Nieuwlaat reveals WDF World Masters set for potential record entries : "It's going to change significantly"

Jacques Nieuwlaat spoke recently to the Inside the WDF podcast about not only the match-fixing reports but also about the topic of the podcast.

Nieuwlaat has had a minor role in helping the likes of Richard Ashdown and Nick Rolls so far plan for the future of amateur darts potentially when tournaments are able to be played and the Dutch commentator believes that is the key.

"The WDF and the people involved have asked me to meet with them to see where the problems within the WDF and the solutions lie. I like to build bridges, the first obvious bridge is between the WDF and PDC because they need each other," said Nieuwlaat to Inside the WDF podcast.

"Obviously at the moment, the WDF needs the PDC harder than the PDC needs the WDF but in the end, it's in the best interest of the PDC I believe that there's a strong amateur game as well across the world and I still think the WDF is best suited to provide that."

"The WDF needs to generate money. Once you get TV tournaments, you need to get TV that's the next step. Then sponsors have to come in to help you provide for the extra cash to make the tournament a little bit bigger than what it is at the moment. What the WDF probably needs is a little petrol in the tank, as soon as the tournaments start, the engine will start turning."

Future of World Masters this year

The World Masters is one of those tournaments which will be staged and with it being held in the Netherlands, the question was asked about whether he thinks it will take place at this early stage.

"Time will tell but I think we need to start playing ranked tournaments not long after August 1st. If that doesn't happen, you have to say probably we leave it as it is in 2021 and we start in 2022."

"You can't play the World Masters which is like an end of season tournament if you only play two months of ranking tournaments. That's not fair on anyone."

But if it does, there are plans afoot for a record field to be at the Bonte Wever in Assen with around 2,000 players set to descend on the usual Dutch Open venue.

"It's going to change significantly from previous World Masters, the way we have done the math, it's probably going to be about 2,000 players there and there has never been those numbers at any World Masters tournament. It's going to be a different approach to the weekend."