British Darts Organisation

Common card · No. 366985

The British Darts Organisation (BDO) was a darts organisation founded on 7 January 1973 by Olly Croft, and dissolved in 2020 under the stewardship of Des Jacklin. Made up of 66 member counties, it oversaw professional, semi-professional and amateur darts competitions in Britain. The BDO was a founder member of the World Darts Federation in 1974. It also staged a World Professional Darts Championship from 1978 to 2020. In the early 1990s, a dispute between Croft and the top darts players over the decline in TV coverage and sponsorship led to an acrimonious split in the game, with the players breaking away to form their own governing body which became the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). Henceforth, the BDO and PDC ran their own separate tours, each with its own world championship. The BDO suffered an increasing number of problems in its later years. Many of its top players defected to the more lucrative PDC. Irregularities at the 2019 World Masters led to the BDO being demoted to associate...

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