Germany’s darts association wants to introduce a blood alcohol limit for players, and the professional darts organization PDC wants to keep the issue of alcohol as small as possible. What role do barley juice and mixed drinks play in darts?
It is obvious that alcohol is consumed in large quantities at every darts event. These days, just a few minutes in front of the television screen are enough to be able to smell the beer-like atmosphere at the Darts World Cup in the legendary Alexandra Palace. It is at least impossible to ignore them. The vast majority of the 3,000 spectators per session in London’s darts mecca are more likely to watch the dart throwers with rather than without alcohol.
Mineral water, on the other hand, is only in demand in one place in “Ally Pally”: On the stage, there are several bottles on the two players’ tiny bar tables. It is doubtful that, away from the TV cameras, water is the only drink that the professionals rely on in preparation for the game. There is an accusation that alcohol is specifically used by professionals to gain a kind of tunnel vision.
Wild 80s
In a bygone era, when darts wasn’t yet hip and cool, players openly displayed their alcohol consumption. Back when the professional darts organization PDC wasn’t even an idea, even the most important tournaments were held in better pubs, alcohol fumes and cigarette smoke included. There were no bottles of mineral water on the players’ tables, but rather beer and ashtrays.
Until the 1980s, things were completely wild and uninhibited even at the biggest darts tournaments organized by the British Darts Organization (BDO), the only relevant darts association at the time. Beer and cigarettes were as much a part of darts as darts and boards. In some cases the arrows were even thrown with a smoke on the tooth and people looked deep into the glass during the game. Sometimes too deep. Some players even flew off the stage because of their drunkenness.
In 1988 the BDO introduced a ban on alcohol and cigarettes. However, the British Darts Association’s rank was overtaken a short time later by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), which was founded in 1992. It doesn’t just have profit in its name, it actually turned the best players into professionals, collected sponsors and gave comparatively high prize money to its players. The PDC succeeded in bringing the sport from the pubs into the large halls and onto television screens. But darts continue to carry an old vice with them: alcohol.
Accusations from ex-players and amateurs
It is mainly ex-players or those who have nothing left to lose who unpack: Dennis Priestley, for example, the first PDC world champion ever. In 1994, the now 73-year-old Englishman won the title in the final against Phil Taylor, who later became 16-time champion. “Without the alcohol I probably wouldn’t have won anything in this sport,” Priestley told the British portal “olbg.com” before the start of the current World Championships. Before his BDO world championship title, he “probably drank three or four bottles of Pilsner” to calm his nerves. The key is to get the right level. “You just have to know exactly how much you need to keep your nerve.”
The German amateur darts player Jochen Graudenz brought the issue to the attention of the general public in this country for the first time in the summer with harsh accusations. “It feels like 70 percent of professionals are alcoholics,” said Graudenz in an interview with Portal “dartsnews.de”. Accusations that cannot be proven. Especially when they come with the addition of “felt”. Graudenz’s reporting and allegations were dismissed as dubious by numerous German professionals and also by PDC Europe, an offshoot of the PDC responsible for continental Europe. They also had good arguments for this, after all Graudenz was initially incorrectly described as a professional player in the reporting, which was not true.
Despite all the professionalization, alcohol has apparently not completely disappeared from darts today and is sometimes used as target water, commented Priestley in the interview already quoted. “If you can name a handful of players who haven’t had a drop of alcohol before their games this year, I’ll be amazed.”
“Harry Kane could drink two beers”
However, exactly how big a role alcohol plays behind the scenes can only be speculated about. “For us, it’s not the case that we have the feeling that we have to control it. Simply because it’s not something that has gotten out of control,” said PDC managing director Matthew Porter to the German Press Agency in London.
There are no alcohol controls at this Darts World Cup either. The leading official used a comparison with other sports to justify his decision. “If I were Harry Kane and played for Bayern, I could drink two beers and then play at the Allianz Arena. Nothing in the rules stops him.”
The PDC boss makes it clear that excessive alcohol consumption is not an issue among the World Cup stars. He knows “that you won’t find top players at elite level in this game who benefit from alcohol. Other players who used to play darts are not significant. That has nothing to do with today’s sport.”
If professionals are seen on stage heavily intoxicated, Porter threatens punishment. “If you were drunk in your job, your bosses would punish you. Our players have to conform to a certain code of conduct. If they violate that in any way, they will be punished. If someone is not fit for their match, they would receive a severe punishment take risk.”
Alcohol can provide a “steadier hand.”
Although the PDC tries to avoid the issue of alcohol, individual moments of suspected barley juice are involuntarily put on display. On the first evening of the World Cup last year Mickey Mansell caused a stir. During the obligatory winner’s interview, the Northern Irishman slurred and had difficulty controlling his gestures and facial expressions. “Sometimes it’s a matter of nerves,” says Porter, commenting on the incident.
However, such upsets are absolute exceptions. And players who fall off stages no longer exist. Drinking excessively has no performance-enhancing effect anyway, says medical journalist Christoph Specht in an interview with ntv. “If the dose is too high, then performance is reduced because concentration decreases. You are no longer as fast, you no longer react as quickly.”
Alcohol in small quantities, on the other hand, can actually ensure a “steadier, more accurate hand” in precision sports such as darts. In this respect, beer consumption could be described as “doping in a certain form,” argues Specht.
Alcohol limit planned in Germany
Those responsible at the German Darts Association (DDV) also see it that way, which has no relationship to the PDC, but is a national branch of the World Darts Federation (WDF).
An announcement by the DDV recently ensured that the topic of alcohol in darts is now being discussed seriously – unlike during the largely sensational reporting on the Graudenz statements in the summer. The association wants to introduce random alcohol controls at the start of the coming season – from August 2024. The “Sportschau” reported about it first. “In small quantities, alcohol has a mood-enhancing, relaxing and anti-anxiety effect, which is why we are aware that alcohol can have a performance-enhancing effect when playing darts,” says DDV sports director Karsten Kuckhoff, explaining the decision in an interview with ntv.
Contrary to recent reports in many media, concrete alcohol limits have not yet been set. These would still have to be subjected to legal checks, just like the exact process of future controls. “There are different scenarios as to how we can do this. Either a new independent committee is set up that only focuses on alcohol controls. Or there is an internal solution via the referees and tournament management,” reports Kuckhoff.
The DDV is in contact with other associations that introduced alcohol controls a few years ago, says Kuckhoff. “We try to learn from others.”
The association is also in close contact with the National Anti-Doping Authority NADA. The decision by the World Anti-Doping Agency Wada to no longer include alcohol on the doping list since 2018 was “of course a disservice” for the associations. “Since then, every sport has had to see how it deals with it,” complains Kuckhoff.
Malibu and Bacardi to combat stress
For the PDC, which is not part of association structures but operates as a profit-oriented company, the WADA regulations actually offer the opportunity to deal with the alcohol issue in a relaxed manner. In any case, both the professional darts organization and the players could, in theory, point out that alcohol is not considered doping by the Wada ohehnin and that it is none of the PDC’s business what the players drink before their performances.
It is often forgotten that even active players have commented on their drinking habits before games. “I drink a Dimi Special, that’s what we call it. It’s a Malibu with orange juice, to combat stress,” revealed the world number 15. Dimitri Van den Bergh two years ago on Belgian television.
Is the PDC afraid that sponsors will stay away from the sport that has just become mainstream in the future? It seems unlikely that the current advertising partners will rethink their commitments. The majority of the PDC’s major sponsors are betting providers. Companies from an industry that itself is anything but uncontroversial are buckling because of alcohol revelations? Difficult to imagine.