Review of BDO accounts year ended 31 May 2010.

[Skewball]

The PDC accounts make interesting reading

Turnover up by approx 14 % over 2009, in this day and age thats good BUT

Gross profit up just 0.008% over 2009, 16,000 increase from 1,300,000 increase in turnover

Despite this the dividend paid out to shareholders up 33.3 % from 300,000 to 400,000 ( 44% of profit, nice work if you can get it )

Blimey, are you a Sun Journo?! thats such a biased statement!!

I would put a fairer slant and say that the increase in TO was all ploughed back into Prize money, hence the no change in Gross Margin. SO not bad news at all.
AND, you completely ignore the £250k fall in admin expenses and therefore £210k increase in Net profit, all of which more than pays for the increase in Dividends.

And overall reserves have climbed nearly £500k.

Also I don't entirely agree with the 'borrowed' statement re Matchroom statement. The PDC made a profit in transactions with Matchroom and although the balance (what you called 'borrowed') is owed at the year end we actually have no idea what the timings were.

Just giving the full picture (which you have not!). I will certainly take your future posts with an ENOURMOUS pich of salt

[WCDPA]

Ticket sales are over 9 days not 3, some days 1st sat and sun have 2 sessions.
Jackpot joy I think pay 40k which is meant to pay for the rooms, I might be wrong but am led to believe this goes direct to lakeside.
Not sure again but isn't there also a BDO enterprises.
Very informative article though!

Which have been sold as one ticket for as long as I remember. You cant just buy Saturday afternoon ticket, you have to buy the whole day.

Incorrect bradders this year sat and Sunday 2 sessions and ticket states you must vacate premises asap to let the evening crowd in.
Last year was different.

That is incorrect as the booking form clearly stated it was an "all day" ticket

cheating bas**rds had to BUY 10 tickets just to watch evening, oh well as long as my beloved "maroon Jackets" were comfy i dont mind ........not!
made the right decision staying outside of lakeside then, be fu**ed if i was giving them £43.50 for a room already paid for.
just as i was building bridges with some top table peeps! i fear a row is brewing at the dutch or should i save it for scots open

http://www.lakesideworlddarts.co.uk/tickets.php

ALL-DAY TICKET Saturday 1st January 2011 - Ticket is for entry to see eight matches:
ALL-DAY TICKET Sunday 2nd January 2011 - Ticket is for entry to see eight matches:
ALL-DAY TICKET Monday 3rd January 2011 - Ticket is for entry to see six matches:

No "half day" tickets were available.

[avalon]

The PDC accounts make interesting reading

Turnover up by approx 14 % over 2009, in this day and age thats good BUT

Gross profit up just 0.008% over 2009, 16,000 increase from 1,300,000 increase in turnover

Despite this the dividend paid out to shareholders up 33.3 % from 300,000 to 400,000 ( 44% of profit, nice work if you can get it )

Blimey, are you a Sun Journo?! thats such a biased statement!!

I would put a fairer slant and say that the increase in TO was all ploughed back into Prize money, hence the no change in Gross Margin. SO not bad news at all.
AND, you completely ignore the £250k fall in admin expenses and therefore £210k increase in Net profit, all of which more than pays for the increase in Dividends.

And overall reserves have climbed nearly £500k.

Also I don't entirely agree with the 'borrowed' statement re Matchroom statement. The PDC made a profit in transactions with Matchroom and although the balance (what you called 'borrowed') is owed at the year end we actually have no idea what the timings were.

Just giving the full picture (which you have not!). I will certainly take your future posts with an ENOURMOUS pich of salt

Blimey, are you a Sun Journo?! thats such a biased statement!!


wait you used that one

You think I was finding fault.......... I wasnt, I wasnt criticising either, I said I found them interesting reading.

For any company to increase turnover so much and increase gross profit so little is interesting... at least to me, which is what I stated. Yes prize money did increase but the 1.3 million is turnover not profit, and if the difference is prize money then I think its a risk for any company whatever their business to plough so much back percentage wise into outgoings but not necessarily wrong, in the current climate.

Also concerning the admin savings.... fantastic.... but to give it to themselves as shareholders????why not put this into the prize fund or into a ladies tour or whatever. just seems a big increase in dividend in the current fininacial situation.

On the note of the matchroom debt, if it was part of normal day to day business then there would be no need to make a special note about it. There is 1.2 million from trade debtors but no details given in special notes. So why this?

I wasnt trying to give a detailed view of anything, which is just as well as I would have fallen well short of that, I was just pointing out some things I found interesting.

[ChrisW]

The PDC accounts make interesting reading

Turnover up by approx 14 % over 2009, in this day and age thats good BUT

Gross profit up just 0.008% over 2009, 16,000 increase from 1,300,000 increase in turnover

Despite this the dividend paid out to shareholders up 33.3 % from 300,000 to 400,000 ( 44% of profit, nice work if you can get it )

Blimey, are you a Sun Journo?! thats such a biased statement!!

I would put a fairer slant and say that the increase in TO was all ploughed back into Prize money, hence the no change in Gross Margin. SO not bad news at all.
AND, you completely ignore the £250k fall in admin expenses and therefore £210k increase in Net profit, all of which more than pays for the increase in Dividends.

And overall reserves have climbed nearly £500k.

Also I don't entirely agree with the 'borrowed' statement re Matchroom statement. The PDC made a profit in transactions with Matchroom and although the balance (what you called 'borrowed') is owed at the year end we actually have no idea what the timings were.
Just giving the full picture (which you have not!). I will certainly take your future posts with an ENOURMOUS pich of salt

Strange comment as you didn't give the full picture of the BDO finance you are speculating on a non-profit organisation.
But when someone else speculates on a profitable organisation you think that the top dogs taking a bigger cut when things are going well are not likely?
I think it is more than likely!

[Dannyboy]

I think Avalon has a fair point though. I'm a PDC fan; I'm not entirely comfortable with the PDC being run like any other money making business. A sports governing body should be not for profit. As someone else said, the PDC is over reliant on certain sources of finance.

What has the dividend payments been like in previous years? Have they been lower than 'what they would expect', leading to higher dividend payments this year.

Overall though, I'm happy with the numbers, especially in the current economic climate. I'd expect the PDC to go from strength to strength in the next couple of years.

[Skewball]

The PDC accounts make interesting reading

Turnover up by approx 14 % over 2009, in this day and age thats good BUT

Gross profit up just 0.008% over 2009, 16,000 increase from 1,300,000 increase in turnover

Despite this the dividend paid out to shareholders up 33.3 % from 300,000 to 400,000 ( 44% of profit, nice work if you can get it )

Blimey, are you a Sun Journo?! thats such a biased statement!!

I would put a fairer slant and say that the increase in TO was all ploughed back into Prize money, hence the no change in Gross Margin. SO not bad news at all.
AND, you completely ignore the £250k fall in admin expenses and therefore £210k increase in Net profit, all of which more than pays for the increase in Dividends.

And overall reserves have climbed nearly £500k.

Also I don't entirely agree with the 'borrowed' statement re Matchroom statement. The PDC made a profit in transactions with Matchroom and although the balance (what you called 'borrowed') is owed at the year end we actually have no idea what the timings were.

Just giving the full picture (which you have not!). I will certainly take your future posts with an ENOURMOUS pich of salt

Blimey, are you a Sun Journo?! thats such a biased statement!!


wait you used that one

You think I was finding fault.......... I wasnt, I wasnt criticising either, I said I found them interesting reading.

For any company to increase turnover so much and increase gross profit so little is interesting... at least to me, which is what I stated. Yes prize money did increase but the 1.3 million is turnover not profit, and if the difference is prize money then I think its a risk for any company whatever their business to plough so much back percentage wise into outgoings but not necessarily wrong, in the current climate.

Also concerning the admin savings.... fantastic.... but to give it to themselves as shareholders????why not put this into the prize fund or into a ladies tour or whatever. just seems a big increase in dividend in the current fininacial situation.

On the note of the matchroom debt, if it was part of normal day to day business then there would be no need to make a special note about it. There is 1.2 million from trade debtors but no details given in special notes. So why this?

I wasnt trying to give a detailed view of anything, which is just as well as I would have fallen well short of that, I was just pointing out some things I found interesting.

I hear you and know where you are coming from, I was just re adressing the balance as I honestly don't see the problem with increasing the prize fund (and don't forget this year its staying the same - at £5m. THE GM % is pretty good for this sort of company, there is plenty of headroom. And lets not forget, it has retained half the profit in the business so its not like they are taking all the profits out.
If their business model is to take out about 50% of the profits then it shoudl be ok - as long as they keep making profits!

As it happens I don't like the idea of so much money essentially being taken out of darts altogether. But, its a tough one as why else would BH get involved in the first place. I suppose his attitude is 'everyones a winner'. But yes, I think taking more out when its due to cost savings is not ideal.

THey only made a special note about the transactions with Matchroom because they had to. Its company law that you have to declare all 're;ated party' transactions - which includes transactions with companies owned by the direcotrs. Thats all.

[Skewball]

The PDC accounts make interesting reading

Turnover up by approx 14 % over 2009, in this day and age thats good BUT

Gross profit up just 0.008% over 2009, 16,000 increase from 1,300,000 increase in turnover

Despite this the dividend paid out to shareholders up 33.3 % from 300,000 to 400,000 ( 44% of profit, nice work if you can get it )

Blimey, are you a Sun Journo?! thats such a biased statement!!

I would put a fairer slant and say that the increase in TO was all ploughed back into Prize money, hence the no change in Gross Margin. SO not bad news at all.
AND, you completely ignore the £250k fall in admin expenses and therefore £210k increase in Net profit, all of which more than pays for the increase in Dividends.

And overall reserves have climbed nearly £500k.

Also I don't entirely agree with the 'borrowed' statement re Matchroom statement. The PDC made a profit in transactions with Matchroom and although the balance (what you called 'borrowed') is owed at the year end we actually have no idea what the timings were.
Just giving the full picture (which you have not!). I will certainly take your future posts with an ENOURMOUS pich of salt

Strange comment as you didn't give the full picture of the BDO finance you are speculating on a non-profit organisation.
But when someone else speculates on a profitable organisation you think that the top dogs taking a bigger cut when things are going well are not likely?
I think it is more than likely!

Not 100% following you but I was only responding to what I thought was a slightly one sided comment. I just have not had the time to look at the PDC accounts in detail. Anyway, it would be harder to gleen much from it as they have so many eevents/contracts. The main reason for looking at the BDO was that I just noticed they had come out and I wanted to get an idea of what the BBC contract might be worth . I thought I was balanced in looking athe the BDO accounts. And as I said above, I'm not keen on money being taken out of darts at all - and the PDC is doing that, not the BDO.

[ChrisW]

apologies skewball i think i misread your post there!
Do the BDO have an official non-profit organisation registration in the UK?
Just interested as I work for 'one' as part of my own business and it can be quite stifiling in taking on new customers (i.e new sponsors) for the BDO.
Would they be having to go through that admin before taking on new sponsors. i.e they have to become a member of the BDO before being invoiced etc.

[Skewball]

apologies skewball i think i misread your post there!
Do the BDO have an official non-profit organisation registration in the UK?
Just interested as I work for 'one' as part of my own business and it can be quite stifiling in taking on new customers (i.e new sponsors) for the BDO.
Would they be having to go through that admin before taking on new sponsors. i.e they have to become a member of the BDO before being invoiced etc.

