The PDC has been driving the globalization of darts for years. The organization can now reap big rewards from this World Cup. The next steps have already been announced. One leads to controversial Saudi Arabia.
The new world champion hasn’t even been crowned yet, but the boss behind the event is already drawing a positive conclusion. “It was great. New stories were produced every day. There were great games every day,” said PDC managing director Matt Porter in a media roundtable in which WELT AM SONNTAG also took part. “And the nice thing about this event is that, whether it’s Tuesday at 1 p.m. or Saturday at 10 p.m., it always feels the same.”
32 more players, four days longer, well over a thousand 180s. This Darts World Cup is in every respect the biggest in the history of the sport. And despite all the previous criticism about the possible lack of standard of the additional starters: the athletes simply delivered from day one to day 20 with the final this Saturday evening. Broken tables, outbursts of anger from the world number one, underdog victories that were never thought possible. Emotions on the assembly line.
Darts has written an unprecedented growth story in recent years. But this World Cup has taken the sport to a new level. Because it is now finally taking shape, becoming a quintessentially British pub game into a global premium product.
The PDC has been driving this development forward for years. Big rewards can now be harvested from this World Cup. “This World Cup proved it. Players from Asia, Africa and Oceania performed really well. In the early years of international tournaments, there were players who didn’t really have the level needed for a World Cup,” Porter said. But victories by players from Kenya, India and Japan have now proven that the rest of the world is competitive.
PDC is a relatively young organization
However, Porter sees himself as only “in a very early development phase” when it comes to internationalization. He likes to point out that the PDC, founded in 1992, is still a relatively young organization, especially compared to those in golf or tennis, with which the managing director likes to compare himself. “For the first decade we were essentially a UK-based organization. It’s only been in the last 10 to 15 years that we’ve really started to grow,” said Porter.
In the next three years, the PDC will take the next step. Over three million pounds in prize money will be invested in regional tournament series around the world during this period. Compared to the five million pounds that were paid out at this World Cup alone, that seems ridiculously small. But it’s a start.
Around 185,000 pounds will flow into the tour in the region where Porter sees the greatest need to catch up in 2026. “North America is a big darts region, but it is currently not producing enough top players,” he said, referring to the USA. “It’s difficult to look at them as a single country. There are 50 states, culturally there are big differences. We have to take a closer look at where the next champions are to be found.”
Do they exist in Saudi Arabia? The controversial Gulf state is as far away from being a darts nation as San Marino is from a World Cup, but it has a lot of money, whose call the PDC is now following. A World Series invitational tournament will be held for the first time in Riyadh on January 19th and 20th. “Saudi Arabia is obviously a country that has invested heavily in the sport over the last five years. Darts is something that has popped up on the radar there,” Porter said.
Subscribe to WELTMeister Spotify, Apple Podcasts or directly via RSS-Feed.
In the meantime, there was even speculation about moving the World Cup to Saudi Arabia due to the financial strength of the controversial kingdom. “We looked at other options. But Saudi Arabia was out of the question for the World Cup,” said Porter.
The World Cup will still grow. The next event will be played in the Great Hall of London’s Alexandra Palace for the first time. 5,000 instead of 3,000 spectators will then come per session. There is actually no doubt that the PDC will sell out every single one of them even then. Because the sport is far from reaching its limits.
Luca Wiecek is sports editor for WELT. He reported for four days at this Darts World Cup from Alexandra Palace in London.
