"It’s played by genuine professional athletes" - CEO Matt Porter continues quest to disconnect PDC from pub image

Darts was originally a pub sport and is still associated with it. But Matt Porter, Chief Executive Officer of the PDC, would like to get rid of that image.

Barry Hearn, currently President of the PDC, once described darts as 'golf for working people'. Originally, darts was played in pubs and involves some drinking. But Porter doesn't like that association. "The advantage of darts is that it’s played everywhere in the world. You don’t have to introduce people to it, you just have to change the way it’s packaged," Porter told the Financial Times.

"It’s important we put to bed that pub-based image," he continues. "It’s not what people perceived it to be in the ‘80s and ‘90s. It’s played by genuine professional athletes."

Porter hopes new sensation Luke Littler can help with that. "Darts is something people can relate to, and Luke is a very relatable character," he said. "You wouldn’t go to watch a Premier League [football] match and think, 'Oh I could do that'."