I'm not sure actually if they do declare it as a 'not for profit' organisation. I will have a look. They are not a 'charity' so no, don't officially have that status.
'Companies' that declare themselves as 'not for profit' are usually 'Limited by Guarantee' but you don't HAVE to be 'not for profit'. If they don't state it then it probably means that technically the 'members' can take money out. But I'm sure they wouldnt.
And no, there should be no problems as at all getting new sponsors

[Paddy McGinty]

Great post Skewy,

At last you've found something that you know what you're talking about.

Paddy

[The Fixer]

On Dec 22nd ‘British Darts Organisation Limited’ filed their latest set of accounts so I thought why not download them and see how they look. (100% publically available info).

First thing that caught my eye was the ‘Principle activities’, a rather bland statement that all companies must declare. The BDO one is ‘Promoting darts tournaments and marketing goods connected to darts’. No ‘darts for all’ but as I say, its usually quite a bland statement so need to jump up and down!

A clean audit report was issued.

Ownership: the company is private and limited by guarantee. Thus it has no shareholders. This is normal for ‘not for profit’ organisations. The actual powers of the members (the directors) will depend on the companies Articles of Memorandum which, I think you can get hold of but are a right pain to read and understand. Ultimately it is possible for members (directors) to distribute its profits, but not normal to do so in the Articles.

It has one 100% owned subsidiary ‘BDO Enterprises limited’ but as these are consolidated ‘Group’ accounts it does not matter how each of the two companies split the actual activities. I may look at Enterprises Ltd another time as if it can be identified what activity it does then it may give clues as to how the income is split. Eg Enterprises might run the events whereas the parent company takes the TV money and admin etc.

Profit and loss account: Into the numbers and turnover is virtually identical to the previous year at £870k odd. This is as expected because in the 2 years covered nothing fundamentally changed. The previous year (up to May 2009) may have covered the period when Setanta covered some events? I’m not sure. We do not know exactly what this turnover relates to as you don’t have to disclose it but we could start making some assumptions:….

IN 2010 the prize money for the worlds was £275k (excluding 9 dart finish money which will be from insurance) so the assumption is that this is the amount that Bob Potter is paying to sponsor the event. I suspect that Bob then keeps ALL ticket sales and ALL bar money. That’s a very big assumption and there may some sharing going on, especially regarding the ticket sales, but lets see how close we get to £870k first. So that £270k will show in the accounts as income to the BDO. What other income could they get? Well they sell shirt space to Jackpot.com..(?) something or other. Probably not much but a pure GUESS would be £50k…???. But lets use this as there will be other little sources of income from the event. There is probably very little other direct income from the actual event. We will come onto Winmau and TV later.
Onto The Masters: prize money in 2009 was £65k. The Masters will be trickier to predict as Winmau sponsor it ‘in association’ with John Smith’s (in 2009 anyway). But certainly lets assume that they get the prize money covered. So another £60k to income. Now I suspect that the BDO are more in control of the ticket sales etc so there will be income here – but its only 3 days and about 1,000 people a day? So lets be generous and give them another £50k in t/o from various bits and pieces. I now have £430k of turnover from the above two events (the only two events that BDO ltd directly organise??).
So what about other income??
Winmau are the board sponsors for the BDO. Do they get that for ‘free’ from sponsoring the Masters? Probably not so lets chuck another £50k into the pot (another guess though). £490k now. £380k short. Is this the TV money? Well, unless I have overestimated some income above then it’s the max it can be I think. I don’t think my income estimate above is overestimated because I have not included any other non event income. If anything I think the above income could be higher because I would think BDO would get something out of ticket sales at Lakeside, even if it’s a relatively small proportion.
At the time the TV deal was the 2008 – 2010 one, so about £1m from the Beeb over the 3 years feels sensibleish. (for both events). But is just my GUESS.

Moving on to 'Cost of Sales', which should be the direct costs associated with running the events. This will be the myriad of costs from stage sets to security (don’t laugh), events fees etc etc. But it also probably includes prize money. Total COS in both years was about £670k. So taking away the prize money, that leaves £350k to organise the two events, plus other events - the qualifying events. Now I don’t know much about this area so I don’t if the BDO have to contribute to TV coverage etc but, whatever it is, that’s what it costs to run the two main events + qualifying..

