“If you showed this at every tournament, no one would watch” – Vincent van der Voort berates 'dead' atmosphere at Saudi Arabian Darts Masters

The World Series events are always a talking point. The top players are just out of their World Championship rhythm, the setting is often exotic, and the sporting weight feels different from the ranking tournaments. In the latest episode of the Darts Draait Door podcast, Vincent van der Voort and Damien Vlottes discussed the dead-silent crowd in Saudi Arabia and the unusual bonus for a nine-darter, after which one more dart had to be thrown at the bullseye.

After Bahrain, the World Series caravan moved to Saudi Arabia, and that took some getting used to. The guys are very outspoken. It starts with Danny Noppert, who went out early. “Noppert just didn’t have his day,” says Vlottes. Van der Voort adds: “No, he had a rough off-day.”

They spotted it quickly: “You could see in everything that he felt uncomfortable. He just didn’t play well at all. He started throwing a bit on speed. A bit by feel. He was just not having a good day. He probably thought: that's fine, leave it. Off home.”

Then follows a line that says a lot about the experience there: “It’s no fun playing in Saudi Arabia, it’s absolutely nothing there.” Van der Voort says he was in touch with Van Gerwen, and he was clear too: “Normally he calls once a day, but its more often now. He was bored. There’s nothing there at all. And what there is, isn’t much. It’s a completely different world you live in there. He wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.”

On a sporting and cultural level, something else stood out: the crowd reacted totally differently than in traditional darts countries. Vlottes says he spoke to Van Gerwen afterwards at the press conference. “The crowd was obviously very enthusiastic. They just kept clapping. Even when someone hit 45.”

It even sparks an almost surreal thought: as if it’s choreographed. “I think there’s just someone… if you don’t stand up and clap…” jokes Vlottes. “It’s very odd. Even your walk-on from the other side already. It’s all very new,” he concludes.

Van der Voort doesn’t believe this is sustainable for long. “The room is dead, you can tell it has nothing to do with darts at all. If you showed this at every tournament for a year, no one would watch anymore. Nice that they are trying to Saudi Arabia, but it’s purely a financial matter.”

The bigger theme then returns: the PDC balancing between sport and show. Even though it didn’t really catch on, according to Van der Voort you couldn’t blame the PDC for trying. “The difference between elite sport and entertainment is very important to them. This was more about sport and soon with the Premier League Darts the entertainment side will be more important again. They’re raking in piles and piles of money, even Eddie Hearn (the son of PDC boss Barry Hearn, ed.) was there and he never comes to the darts. He popped in to see how much money he’d brought in. You can’t hold that against the PDC. They run a good business and the money flowing in is unreal.”

Another extra element at the Saudi Arabia Darts Masters was an unusual bonus: £100,000 for a nine-darter, with the chance to double it by then hitting a single dart at bull. “That’s just brilliant of course,” says Van der Voort. “That’s a nice bonus.”

They muse aloud about the possible pressure it would bring: “Would that make you nervous? I assume it would,” says Van der Voort. “No one would ever forget that. It’s never happened before. So that makes it even more special.”

From a sporting perspective, both men note something else: the Asian players disappointed. “They’ve made quite a bit of progress, it keeps getting better,” says Vlottes. “But I still found this disappointing. That across two events only one made it past the first round — I expected a bit more.”

The wish is clear: the Asian players shouldn’t just be on stage to take part, but to push the true elite. “You hope someone can really push his opponent to the limit. A 6-5 or so. And that you’re at least around a 90 average or close to 100,” they conclude.