THE BDO IS NOT FOR SALE….OLLY CROFT TELLS BARRY HEARN

In today’s Sun (Wednesday. Oct 21) Barry Hearn is claiming to offer to buy the BDO for £1 million.

This is the response of OLLY CROFT, founder of the British Darts Organisation:

We know that when this time of the year comes round Halloween happens, the clocks go back and Barry Hearn and the PDC start their usual campaign to try and disrupt our World Championships at Lakeside.

THE BDO IS NOT FOR SALE! IT IS A PRICELESS ASSET THAT FOSTERS, PROMOTES AND LOOKS AFTER THE FUTURE OF OUR GREAT SPORT FOR ALL PLAYERS AT ALL LEVELS.

The BDO was founded in 1973 and is a properly constituted governing body for the sport of darts, with a democratically elected board and a country structure that makes up its ‘shareholders’.

Barry Hearn has gone on record saying that he wants to ‘destroy’ the BDO and is not interested in women’s darts, youth darts and county darts, because they are not profitable. Now he claims that he wants to buy the BDO!

The reason that the BDO doesn’t produce vast net profits, is because we plough back the money we receive into the sport for the benefit of the sport and its players.

This is nothing more than a cheap publicity stunt and has nothing to do with unifying the sport but has everything to do with his inflated ego and perceived self-importance.

The big question is this: If the PDC is such a wonderful success why doesn’t he just concentrate on his own organisation? The BDO has been very successful for thirty-seven years and has over one thousand top officials looking after many thousands of darts players irrespective of age, gender or ability. By doing so, we not only provide the opportunity for everyone to enjoy the great sport of darts, but continue to produce fresh and exciting new names every year.

There are eleven new faces in the line-up for Lakeside 2010, and when we make the draw tomorrow (Thursday) players from nine of the thirty-two countries who competed in the play-offs, will be heading for Lakeside next January.

The BBC and Lakeside Country Club have just extended their contracts for the World Pro until 2013.

The World Pro is seen regularly by audiences of 4 million plus in the UK alone and enjoys the biggest TV audiences for darts in the world - estimated at 100 million!

Contrast that to an organisation that looks after a handful of players and continually produces the same predictable results time after time.

You can only shake your head in total disbelief at the sheer arrogance of the man.

Of course the BDO cares about the sport of darts. It is the BDO that gained recognition for darts as a proper sport in 2005 and has looked after millions of players over the last 37 years. Every top player has been produced through our playing systems.

Has anyone in the public domain ever seen the published accounts of the PDC? Have they ever had an AGM?

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. The BDO promotes darts as a sport on behalf of its players and we have the two greatest World Championships in global darts, the Lakeside World Professional – played annually and televised by the BBC since 1978, and the oldest established major in darts, the Winmau World Masters, which has been played annually since 1974.

Both are open to players from some seventy countries and don’t cost players a fortune in entry fees.

Maybe Mr. Hearn is experiencing problems? Or maybe Sky is 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.

The BDO has sixty-six counties, seventy associated country darts bodies, and more than one-thousand darts officials. I doubt whether the PDC has 200 members, and it is estimate that to play in the PDC system costs each player £500 per week! BDO darts is affordable and accessible to all.

The PDC is the BUSINESS of darts, while the BDO is the SPORT of darts. We gained recognition for darts as a sport in 2005 because we have the systems in place to provide darts from grass roots level for men, women and youth, right through to National, International and World levels.

Mr. Hearn thinks only of profit and has little or no time for proper constituted governing bodies. You only have to look at his track record in other sports to see what his modus operandi is, and what he leaves behind once he can squeeze no more out of them.

Issued by ROBERT HOLMES on behalf of the BDO 21/10/09 0781-0047925