So we have a gross profit of just under £200k in both years. Other costs (mainly ‘Administration expenses’ come to £130k in 2009 and £155k in 2009. Don’t know how many paid staff the BDO have, or the size of the office etc etc but that does not feel too much. Interestingly Companies have to disclose ‘Related Party transactions’. This usefully tells us that within these expenses was £28k paid (each year) to ‘Tile Centre Limited’ a company that Olly has an ‘interest’. The money is for “Administration services’ Now we should just assume that this covers various office admin type expenses that the BDO just does not have the facilities to pay for direct. This is not uncommon and are usually very real costs that are effectively outsourced (bookkeeping, payroll etc). It could also just be a payment for Olly Croft’s time of course but we simply don’t know. There is also a payment to a company that the director R Harvey has an interest in for ‘accountancy services’ but is only for £2k.
No directors take any money direct from the company (no salaries).
SO we are now left with a Net Profit position of £36k in 2010 and £71k in 2009. You may remember Hearn quoting a profit of £3k. This was back in 2008 year end.

There has been talk of the SB6 paying the BDO in the years above.. Its possible based on the above but you can see there are no big holes in the income above and would suggest that the BBC are paying less than the £380k ‘max’ a year I estimate, which would be peanuts time. So its not going to be a huge amount that SB6 have paid in my mind – if it was going to the BDO, BUT, if they were even only paying £50k direct to the BDO, you can see above that its going to be very tight to maintain prize money etc without getting more money in from Bob, very tight. Again, its only next years accounts that will tell us.

What does this all tell us? Well that it has to be a tight run ship and there is little room for significant loss in income. It tells us they are heavily reliant on the current sponsors and current event structure. There is nowhere to go on prize money without getting more/better sponsors. There is no room to set up new events (Super series..??) unless they are 100% funded externally. We also don’t know how different the TV deal is for 2011-13. I assume the same but we will see next year. There is no way they could run the Masters as it is without sponsors/TV. (Say like PDC might have to do for the Players Championships next month). Ultimately though it shows that new sponsors are needed to move forward.

But, this is only part of the story, what have the BDO in reserves, assets etc. DO they have a war chest? Could they afford to invest in new stage sets, events, youth, ladies events? Etc.
For all this we need to move onto the Balance Sheet:

Healthy but not great is my conclusion. The bottom line is that they probably have about £300k in cold hard cash available to spend now (after taking into account ‘Working capital’ needs – i.e. companies need cash to get them through the ebbs and flows of the year). THere actual 'net reserves' position is £500k. Luckily the accounts being prepared end of May means that we can be fairly certain that the balance sheet is a pretty good indication of ‘steady ship’. If the accounts were prepared at the end of Dec or Jan we could be a lot less certain than this because of the timing of the events. £300k is comfortable but no more than that, its hardly enough to start splashing out on fancy new stage sets (Simple Simon might be around for a while)

There is also Assets to consider. Now bugger things like stage sets and the other equipment etc as they are not worth much to ther people, so the only thing that matters is the building they own, as they do own it. No idea what its worth, never been to Muswell Hill but, it appears that own it they do. The current value will not appear in the accounts but in theory the property could be sold to raise money if necessary...


The accounts are publically available. I have made clear what my estimates are. I have no inside info, no confidential info so I’m free to analyse the accounts as I wish. I don’t think I can put a copy of the accounts up as that probably violates Companies House but anyone can buy a copy and its only £1. My estimates may be completely wrong but I hope its of interest to some people. If any one wants to correct me on any points of fact then feel free.

I might have a look at the PDC ones at some point. I do remember looking once and seeing that they had a few £m in the bank!

YAWN! Doesn't change the fact the public love the BDO and their partners the BBC.

No critisism skewball, I just didn't understand any of that

[Skewball]

Welcome Back Fixer!

Has Hankey joined the PDC yet.........

