Sport Industry Group

BDO rejects PDC takeover bid- 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00

The British Darts Organisation (BDO) has rebuffed a takeover bid from rival body the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) – a move which would have unified the sport.

PDC chief Barry Hearn has offered £1m for the BDO, but the latter’s chief executive Olly Croft said it ‘is not for sale’ at any price.

The acrimonious split between the BDO and PDC, which have rival world championships broadcast on the BBC and Sky respectively, stretches back to 1993.
 
Hearn sent an open letter to the BDO board outlining his plans to bring the whole sport under his control.

‘We [the PDC] know what we are doing and want to invest in the future of darts. The BDO made £16,000 profit last year. The PDC made £1m profit, had a turnover of £9m and has roughly £3m in the bank.

‘I would suggest that if the BDO really care about the sport of darts and the millions of players, then you should accept offers and let us inject not just finance, but professional management to run darts in a modern and effective manner.’

Hearn also offered to honour all existing contracts currently in place with sponsors, venues and the BBC, and said he would invest a further £1m into the grass-roots of the sport.

However, Croft questioned Hearn's motives and claimed the reason the BDO generated only £16,000 profit last year was because ‘we plough back the money... into the sport for the benefit of the sport and its players’.

‘This is nothing to do with unifying the sport but has everything to do with his inflated ego,’ added Croft, who founded the BDO in 1973.

‘The BDO world championship is seen regularly by audiences of 4m plus in the UK alone. Contrast that to an organisation that looks after a handful of players and continually produces the same predictable results time after time.

‘Barry Hearn is more concerned with filling arenas with ever-rowdier crowds and turning our great sport into a 'show' on a par with wrestling.

‘Maybe Mr Hearn is experiencing problems? Or maybe Sky are becoming a little frustrated with what he has to offer?

‘I am not knocking the players. The BDO has produced all of them and they are good at what they do, but the same formats, the same faces and the same results are hardly a recipe for long lasting success.’

Darts has been divided since a group of 16 rebel players, including 14-time world champion Phil Taylor, broke away to create their own organisation, initially called the World Darts Council (WDC).