"It's all about who sells the most tickets" - Raymond van Barneveld understands choice for Premier League Darts field

There was a particular buzz about this year's Premier League Darts selection. Players like Mike De Decker and Dave Chisnall fell short of selection, while Nathan Aspinall and Gerwyn Price were among the field of participants. Raymond van Barneveld, winner of the 2014 Premier League Darts, can understand the PDC.

The non-selection was especially bad for De Decker; the 29-year-old Belgian had won last year's World Grand Prix but still fell short of participation. "It's about who sells the most tickets," Van Barneveld told De Telegraaf. "Although nowadays it doesn't make much difference who you let throw. Darts has become so big that everything sells out anyway."

"Aspinall is a crowd favorite and has a great walk-on song (Mr. Brightside by The Killers), where the whole venue is jumping up and down. And I think the PDC would have liked Gary Anderson, but he threw away his chance at the last World Darts Championship when he was eliminated in the second round. Chris Dobey, on the other hand, made it to the semifinals. And someone like Peter Wright they obviously couldn't pick this year. But then again a Price is among them, even though he has been shouting 'I'm not coming next year' all year."

Many players also sell themselves well on social media, with Stephen Bunting in particular being hugely popular. "I don't have all that, that social media, but obviously the more followers, the better to sell the product," Van Barneveld said. "Anything for commercial, although Bunting has earned his spot anyway, of course. And let me be honest: when it comes to guys who aren't necessarily in that top eight, I haven't been allowed to grumble myself. The last four or five times I competed, I wasn't in the top-8 or even top-16 in the world either, but got a wildcard from Sky Sports every time."

"Which is also a thing: it would be about winning big tournaments, but the UK Open and the European Championships, for example, are broadcast by ITV. The Premier League is by Sky Sports. That's as far as it goes and that makes sense. People are more likely to watch the self-broadcast tournaments and thus certainly the World Cup. I personally don't find much to do with watching Luke against Luke (Humphries against Littler, ed.) or one of the Lukes against Michael almost every Thursday in that tournament format, but I get it from the PDC and an insane party it is. I got to experience that myself."