Hearn gives thoughts on current state of BDO: 'The doubts over the BDO's future worry me'

Barry Hearn gave his thoughts recently at the World Matchplay about the current state of the BDO in the wake of problems they have encountered in the past few weeks.

He said from his perspective that while they are not competition to the PDC; they believe they need the BDO. Hearn added that he believes they need amateur darts; and that in the long-run he believes that without the financial backing, they will always stay the same.

He did reaffirm his commitment to helping them though and said that their door is always firmly open. As well as that they have no changes in the pipeline to the number of players involved in the Grand Slam.

‘From a quality standpoint, all you can do is beat the man in front of you. The winner of any BDO tournament is a good winner; because he’s beaten the men in front of him,’ said Hearn.

‘The doubts over the BDO’s future worry me; because I think we need the BDO, we need amateur darts, and it is amateur, there’s no doubt that the best players would be crazy not to want to be here.

‘What their relevance is going to be over the next few years; we’ll have to wait and see what they do with TV contracts, with tournaments.

‘It’s very difficult to encourage players when you’re paying peanuts to get to the last 16 or last eight because we all have to earn a living.

‘If you’re going to be a social darts player, I understand that, there’s a level, but you’ll never reach your full potential unless you go full time. But to go full time, you’ve got a wife and family to feed, so it’s a catch 22 situation.

‘In the long run, I think the BDO will have a continuing problem with credibility without cash, and that’s going to be the issue, how can they finance something that will be meaningful to their players within their business model?

‘They’re not up against us, they’re not real competition to us, there is a role for them to play, but they’ve got to be realistic.

‘Let’s wait and see, our door is always open to see if we can help. The Grand Slam is a prime example, we’re giving them their eight players this year and have not plans to reduce that.’