[The Fixer]

Welcome Back Fixer!

Has Hankey joined the PDC yet.........

I don't know, not one of my regulee hangers on, maybe you can bet on it for next year. I know you tipped it. Anyway what do all these yawny stats mean super brain?

Does it say that 5 times more people know who the BDO champion is as it's on the BBC? I assume that's what this article is about?

[ChrisW]

On Dec 22nd ‘British Darts Organisation Limited’ filed their latest set of accounts so I thought why not download them and see how they look. (100% publically available info).

First thing that caught my eye was the ‘Principle activities’, a rather bland statement that all companies must declare. The BDO one is ‘Promoting darts tournaments and marketing goods connected to darts’. No ‘darts for all’ but as I say, its usually quite a bland statement so need to jump up and down!

A clean audit report was issued.

Ownership: the company is private and limited by guarantee. Thus it has no shareholders. This is normal for ‘not for profit’ organisations. The actual powers of the members (the directors) will depend on the companies Articles of Memorandum which, I think you can get hold of but are a right pain to read and understand. Ultimately it is possible for members (directors) to distribute its profits, but not normal to do so in the Articles.

It has one 100% owned subsidiary ‘BDO Enterprises limited’ but as these are consolidated ‘Group’ accounts it does not matter how each of the two companies split the actual activities. I may look at Enterprises Ltd another time as if it can be identified what activity it does then it may give clues as to how the income is split. Eg Enterprises might run the events whereas the parent company takes the TV money and admin etc.

Profit and loss account: Into the numbers and turnover is virtually identical to the previous year at £870k odd. This is as expected because in the 2 years covered nothing fundamentally changed. The previous year (up to May 2009) may have covered the period when Setanta covered some events? I’m not sure. We do not know exactly what this turnover relates to as you don’t have to disclose it but we could start making some assumptions:….

IN 2010 the prize money for the worlds was £275k (excluding 9 dart finish money which will be from insurance) so the assumption is that this is the amount that Bob Potter is paying to sponsor the event. I suspect that Bob then keeps ALL ticket sales and ALL bar money. That’s a very big assumption and there may some sharing going on, especially regarding the ticket sales, but lets see how close we get to £870k first. So that £270k will show in the accounts as income to the BDO. What other income could they get? Well they sell shirt space to Jackpot.com..(?) something or other. Probably not much but a pure GUESS would be £50k…???. But lets use this as there will be other little sources of income from the event. There is probably very little other direct income from the actual event. We will come onto Winmau and TV later.
Onto The Masters: prize money in 2009 was £65k. The Masters will be trickier to predict as Winmau sponsor it ‘in association’ with John Smith’s (in 2009 anyway). But certainly lets assume that they get the prize money covered. So another £60k to income. Now I suspect that the BDO are more in control of the ticket sales etc so there will be income here – but its only 3 days and about 1,000 people a day? So lets be generous and give them another £50k in t/o from various bits and pieces. I now have £430k of turnover from the above two events (the only two events that BDO ltd directly organise??).
So what about other income??
Winmau are the board sponsors for the BDO. Do they get that for ‘free’ from sponsoring the Masters? Probably not so lets chuck another £50k into the pot (another guess though). £490k now. £380k short. Is this the TV money? Well, unless I have overestimated some income above then it’s the max it can be I think. I don’t think my income estimate above is overestimated because I have not included any other non event income. If anything I think the above income could be higher because I would think BDO would get something out of ticket sales at Lakeside, even if it’s a relatively small proportion.
At the time the TV deal was the 2008 – 2010 one, so about £1m from the Beeb over the 3 years feels sensibleish. (for both events). But is just my GUESS.

Moving on to 'Cost of Sales', which should be the direct costs associated with running the events. This will be the myriad of costs from stage sets to security (don’t laugh), events fees etc etc. But it also probably includes prize money. Total COS in both years was about £670k. So taking away the prize money, that leaves £350k to organise the two events, plus other events - the qualifying events. Now I don’t know much about this area so I don’t if the BDO have to contribute to TV coverage etc but, whatever it is, that’s what it costs to run the two main events + qualifying..

