ABOUT THE BRITISH DARTS ORGANISATION

On June 3rd, 2005 the application by The British Darts Organisation for darts to be recognised as a bona-fide sport was unanimously agreed by the sports councils of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Founded in 1973, THE BRITISH DARTS ORGANISATION (BDO) is recognised globally as the world’s leading darts organisation with over 1,000 officials and a calendar that produces in excess of EIGHT HUNDRED darts events annually that use Winmau Dartboards as the exclusive dartboards to the BDO.

The BDO is firmly established as governing body for the sport of darts in Britain, and as such is fully committed to regulating, organising, promoting, staging, administrating and fostering darts nationally, internationally and worldwide for men, women, boys and girls to ensure the on-going growth of the sport for all participants irrespective of gender, age or ability.

The BDO represents darts from grass roots right through to professional standard. As such it is all-inclusive and representative of the sport.

The BDO comprises sixty-six member counties in Britain, and has sixty-nine associate countries worldwide.

Each BDO county stages its own domestic events, with some staging open events for men, women and youth. Each county has a Super-League for men and women and some have their own youth sections.

The BDO is administered by a board of directors, democratically elected annually at its AGM. It is funded by subscription from its member counties, and also receives revenue from various sponsors, etc.

The BRITISH INTER-COUNTY DARTS CHAMPIONSHIPS (BICC) are pivotal to the BDO playing system and are responsible for producing players who regularly go on to achieve success at national, international, world and professional levels within the sport. The BICC is famously acknowledged as ‘the production line of darts’ because of its unfailing ability to produce top players year in year out.

Played every 3-4 weeks from September/October to April/May, the BICC comprises forty-three English counties, sixteen Scottish counties and seven Welsh counties, which produce a Premier Division and Divisions 1, 2, 3 and 4 in England and Wales, plus two Scottish Divisions.

England and Wales have 10 counties per Division, fielding Men’s and Women’s A and B teams, and each team has 12 men and 6 women players. This produces a total of 36 players (men and women) per county competing at Inter-County level every 3-4 weeks throughout the season.

The two Scottish Divisions – Scotland North and Scotland South - are contested by eight counties in each Division. There are 28 players per team.

All counties play alternate home and away fixtures throughout the season, and the points scored produce annual League Tables.

Each County has its own County Darts Super League from which County players are selected for each of its County Teams. This produces thousands of BDO players (men, women and youth) who compete within the BDO Inter-County and County Super Leagues annually.

The BDO and its member counties stage hundreds of competitive darts events each year involving men, women and youth, and is responsible for the overall growth of the sport of darts from grass roots level right through to County, National, International, Professional and World levels.

This includes the staging of major annual darts events, including:

·THE WORLD PROFESSIONAL DARTS CHAMPIONSHIPS:

Played annually since 1978 and televised by BBC TV Sport.

·BBC WORLDWIDE provide the World Pro to countries around the globe.

·Since 1998 the World Pro has been televised in The Netherlands by

SBS-6.

·Since 2005 the World Pro has been accessible on BBCi, which means that every dart thrown can be seen at the touch of the red-button on digital remote controls.

·Since 2006 the World Pro has been screened by EUROSPORT and from 2009 onwards is available on EUROSPORT ASIA.

·The World Pro is seen by peak BBC audiences of between 4 and 5 million each year and collectively by the largest television audiences for darts anywhere in the world.

·THE WOMEN’S WORLD PROFESSIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP has been played annually since 2001.

·THE WINMAU WORLD MASTERS:

Played annually since 1974 and televised by BBC TV Sport, this is the oldest established ‘major’ in world darts, and the only one with 4 separate finals: Men, Women, Boys and Girls Masters.

In addition:

·The WDF WORLD CUP has been played every two years since 1977 and England Men have won it on 11 occasions.

·The England Women’s Team have now won the WDF World Cup on 7 occasions.

·The WDF EUROPE CUP has been played every two years since 1978 and England Men have won it 11 times.

·The England Women’s Team have now won the WDF Europe Cup on 9 occasions.

·The WDF EUROPE CUP YOUTH has been played every year since 1995.

·The BDO BRITISH INTERNATIONALS, a Men’s and Women’s Championship between the Home Countries of England, Scotland and Wales has been played annually since 1979.

Other annual tournaments include:

·THE BRITISH INTER-COUNTY DARTS CHAMPIONSHIPS (BICC) Played every month between all British counties from September/Oct to April/May.

The British Darts Organisation has its Head Office in London which is administered by OLLY CROFT, OBE, founder of the BDO in 1973.

Contact details are as follows:

Address: 2, PAGES LANE, MUSWELL HILL, LONDON, N10 1PS

Telephone: 020 8883 5544

Fax: 020 8883 0109

Email

Website:

PR Consultant: ROBERT HOLMES: Office 01827-701188

m: 0781-0047925 email: