The Darts Civil War That Split the Sport
One by one, the television cameras packed up and left darts through the late 1980s, until a single tournament was all that remained on screen. The sixteen best players in the world decided they weren't going down with the ship.
Their 1993 breakaway became the most bitter split in the sport's history, and it built the professional darts you watch today. If you've ever wondered why darts crowned two "world champions" a year for decades, this is the story.
The Boom Years Under the BDO
The British Darts Organisation was founded in 1973 by Olly Croft and grew into the sport's dominant governing body. Through the late 1970s and 1980s darts exploded on British television, turning stars like Eric Bristow and Jocky Wilson into household names.
The BDO ran the sport's biggest event, the BDO World Darts Championship, first held in 1978. For a stretch, darts ranked among the most-watched sports on UK TV.
- Built to official tournament specifications for serious practice and match play
- Dual-density core improves dart retention and keeps the board playing consistently
- Ultra-thin wiring increases the scoring area and cuts down on bounce-outs
The Bust
By the end of the 1980s, television had fallen out of love with darts. Broadcasters dropped tournament after tournament until the World Championship was essentially the only major event left on air.
For the top professionals that was a crisis. Fewer televised events meant less prize money and fewer sponsors, and many players felt the BDO had no plan to turn it around.
The 1993 Breakaway
In 1993, sixteen leading players — Phil Taylor, Eric Bristow, Dennis Priestley, and John Lowe among them — walked away to form their own organization, the World Darts Council. The goal was blunt: get darts back on television and make the professional game pay.
The BDO hit back hard, and the two bodies went to war. From 1994 the sport ran two rival world championships, and the dispute landed in a legal battle.
The Settlement and Two Parallel Worlds
The legal fight was settled in 1997, leaving players free to choose which organization's events to enter. The WDC renamed itself the Professional Darts Corporation — the PDC.
From then on, darts lived two separate lives:
- The PDC built a television-first professional circuit, with growing prize funds and new events like the Premier League
- The BDO kept its traditional World Championship and its deep amateur and county structure, which kept producing champions like Wayne Warren
Players crossed over regularly. BDO stars like Raymond van Barneveld made the jump to the PDC and thrived.
How the Split Ended
Over time the gap became a gulf. PDC prize money, TV coverage, and production values pulled far ahead, and its World Championship at Alexandra Palace became the sport's flagship event.
The BDO struggled financially in its final years and collapsed in 2020. The World Darts Federation stepped in to run the amateur international game, leaving the PDC unchallenged at the top of professional darts.
Why Did the Players Actually Leave?
Money and television, in short. The sport's TV exposure had collapsed, and the breakaway players believed only a new, professionally run body could win it back.
Was Phil Taylor Part of the Split?
Yes — and he became its biggest winner. Taylor won a record 14 PDC world titles (16 world titles in all) and was the face of the PDC era.
Which World Title "Counts"?
Both were real world championships in their day, and the record books list them separately. Today the PDC World Darts Championship is the undisputed top prize in darts.
Next time someone asks why darts once had two world champions a year, you can tell them the whole war story.