reject this offer and I am happy to personally sit down with all 66 of them to discuss our thoughts.

“But I’m afraid that through his statement Olly Croft has again proved himself to be out of touch with the modern game and incapable of taking darts forward, at either professional or amateur level.”

This is the response of OLLY CROFT, founder of the British Darts Organisation:

We know that when this time of the year comes round Halloween happens, the clocks go back and Barry Hearn and the PDC start their usual campaign to try and disrupt our World Championships at Lakeside.

THE BDO IS NOT FOR SALE! IT IS A PRICELESS ASSET THAT FOSTERS, PROMOTES AND LOOKS AFTER THE FUTURE OF OUR GREAT SPORT FOR ALL PLAYERS AT ALL LEVELS.

The BDO was founded in 1973 and is a properly constituted governing body for the sport of darts, with a democratically elected board and a country structure that makes up its ‘shareholders’.

Barry Hearn has gone on record saying that he wants to ‘destroy’ the BDO and is not interested in women’s darts, youth darts and county darts, because they are not profitable. Now he claims that he wants to buy the BDO!

The reason that the BDO doesn’t produce vast net profits, is because we plough back the money we receive into the sport for the benefit of the sport and its players.

This is nothing more than a cheap publicity stunt and has nothing to do with unifying the sport but has everything to do with his inflated ego and perceived self-importance.

The big question is this: If the PDC is such a wonderful success why doesn’t he just concentrate on his own organisation? The BDO has been very successful for thirty-seven years and has over one thousand top officials looking after many thousands of darts players irrespective of age, gender or ability. By doing so, we not only provide the opportunity for everyone to enjoy the great sport of darts, but continue to produce fresh and exciting new names every year.

There are eleven new faces in the line-up for Lakeside 2010, and when we make the draw tomorrow (Thursday) players from nine of the thirty-two countries who competed in the play-offs, will be heading for Lakeside next January.

The BBC and Lakeside Country Club have just extended their contracts for the World Pro until 2013.

The World Pro is seen regularly by audiences of 4 million plus in the UK alone and enjoys the biggest TV audiences for darts in the world - estimated at 100 million!

Contrast that to an organisation that looks after a handful of players and continually produces the same predictable results time after time.

An open letter, detailed below, has been sent to the Board of Directors and Members of the British Darts Organisation, by PDC Chairman Barry Hearn.

The letter read:

Subject to Contract
Without Prejudice
20 October 2009

To the Directors and Members of the British Darts Organisation:

An open letter relating to the future of Darts

Since the well publicised split in the sport of darts in 1993, much has been written and debated on the merits of one organisation that controls the sport for the benefit of all players.

Since 1993 there have been many changes within the sport of darts – new tournaments, new players, new prize funds etc., but even a neutral would have to admit that the vast majority of these changes have emanated from the PDC, which has resulted in professional events carrying prize funds previously unheard of within the sport.

We at the PDC believe the time is right for one body to control the sport and to take darts to its next level with the financial support and rewards the players deserve – we are ready to take this quantum leap and hope you will give our proposals due consideration.

We note from your published accounts for the year ended 31 May 2008 that your turnover was £758,169, your consolidated assets amounted to £397,881 and that your consolidated profit amounted to £16,919.

We propose to offer you, subject to contract, £1,000,000 (one million pounds) for 100% ownership of the British Darts Organisation Limited.

For your information the latest PDC accounts for the year ended 31 December 2008 shows turnover in excess of £9,000,000 and pre-tax profits of approximately £1,000,000. Current cash reserves stand at around £3,000,000, so you may put your mind at rest as to our financial ability to honour this offer.

We are prepared to also:
1. Honour all existing contracts currently in force with sponsors, venues, broadcasters etc. and
2. Invest a further £1,000,000 in amateur darts to provide funds for the amateur game to develop the stars of tomorrow and to run the amateur events which are the lifeblood of the sport.

We hope that on the basis of the proposal, you will give this matter your urgent consideration. We understand you may well wish to discuss this in depth at both Board and Member level, hence our decision to publicize this offer so all interested parties are aware of the contents of our proposal.

We are prepared to meet to discuss this matter at a convenient time and location with a view to a harmonious conclusion allowing our takeover to be implemented in early 2010.

I hope you agree these proposals are both fair to the shareholders of the BDO and helpful to the financing of grassroots darts organisations who organise the amateur game for men, women and junior darts players.

An offer of £1,000,000 (one million pounds) for a company making a minimal profit and with net assets of approximately £400,000 is in our opinion a generous offer.

An offer to inject £1,000,000 into grassroots darts must surely not be ignored. What help on this scale is currently available? Does the amateur game receive financial help and if you do not accept our proposal can you provide such much needed financial assistance?

I would suggest that if the BDO Board really care about the sport of darts and the millions of players, then you should accept our offers and let us inject not just finance, but professional management to run darts in a modern and effective manner.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully
Barry Hearn

The 25-year-old Welshman won the 2008 Lakeside Championship, defeating Simon Whitlock in the final, and is also a former International Darts League runner-up.

He has opted to leave the BDO circuit to join the PDC, and will play for the first time in the Players Championship double-header in Germany this month.

The left-hander made his mark in 2007, reaching the International Darts League final as well as winning the Welsh Open, Canadian Open, Welsh Classic and World Cup Singles titles.

He reached the quarter-finals at the Grand Slam of Darts in November, but was a second round loser in the defence of his Lakeside title last month.

“It’s a new challenge and I’m hoping to revamp my darts career,” said Webster, at the Whyte & Mackay Premier League Darts in Liverpool on Thursday.

“I think I needed to be hungry again, I wasn’t hungry last year and hopefully this will do the trick.

“It was quite an easy decision and I wish I’d done it last year. It’s not a big deal, as far as I’m concerned I just want to play darts again.

“Playing the circuit last year became a bit stale for me, I wasn’t as hungry as I should have been and maybe my attitude at times wasn’t as good as it should have been.

“Hopefully this year I can kick on and make it a success. I’m coming here to give it my all – I don’t want to be half-hearted.

“I quite like the thought that I’ll start from the bottom of the Order of Merit and I’ve nothing to lose – the only way is up!

“Mervyn King and Robert Thornton are obviously the two main players who have been successful since joining the PDC in the last couple of years. If I do half as well as them I’ll be delighted.

“My first tournament will be out in Germany and then there’s tournaments for six or seven weeks on the trot. I’ll be thrown in at the deep end and I hope to be successful.

“Obviously the priority is to make the World Championship but I’m going out to Las Vegas and I’ll be trying to get in all the televised tournaments.”

Webster is currently resting a shoulder injury which he carried through much of 2008, but is confident he will be back to form for his PDC debut.

“I’ve had trouble with my shoulder and I can’t play for another week or so,” he said. “But after that I’ll start practising again and I’ll be fine.”

Webster will join the Modus Sports Management stable of players, which also includes world number two James Wade and Robert Thornton.

Webster is the second former BDO World Champion who has opted to move onto the PDC circuit, with 2004 winner Andy Fordham set to return to action in the near future after a bad back.

Fordham has overcome serious illness in the last couple of years and is hoping to restart his career with the PDC.

“I’m really nervous going up to start playing again in front of people,” said Fordham.

“I’m throwing with a different dart and have to build my confidence up. Hopefully in six months there will be some improvement and then I’ll be able to carry on from there.

“People have been brilliant and I really appreciate the support. I hope I can go up there and give something back to them.”