The BDO

The BDO=British Darts Organisation was founded on the 7th January 1973 by Olly Croft in London. Founding members were Crofts wive Lorna, Sam Hawkins and Jim Sweeney.
At the moment the BDO board consists of Sam Hawkins, Dave Alderman, Olly Croft, Rod Harvey, Vic Sexton, Len Mutch and Mike Stephenson.

While in the PDC probably Barry Hearn is the boss, the BDO is dominated by Olly Croft. He often is reproached not to be really interested to help the professional players to earn their living with playing darts, what in the end was one of the main reasons that in 1992 some players including all World Champions till that time, decided to spilt of the BDO and to found the PDC.
Difficult for the sport of darts is the interlacement between the BDO and the WDF. Till today Olly Croft, who was one of the persons behind the founding of the WDF, secretary-general of the WDF and for Croft the BDO still is the governing body of the sport of darts all over the world.
The BDO is not an English national organisation and not a normal member of the WDF, so that the EDO=England Darts Organisation had to be founded which made the situation even more confusing.

The BDO played an important part in setting up general rules and norms in the sport of darts including the length of the oche and the hanging up of the boards. Today around the world is played mostly according to those rules.

The BDO organises tournaments for players on all levels.
At the moment there exist only three BDO Major tournaments:

World Masters
BDO World Championship
BDO Women's World Championship

It is difficult to find out how much involved the BDO is in The WDF World Cup, as this tournament is listed as a BDO Major on the homepage. The WDF is involved somehow in the World Masters - it's difficult to find the borderline.
Beside the Majors the BDO organises the following tournaments:

British Inter-County Darts Championships
Six Nations Cup
BDO Gold Cup
BDO British Open
BDO International Open
BDO British Classic
BDO British Teenage Championships
BDO Inter-County Youth Knockout Cup
Scottish Open (SDA)
Welsh Open (WDO)
BDO British Masters
BDO International Grand Prix

The British Inter-County Darts Championship = BICC is a tournament on county level and is played from September to Arpil every third or fourth week. 64 British Counties take part, 43 from England, 16 from Scotland and 7 from Wales. Played is in divisions: the premier division, divisions 1-4 and two Scottosh divisions.
Beside this there exists a super league system for men, women and youths.
While the PDC only looks after professional players the BDO sees it's task in promoting the youth and the female darters and in organsing amateur tournaments and leagues. Beside the PDC Pros it is "governing" all British dart players.

You can find the BDO homepage here: BDO







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