"I said to Matt Porter are you scraping the bottom of the barrel": Damon Heta remarks on World Series New York call

Damon Heta admits he changed his perspective on the call for the World Series of Darts and now admits he belongs in the elite field in what could be a Premier League dress rehearsal.

Long a player who has flirted with the higher echelons of the rankings, he was seen in some quarters as likely for the Premier League this year. But he wasn't included which he admitted he wasn't shocked by.

Now he gets his chance though at the US Darts Masters and he remarked that he is excited to see what the crowd is like.

"The amount of sporting people that've been here in this theatre, the singers, the dancers, the actors. It's insane that darts is here and I'm here so happy days," said Heta to Online Darts.

"This is still fresh, it's a different darting crowd compared to Europe. I'm about to find out how similar it is to Australia even, hopefully I put on a good show."

On the call from Matt Porter, he said he didn't even think but after being told he deserves it he changed his tune from jokey to believing he belongs.

"I pretty much said what flight am I on. I said yes straight away without reading the T&C's. It was probably a silly mistake from me," he joked.

"To get that call was amazing. I take every opportunity I get and I always do my best. That's what I do. I said to Matt (Porter) what are you doing scraping the bottom of the barrel. He said no you've earned your spot here. I was like yeah I've earned my spot here, I've put in the hard yards and now it's all about staying there and getting invited to more stuff like this."

"Just bring it on building that fanbase over here and darts promoted over here. That way the game is going to grow again."

But in terms of further Premier League chances, he said that with the further Prize Money it likely hinges more on the World Championship than ever.

"It's all about the confidence from here. You put on a good display, you've got the Matchplay coming up. This prepares you for that, it's out of your comfort zone just a little bit. It's still the same stage, playing darts and a crowd. You're playing the top players in the world so it's another opportunity."

"The World's is massive and now the prize money for the world's is next level. I think 80%/90% will count towards the Premier League. For all these TV ones, I want to go deep in all of them. Not just get stuck at the first hurdle."