Matthew Porter: How we learned to 'love the darts'
Quite simply, darts is a modern sporting phenomenon.
In the 1970s and 80s, it was a popular yet downmarket pub pastime whose World Championship was a very UK affair, run by the British Dart Organisation, won by the British and covered by the BBC.
To a cut a long and fractious story short, the PDC was formed in 1992 by Barry Hearn of Matchroom Sport in order to create a new-style showpiece tournament. There would be more glitz, more marketing nous and certainly more money for the players.
Matthew Porter
Today, the PDC World Championship is undoubtedly the premium event on a now crowded darts calendar. A total of 86,000 loud and boisterous fans attended last year’s event at Alexandra Palace with prize money topping £2.5m and the winner taking home £500,000 alone. Meanwhile, the audience on Sky TV is likely to be better anything other than football.
This is now a sport of millionaires. It is well-marketed and winning top industry awards for the quality of its events. There are academies and challenger tours as the organisation builds for the future and competitions across the globe as it attempts to reach new markets.
Matt Porter has been CEO of the PDC for more than a decade. He discussed the approach that has taken darts out of the pub, promoted it an entirely new way and pushed it onto the world stage.
TOPICS
The importance of running a high-quality event
Keeping the standard high despite the crowded calendar
Growing the PDC Darts event behind a subscription wall on Sky
The peculiar nature of darts - you can’t see the sport even when you are there
The way players have individualised and marketed themselves
The WWE influence over the entrances
The debate over darts’ sporting credibility
Football’s over-reliance on tribalism and lack of interest in marketing the product
Darts players and social media.
The relationship between social media and sponsorship in darts
How they use PDCTV, their OTT channel.
The importance of unofficial content channels
The human side of darts
Prince Harry becoming “a darts influencer”
Why darts is the UK’s most trusted sport
The challenger tour and academy set up
The opportunity to create a gender-neutral sport
The Premier League concept - Thursday night events in provincial towns
Why the PDC will always ‘leave ticket money on the table’
The development of different tournaments and why they are at maximum capacity
The determining factors behind darts’ global growth
Why they did not move into Holland earlier?
Which country has over-indexed and surprised him
The difficulty of expanding into Asia
Will the sport need a stand-out Asian player to make the breakthrough?
Why the future is consolidation
LINKS
Matthew Porter Twitter | LinkedIn
PDC Website
