Darts is more popular than ever.
The rise of Luke Littler in recent months appears to have captured the imagination of the public in a way that no dart player ever has before, and tickets to the PDC’s premier events are selling like hotcakes.
The PDC are riding the crest of a wave financially at the moment, but just a few years ago, it looked like there could be some issues on that side of things.
Indeed, the coronavirus pandemic led to numerous big tournaments being played behind closed doors, and the PDC weren’t earning a thing from ticket sales or in-venue merchandising.
However, despite these issues, once the doors reopened, the PDC did right by their players and put the prize money for many of their events up.
Speaking to Online Darts, Mark Webster has been discussing the changing prize money in darts, and he says that he was gobsmacked by the decision to raise the prize money at that point.
Mark Webster stunned by PDC prize money raise
Webster spoke about how much money is there to be made in darts now.
“I’ll make the comparison of when I first joined the PDC, you won a game and you got £200. What is it now to win a game? A grand? The PDC always put their money where their mouth is,” Webster said.
“After Covid I was gobsmacked that they put the prize money up. I thought they were going to freeze it or even cut it, but no. It’s a genuine career now darts.”
Earn with Hearn
Barry Hearn isn’t a daft businessman, and he knows what he’s doing.
Higher prize money means higher stakes means higher interest in this game.
Yes, it was a bit of a financial gamble to raise the stakes after the pandemic, but you can’t afford to take any backwards steps in a sport you’re looking to grow.
Interest in darts is only going in one direction – up, and the prize money needs to represent that. After all, we all saw what happened to the BDO when they didn’t follow the correct business model all those years ago.