So we have a gross profit of just under £200k in both years. Other costs (mainly ‘Administration expenses’ come to £130k in 2009 and £155k in 2009. Don’t know how many paid staff the BDO have, or the size of the office etc etc but that does not feel too much. Interestingly Companies have to disclose ‘Related Party transactions’. This usefully tells us that within these expenses was £28k paid (each year) to ‘Tile Centre Limited’ a company that Olly has an ‘interest’. The money is for “Administration services’ Now we should just assume that this covers various office admin type expenses that the BDO just does not have the facilities to pay for direct. This is not uncommon and are usually very real costs that are effectively outsourced (bookkeeping, payroll etc). It could also just be a payment for Olly Croft’s time of course but we simply don’t know. There is also a payment to a company that the director R Harvey has an interest in for ‘accountancy services’ but is only for £2k.
No directors take any money direct from the company (no salaries).
SO we are now left with a Net Profit position of £36k in 2010 and £71k in 2009. You may remember Hearn quoting a profit of £3k. This was back in 2008 year end.

There has been talk of the SB6 paying the BDO in the years above.. Its possible based on the above but you can see there are no big holes in the income above and would suggest that the BBC are paying less than the £380k ‘max’ a year I estimate, which would be peanuts time. So its not going to be a huge amount that SB6 have paid in my mind – if it was going to the BDO, BUT, if they were even only paying £50k direct to the BDO, you can see above that its going to be very tight to maintain prize money etc without getting more money in from Bob, very tight. Again, its only next years accounts that will tell us.

What does this all tell us? Well that it has to be a tight run ship and there is little room for significant loss in income. It tells us they are heavily reliant on the current sponsors and current event structure. There is nowhere to go on prize money without getting more/better sponsors. There is no room to set up new events (Super series..??) unless they are 100% funded externally. We also don’t know how different the TV deal is for 2011-13. I assume the same but we will see next year. There is no way they could run the Masters as it is without sponsors/TV. (Say like PDC might have to do for the Players Championships next month). Ultimately though it shows that new sponsors are needed to move forward.

But, this is only part of the story, what have the BDO in reserves, assets etc. DO they have a war chest? Could they afford to invest in new stage sets, events, youth, ladies events? Etc.
For all this we need to move onto the Balance Sheet:

Healthy but not great is my conclusion. The bottom line is that they probably have about £300k in cold hard cash available to spend now (after taking into account ‘Working capital’ needs – i.e. companies need cash to get them through the ebbs and flows of the year). THere actual 'net reserves' position is £500k. Luckily the accounts being prepared end of May means that we can be fairly certain that the balance sheet is a pretty good indication of ‘steady ship’. If the accounts were prepared at the end of Dec or Jan we could be a lot less certain than this because of the timing of the events. £300k is comfortable but no more than that, its hardly enough to start splashing out on fancy new stage sets (Simple Simon might be around for a while)

There is also Assets to consider. Now bugger things like stage sets and the other equipment etc as they are not worth much to ther people, so the only thing that matters is the building they own, as they do own it. No idea what its worth, never been to Muswell Hill but, it appears that own it they do. The current value will not appear in the accounts but in theory the property could be sold to raise money if necessary...


The accounts are publically available. I have made clear what my estimates are. I have no inside info, no confidential info so I’m free to analyse the accounts as I wish. I don’t think I can put a copy of the accounts up as that probably violates Companies House but anyone can buy a copy and its only £1. My estimates may be completely wrong but I hope its of interest to some people. If any one wants to correct me on any points of fact then feel free.

I might have a look at the PDC ones at some point. I do remember looking once and seeing that they had a few £m in the bank!

What do you do for a living Skewball surely an accountant?

[Tristan]

What do you do for a living Skewball surely an accountant?

anyone with sufficient time could derive the same analysis. not too difficult really.

