Podcast “Learned again”: Why darts dominate the Christmas season

Thursday, December 23, 2021

From the pub to the mass event
Why darts dominate the Christmas season

From Kevin Schulte

In the past, dart players stood on stage with beer glasses and cigarettes. Today the Darts World Cup is thrilling millions, not only in the motherland Great Britain, but also in Germany for a long time. How did pub sports become a mass phenomenon?

Darts used to be the dusty sport from the last corner of a smoky pub. Today it moves the masses, millions watch the big tournaments of the professional darts organization PDC. Thousands flock to the halls, including on these days in London. The world championship will take place in the historic Alexandra Palace until January 3rd. 94 players from 29 countries fight for the title. Despite Corona, most tickets were quickly sold out again. On TV, the broadcasting stations break new audience records from year to year.

In Germany, too, darts have long since arrived in the middle of society, but more of a coincidence. In 2004, DSF, now Sport1, broadcast the World Cup on television for the first time. “They had secured a rights package, but not at all with the aim of making darts really big. It was about pool, they wanted to compete with Eurosport, which had great success with snooker. And in this package with several fringe sports there was also darts “, he explains freelance journalist and darts expert Kevin Barth in the ntv podcast “Learned again”.

Legendary 2007 World Cup final

At that time, Barth also got into darts through a broadcast on German sports television. This also fell into this period until today most famous and most exciting World Cup final of all time. Phil Taylor – with 16 world championship titles – the overplayer par excellence, lost in the 2007 final against five-time champion Raymond van Barneveld in a marathon match that only ended in the tie-break. “That was the first time you had really good ratings,” recalls Barth. As a result, however, the transmissions were initially not expanded any further. “It wasn’t until 2009 and 2010 that TV broadcasts began to take place again. And this TV presence, especially during the World Cup, was certainly a big point, because you could of course take advantage of the fact that many other sports were paused around Christmas. “

The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) has held its world championship every year from mid-December to early January since 1994. The tournament on television hardly has any sporting competition, especially in the crucial phase between the years and the beginning of the new year, because at least in Germany the Bundesliga is then in the winter break.

“Player with beer glass and cigarette”

The PDC was founded in 1992 – in competition with the British Darts Organization (BDO). 16 top players of the BDO, including the later permanent dominator Phil “The Power” Taylor and the first PDC world champion Dennis Priestley, were dissatisfied with their association because the sport was hardly broadcast on television and the prize money could no longer finance their living. “At the end of the 80s, darts had a big image problem. Players were seen on the television with beer glasses and cigarettes on stage. There was a player who was so drunk that he fell off the stage after his game, “reports Barth on the podcast.

The PDC banned alcohol and cigarettes from the stage and pays meticulous attention to the fact that the sport comes across as professional as possible. “That was an important change in image that you made. And of course it became more professional. There was more prize money, there were more TV tournaments, there were more cameras that broadcast the events. Then there is Sky Sports was the main factor “, analyzes expert Barth.

Sky Sports was the first major TV partner of the PDC and is still today. The British pay TV channel even celebrates the World Cup with its own 24-hour darts channel. After football there is nothing in Great Britain for a long time either, but darts comes in second place with other sports, estimates Kevin Barth.

Ballermann audience dominates World Cup

And PDC events are indeed a box-office hit. This is not only shown by Alexandra Palace, who regularly occupied the last place and the last beer bench during the World Cup. The Premier League Darts, the second largest event of the darts year, is also well received by the public. Sky Sports broadcasts on pay TV, the PDC lets the top stars appear week after week in the largest halls in the country for four months as part of the show event, and the Premier League now also regularly makes stops in Rotterdam and Berlin.

Another milestone for the PDC was the relocation of the World Cup from the small Circus Tavern in Purfleet near London to the much larger Alexandra Palace. Since 2008 the most important tournament of the year has been held in the “Ally Pally”. In the Circus Tavern the atmosphere was calm, almost intimate. With the “Ally Pally” the Ballermann audience came to darts. “From this point on, people began to develop the event image and present the party more strongly. Since then, the best disguise of the evening has been chosen, the best signs that people hold in the crowd,” said Barth.

In addition, PDC Europe, that is the PDC subsidiary responsible for mainland Europe, emphasized the party image even more. “She took this path even more aggressively. This image must have attracted a few people. On the other hand, you have to ask yourself what you created because you got a kind of audience that you don’t always have Gives pleasure, “says Barth. Especially at the tournaments in Germany, there are many spectators in the audience “who are not interested in the sport”.

This year it is different because of the entry regulations – before the corona pandemic, however, almost every third World Cup ticket was recently sold to Germany. The local party crowd seems to particularly like the World Cup with its crazy costumes and beer-drinking crowds. In the remaining tournaments, the composition of the audience is less international.

German success is a long time coming

This is another reason why expert Kevin Barth sees the end of the flagpole still a long way off. There is still potential for the sport to grow. This shows above all the significantly lower awareness of the other TV tournaments in relation to the World Cup and, to a lesser extent, the Premier League. “Everything is geared towards the world championship. Otherwise you have eight or nine other TV tournaments a year. But it’s not like tennis, where you know you have four tournaments a year, they are all really important.” The PDC has so far not been able to present further tournaments with more media, criticized Barth. “As a dart layman, you can’t really separate the other tournaments from each other.”

In Germany, too, the ceiling for darts has not yet been reached. A World Cup final works every year, Sport1 attracts two million viewers at the World Cup final. There are also other subscription customers at the streaming broadcaster Dazn. What should happen if a German participates in the tournament until the end? In the 28-year history of the World Cup, however, no one has made it further than the round of 16.