World Darts Council
2009 PDC World Darts Championship. The player on the screen is Mensur Suljović.
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| Abbreviation | PDC |
|---|---|
| Formation | 16 January 1992 |
| Type | Professional Darts organization |
| Headquarters | Mascalls, Mascalls Lane Brentwood, Essex CM14 5LJ United Kingdom |
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Membership
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221 |
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Chairman
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Barry Hearn |
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Chief Executive
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Matthew Porter |
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Staff
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30 |
| Website | www |
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Formerly called
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World Darts Council |
The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation to form what was initially called the World Darts Council (WDC). Sports promoter Barry Hearn is the PDC chairman.
The PDC developed and holds several championship competitions, including the annual PDC World Darts Championship, the UK Open, World Grand Prix, Premier League and World Matchplay. It also runs its own world rankings based on players' performances.
In the 1980s, professional darts in Britain lost much of its sponsorship television coverage. From 1989, the only televised event was the annual Embassy World Championship. Some of the players felt that not enough was being done by the governing body, the British Darts Organisation, to encourage new sponsors into the sport and arrange more television coverage than just one event a year.
As a result, 16 professional players, including every previous BDO world champion who was still active in the game, created their own darts organisation, the World Darts Council (WDC), in January 1992.
They wanted to appoint a PR consultant to improve the image of the game. The 1993 Embassy World Championship was the last time there was one unified world championship. The WDC players wore their new insignia on their sleeves during the tournament but were told to remove them by the BDO. The WDC players decided that if they were not going to be recognised by the BDO they would no longer play in the Embassy tournament.
The BDO took the step of banning the rebel players from playing in county darts and even threatened to ban any player who participated in exhibition events with WDC players.
The WDC players took the matter to court in a dispute which accrued large and perhaps unaffordable costs during a protracted legal process. The two bodies reached an out-of-court settlement on 30 June 1997 in the form of a Tomlin order.
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Wikipedia