"When you grow up, you stop doing that" - Vincent van der Voort dislikes nicknames in darts world

It is firm tradition in the darts world, almost every player has a nickname on his shirt and is announced in that way by master of ceremonies John McDonald. Former UK Open finalist Vincent van der Voort, however, doesn't like it.

Van der Voort, who will lose his PDC Tour Card after this PDC World Darts Championship ends, has been around for about thirty years in the darts world, but unlike many of his colleagues, he is not a fan of all those nicknames. "There has never been a shirt of mine with a nickname on it. And there never will be. Go check it out, you won't find it, I'm far too down-to-earth for that," Van der Voort said in the podcast 'Darts Draait Door'.

However, Van der Voort was given nicknames such as "Fast Vinny" and "The Dutch Destroyer" during his career. He didn't like that, however. "When you used to play war outside, you had a nickname. When you grow up at some point, you stop doing that. That kind of thing is not for me," he laments. "Grease Lightning. I thought that was the worst. Come on man. Because I never did anything with it, they just kept looking for other names until they thought I would like it."

Kevin Doets, who starred against Michael Smith at the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship and eventually made it to the last 16, is nicknamed 'Hawkeye'. "Because he is so focused. And all the other darters aren't? They're not? Well, then he apparently deserves that nickname," Van der Voort can't put away his dislike.

One of the biggest Dutch talents, Wessel Nijman, by the way, is still waiting for a nickname. "Then we pick one and then we just start calling him that," Van der Voort and podcast presenter Damian Vlottes laugh. "We force him to take that nickname."