The Growth of Darts

The game of darts hasn’t just been around for decades, but centuries. It was said that darts has been traced back to the medieval era of the 1300s and was first played by soldiers in England. They were said to have used spearheads or sharp objects to throw at a target which would typically be a tree trunk. Some suggest that a fallen log was used as soldiers would throw at the log by using the rings on the trunk as a target hence the similarity to the rings on a tree trunk to the modern day dartboard. Others believe darts may have evolved from archery, with archers throwing shortened arrows at targets.

Closer to modern day, the game of darts had grown in the early 1900’s with brewery leagues appearing and by the mid 1920’s the first national darts association in Britain had been established. This led to leagues growing throughout England and parts of Wales with the first darts game televised in May 1937 when the BBC broadcast from the Alexandra Palace. Since then, the game widely known as a “pub game” continued to grow. By the 1970’s the first darts 'stars' such as Eric Bristow, John Lowe, Alan Evans, Leighton Rees and Jocky Wilson became virtually household names.

Then came the first World Professional Darts Championship that was held in February 1978. This saw Leighton Rees from Ynysybwl, Wales beat John Lowe by a score of 11-7. (I bet you’re looking up that village name in Google Maps now aye?).

Following a televised slump of the game in the late 80’s, it was the insite of 16 professional players including Phil Taylor in early 1992 that really changed the game forever. These players included every previous British Darts Organisation (BDO) world champion who was still active in the game. They created their own darts organization called the World Darts Council (WDC), in January 1992. Hence the PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) was formed. These players combined with sports promoters Tommy Cox and Dick Allix and their funding with the intention of improving the image of the game and displaying the game of darts live on Sky Sports in their entirety along with the razzamatazz which included on stage dancers, walk on songs and the like.

The inaugural PDC World Darts Championship was won by Dennis Priestley in 1994 as he defeated the goat, Phil Taylor amazingly by a score of 6-1.

The following years saw a legal stoush between the BDO and the PDC with both holding their World Darts Championships each year in competition with each other.

The BDO continued to hold their championships, albeit a much watered down version of its PDC counterpart until late 2020 when the BDO company went into liquidation. The World Darts Federation (WDF) continues to hold the old BDO World Darts Championship in competition with the PDC. As of writing New Zealander Ben Robb is currently ranked 5th in the latest WDF Men's World rankings and Nicole Regnaud 4th in the Women’s WDF World rankings.

The creation of the PDC has undoubtedly grown the game of darts. So too was the feats of one Phil Taylor who between 1990 and 2013 had won 16 World Darts Championships (2 x BDO, 14 x PDC) along with numerous other major titles.

But the game got another boost when a 24 year old became the youngest ever to win a World darts title in 2014, the young dutchman, Michael van Gerwen (MVG).

Then of course in the last couple of years that record was smashed when the youngest World Darts Champion, Luke Littler became the “youngest ever” when he won in early January of this year at the age of just 17 years and 347 days. Some are gobsmacked that someone so young can achieve such a feat, but having seen some 10-12 year olds around this country playing, I am sure that in the coming years that record will once again be beaten. The entrance of Littler onto the global stage after his loss in early January 2024 for the World title has seen the game of darts reach media that had never even mentioned the game of darts before.

I started Bullseye Darts here in New Zealand in early 2009 as I could not find a decent set of Tungsten darts at a reasonable price. Today there are darts sold in many sports stores and also online throughout the country.

The game or sport of darts is only set to continue to grow both here in New Zealand and globally in the coming years. As new products and players continue to enter the market, darts is set to continue to grow.

Straight Arrows

Paul Webber

Owner – Bullseye Darts, New Zealand