The tournament born in a barber's chair and tobacco smoke
In short: Before the glitz of modern sports entertainment, professional darts was a pub-based pastime seeking a grand stage. It found its home through a chance conversation in a barber's chair, eventually creating a legendary circuit that defined British televised sport for decades.
The BDO World Darts Championship was conceived by sports promoter Mike Watterson while he was waiting for a haircut in a barber's chair. His vision was to create a professional structure similar to the UK Snooker Championship, which he had already established. To organise the tournament, John Lowe, an acquaintance, persuaded him that production would be simple and proposed reaching out to Olly Croft at the British Darts Organisation for leadership. The inaugural tournament launched in 1978 at the Heart of the Midlands Nightclub in Nottingham, with a £10,500 prize fund provided by Embassy cigarettes.
The event's identity was deeply tied to its sponsors and venues. For much of its history, it was colloquially known as 'the Embassy.' However, following a UK ban on tobacco advertising at the end of 2003, sponsorship shifted to the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Surrey, where the tournament resided from 1986 to 2019. The championship served as the sole world title until a significant split in 1993, when 16 players—including seven former champions—broke away to form a rival circuit under the World Darts Council (now the PDC).
The tournament's legacy is marked by both historic upsets and technical milestones. In 1983, Keith Deller produced one of the sport's greatest upsets by defeating world number one Eric Bristow in the final. Technically, players have pushed the limits of precision; since 1978, only 21 instances of a player achieving a three-dart average exceeding 100 have been recorded. Raymond van Barneveld holds the record for this feat with six occurrences. The BDO era concluded in 2020 at London's Indigo at The O2, marking the final tournament before the organization's collapse.
Broadcasting history also reflects the sport's evolution from a niche interest to a mainstream staple. For nearly 40 years, the BBC held the rights, with Tony Green serving as a mainstay of the commentary team for 38 years until 2016. The transition of rights through ESPN, BT Sport, and eventually Channel 4 mirrors the shifting landscape of sports media in the UK. While the BDO has folded, its influence persists in the structure of modern darts and the records held by icons like Trina Gulliver, who won ten championships at Lakeside.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: BDO World Darts Championship
- Also: Wikidata — BDO World Darts Championship · CC0
- Also: Wikidata — 1982 BDO World Darts Championship · CC0
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