PDC chief Matt Porter defends much-discussed rule change: ''There comes a time when you have to deliver''

PDC Chief Executive Matt Porter has explained the much-discussed rule change within the European Tour in an interview with Online Darts. The change means that the top 16 players in the world rankings now receive protected status, instead of the top 16 players from the Pro Tour Order of Merit.

Porter was asked if the mooted European Tour changes would mean a potential underuse of the Players Championship events by the world's top players, but Porter quickly came to the Pro Tour system's defence. “That product is there for the player’s benefit. That product is not a particularly commercially prolific product. It doesn’t have a crowd, it doesn’t have broadcasters, it’s a product that is live-streamed on our website and on certain betting websites for obvious reasons. Ultimately, it is a product that is there to give the players an opportunity to make a living. If you’re a Tour Card holder now, you’ve got the equivalent of 104 tournaments, one a week over the two years of your Tour Card now. That’s a lot of opportunities. I don’t think a tennis player or a golfer would expect to have more than that. When you look at individual sports, if you’re being given the opportunity, on average, once a week to go and earn a living, then there comes a time when you have to deliver. Otherwise, maybe you're not ready for the status that you've got.”

Read also

Russ Bray believes Michael van Gerwen underachieved: ‘’He could have won a lot more''

In another recent Online Darts interview, Matchroom founder Barry Hearn spoke about the younger ages of pro players nowadays. Porter took the time to comment on this topic, praising the evolution of the game as we know it today. “If you've got a career, and you’re earning your wage and you've got a mortgage and you've got kids to support, then it’s more of a risk if you’re 22 years and you're still able to get some help from your parents or a sponsor or your life’s cheaper generally, because the way the sports going in terms of the age profile of players who are taking it up now, it’s not players evolving from pub teams to become professional like it was 20-30+ years ago. These are players who are coming through the JDC [Junior Darts Corporation] or through the Development Tour, or through none of that, they’ve just learned to play by putting a dartboard on the back of their bedroom door. It’s a totally different pathway to being a professional. My favourite spreadsheet is a spreadsheet that the PDPA [Professional Darts Players Association] sends me every year and it’s the average age of the top 8, the top 16, and the top 32, and the graph just keeps dropping every year. It’s obviously not going to drop by five years at a time, but by a year or so every year, the average age of players in each bracket drops, and that’s showing the direction the sport is going in.”

The rebranded Winmau World Masters took place for the first time at the end of January and was largely considered a great success. Porter also took the time to praise both the title sponsor and the event itself. “The key thing for us was to work with Winmau, who are a huge strategic partner of ours, to bring that tournament back, to breathe new life into it. It was a beloved tournament in the 1970s-90s, then it fell on rockier times in more recent years and I think a lot of modern darts fans hadn’t appreciated what that tournament was about in the context of its format. We open the qualifiers and the preliminary rounds up to players from different backgrounds and it was challenging to get many to enter, but I think it will evolve over time. We had a good spread of players in the main draw and the drama was phenomenal, players being behind three sets. Look at the final, going down to that last leg decider.”

“I think the Masters was perhaps lacking in identity beforehand, but this rebrand to the Winmau World Masters has really ticked so many boxes, in its own way as well. It’s not just a Premier League warm up tournament, or players are back from holiday so they better have a loosener. It’s not that anymore, it’s a major event in its own right.''

Read also

Gerwyn Price sends out message to players who missed out on Premier League spot: ''They need to prove it a little bit more''

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Unlock your ultimate darts experience—subscribe today for exclusive access to top stories.

Subscribe