[Bigwilma]

Very interesting Skewball, as you say the BDO are running a tight ship, but don't really have the finances to fund a new tournament. I do think they could probably be comfortable with giving around £15000 in prize money for a new tournament, but if they got a bit of help from their sister organisations in the UK they could double that. The number of entrants for the the Scottish, Welsh, English and NI opens will probably total over 2000 in 2011. If the entrants were asked to pay an extra £5 for a "British Championship" levy the BDO could have a tournament prize fund of around 30K. Those attending would have the 32 best aggregate results from the four opens. Crucially try and top up the prize fund with some sponsorship and you could have the makings of a new "major".

Another two or three good events when added to the likes of the English open and Isle of man open which are decent payouts and the Zuirdeduin could make a real difference to the top players in the WDF/BDO tour.

[Ginge]

Very interesting Skewball, as you say the BDO are running a tight ship, but don't really have the finances to fund a new tournament. I do think they could probably be comfortable with giving around £15000 in prize money for a new tournament, but if they got a bit of help from their sister organisations in the UK they could double that. The number of entrants for the the Scottish, Welsh, English and NI opens will probably total over 2000 in 2011. If the entrants were asked to pay an extra £5 for a "British Championship" levy the BDO could have a tournament prize fund of around 30K. Those attending would have the 32 best aggregate results from the four opens. Crucially try and top up the prize fund with some sponsorship and you could have the makings of a new "major".

Whack an extra £5 on and a lot of "day trippers" won't bother entering.

[Tristan]

Very interesting Skewball, as you say the BDO are running a tight ship, but don't really have the finances to fund a new tournament. I do think they could probably be comfortable with giving around £15000 in prize money for a new tournament, but if they got a bit of help from their sister organisations in the UK they could double that. The number of entrants for the the Scottish, Welsh, English and NI opens will probably total over 2000 in 2011. If the entrants were asked to pay an extra £5 for a "British Championship" levy the BDO could have a tournament prize fund of around 30K. Those attending would have the 32 best aggregate results from the four opens. Crucially try and top up the prize fund with some sponsorship and you could have the makings of a new "major".

in all likelihood, they could not,. the money they have right now is meant as a reserve. If they want to spend more cash, they have to earn more revenue... simple as.

[Bigwilma]

Very interesting Skewball, as you say the BDO are running a tight ship, but don't really have the finances to fund a new tournament. I do think they could probably be comfortable with giving around £15000 in prize money for a new tournament, but if they got a bit of help from their sister organisations in the UK they could double that. The number of entrants for the the Scottish, Welsh, English and NI opens will probably total over 2000 in 2011. If the entrants were asked to pay an extra £5 for a "British Championship" levy the BDO could have a tournament prize fund of around 30K. Those attending would have the 32 best aggregate results from the four opens. Crucially try and top up the prize fund with some sponsorship and you could have the makings of a new "major".

in all likelihood, they could not,. the money they have right now is meant as a reserve. If they want to spend more cash, they have to earn more revenue... simple as.

I was using the 15K figure as I think that was the money given to the two winners of the International Grand prix series Gary Anderson and Dave Chisnall if they could fund that i think the could inject around 15k which is a small amount in itself into the prize fund of a new tournament.

[Paddy McGinty]

Very interesting Skewball, as you say the BDO are running a tight ship, but don't really have the finances to fund a new tournament. I do think they could probably be comfortable with giving around £15000 in prize money for a new tournament, but if they got a bit of help from their sister organisations in the UK they could double that. The number of entrants for the the Scottish, Welsh, English and NI opens will probably total over 2000 in 2011. If the entrants were asked to pay an extra £5 for a "British Championship" levy the BDO could have a tournament prize fund of around 30K. Those attending would have the 32 best aggregate results from the four opens. Crucially try and top up the prize fund with some sponsorship and you could have the makings of a new "major".

Whack an extra £5 on and a lot of "day trippers" won't bother entering.

Do you realise how bitchy and condescending you have become?