'They're not professional and they don't run the sport' - Barry Hearn blasts the British Darts Organisation

Barry Hearn, the chairman of the PDC recently sat down with the Sports Gazette to discuss a variety of topics including changing lives, golf's role in darts' success as well as a topic which divides darts fans and that is the PDC/BDO divide. In terms of the BDO, he blasted them in this interview by saying that he offered out his hand in friendship just for a meeting and was told no which gave Hearn the fire to smash them 'within every inch' of their lives but he believes they do a job but compared to the PDC 'they're not professional' and he ended by saying they don't run the sport as it is run on excellence in an explosive section of the interview. “My job was to hold out the hand of friendship to them when I first took over. I said to Olly Croft, who was head of the BDO: ‘Look, I’m not party to this history. Shall we sit down and talk and see where we are?’ And he wrote me back a line and just said ‘I see no point for a meeting.’ I wrote back and said to him: ‘In that case, I will f*ck you within every inch of your life.’ And I have. “I didn’t destroy them but I don’t want to destroy them because they do a job. But they’re not professional and they don’t run the sport in the way that they thought they ran the sport. Sport is run by excellence.