The 2019 Season

[Dannyboy]

Happy new year one and all. Today is the biggest day of the year in planet darts, but the PDC system continues to keep getting bigger and bigger. According to the Q School brief, there will be £14m of prize money on offer next season, which is simply remarkable in itself.

The Q School is expected to have record numbers, even more so with the BDO ban button hidden away... for now. In all honesty, any UK based player who doesn't at least give it a go should get their heads tested. I'm not sure what they have to lose by not at least trying (although that question could also be asked of the top ladies players not entering the Worlds qualifier).

Some further changes for next season, as the Premier League expands to 17 nights, including double-header in Rotterdam, similar to what happened last year. The UK Open to feature 128 Tour Card Holders, 16 Challenge Tour Order of Merit Qualifiers & 16 Rileys Amateur Qualifiers, which personally I think is a long time coming.

Prague will host an European Tour event for the first time alongside established destinations in Germany, Netherlands, Gibraltar, Austria and Denmark outlining the expansion.

Expect that the prize money levels in the tour events will go up, as well as the World Matchplay going up to £150k for the winner.

The WSOD have been a tremendous success and wouldn't be surprised if another Asian event was added to the calendar. The Asian Tour was definitely a rip roaring success and expecting this to be equally well supported this year. I reckon the North American Tour will become slightly more established / in-house this year too.

Should be another great season as the game keeps growing and growing.

[oche balboa]

“Needs to get their heads tested”

PDC or trying at Q School is not for everyone, just because theirs 14 million prize money doesn’t mean you get a decent wedge

Here’s are the Uk based bdo players trying Q school which I heard

Durrant, McGeeney, Waites, Day, Whitehead, Baker, Hamilton, Newton, Mckinstry, O’Shea plus around 2-3 Ladies

Not all of them are going to get a Tour Card as so few will be available, so they will do the BDO circuit anyway.

[Astonvilla]

One big downside from Jacklins change in rules to allow BDO players at QC is if lots go and dont get cards. Then assuming the best like Durrant and Waites have gone all the BDO has is a bunch of players who have shown they arent good enough to get into the PDC.

Not great when he wants to attract new sponsors and it has to call into question the current format of the Grand Slam.

[malcy93]

One big downside from Jacklins change in rules to allow BDO players at QC is if lots go and dont get cards. Then assuming the best like Durrant and Waites have gone all the BDO has is a bunch of players who have shown they arent good enough to get into the PDC.

Not great when he wants to attract new sponsors and it has to call into question the current format of the Grand Slam.

For the Slam they could easily reduce to 4 from BDO and 4 from Tour Card qualifier. Would give them an extra 8 places for winners on the tour. Last year would could have given out a lot of those to winners. Any unclaimed just add to the number available at qualifier.

Doing this should take out some of the lowest performing players.

[The Jolly Man]

One big downside from Jacklins change in rules to allow BDO players at QC is if lots go and dont get cards. Then assuming the best like Durrant and Waites have gone all the BDO has is a bunch of players who have shown they arent good enough to get into the PDC.

Not great when he wants to attract new sponsors and it has to call into question the current format of the Grand Slam.

ThTs what I’ve been saying for a while. It’s no good to the BDO to have its top players all going to q-school and a number of them returning having failed.

Already this years Lakeside has Hamilton, Newton, whitehead, Smith-neale all having tried the PDC tour and come off it.

[Mensur Suljovic Fan]

One big downside from Jacklins change in rules to allow BDO players at QC is if lots go and dont get cards. Then assuming the best like Durrant and Waites have gone all the BDO has is a bunch of players who have shown they arent good enough to get into the PDC.

Not great when he wants to attract new sponsors and it has to call into question the current format of the Grand Slam.

ThTs what I’ve been saying for a while. It’s no good to the BDO to have its top players all going to q-school and a number of them returning having failed.

Already this years Lakeside has Hamilton, Newton, whitehead, Smith-neale all having tried the PDC tour and come off it.

For their sake they really need the Lakeside winner to either win a tour card (I'm guessing they'll get into the GS like Kist and Bunting did), or just sit out Q-School altogether (like Unterbuchner)

[trotter]

One big downside from Jacklins change in rules to allow BDO players at QC is if lots go and dont get cards. Then assuming the best like Durrant and Waites have gone all the BDO has is a bunch of players who have shown they arent good enough to get into the PDC.

Not great when he wants to attract new sponsors and it has to call into question the current format of the Grand Slam.

Whatever rules are in place the BDO are really not going to attract the same level of sponsorship as the PDC ..sponsors know what they are sponsoring
But if the BDO can guarantee decent TV for a period if time then with good marketing there is no reason why sponsorship cannot be attracted ..they can still survive and progress with a firmer footing without trying to compete with the PDC

[Mensur Suljovic Fan]

One big downside from Jacklins change in rules to allow BDO players at QC is if lots go and dont get cards. Then assuming the best like Durrant and Waites have gone all the BDO has is a bunch of players who have shown they arent good enough to get into the PDC.

Not great when he wants to attract new sponsors and it has to call into question the current format of the Grand Slam.

For the Slam they could easily reduce to 4 from BDO and 4 from Tour Card qualifier. Would give them an extra 8 places for winners on the tour. Last year would could have given out a lot of those to winners. Any unclaimed just add to the number available at qualifier.

Doing this should take out some of the lowest performing players.

Could definitely see the BDO contingent reduced (don't think it'll be abolished completely though perhaps it should be). I'd like all TV finalists/tour winners to get in, plus international qualifiers, and then a tour card qualifier as a last resort if, they haven't filled up the numbers, but that seems pretty unlikely unfortunately

[The Jolly Man]

One big downside from Jacklins change in rules to allow BDO players at QC is if lots go and dont get cards. Then assuming the best like Durrant and Waites have gone all the BDO has is a bunch of players who have shown they arent good enough to get into the PDC.

Not great when he wants to attract new sponsors and it has to call into question the current format of the Grand Slam.

For the Slam they could easily reduce to 4 from BDO and 4 from Tour Card qualifier. Would give them an extra 8 places for winners on the tour. Last year would could have given out a lot of those to winners. Any unclaimed just add to the number available at qualifier.

Doing this should take out some of the lowest performing players.

Could definitely see the BDO contingent reduced (don't think it'll be abolished completely though perhaps it should be). I'd like all TV finalists/tour winners to get in, plus international qualifiers, and then a tour card qualifier as a last resort if, they haven't filled up the numbers, but that seems pretty unlikely unfortunately

I’d have the winner of the North American Champs, Oceanic Master, Create an Asian Champs for top 32 from PDC Asia and then maybe a tournament for European Only players. Each one of those goes to the GSOD. Where they currently go to the Worlds I’d have an extra spot from the regional OOM

[Mensur Suljovic Fan]

One big downside from Jacklins change in rules to allow BDO players at QC is if lots go and dont get cards. Then assuming the best like Durrant and Waites have gone all the BDO has is a bunch of players who have shown they arent good enough to get into the PDC.

Not great when he wants to attract new sponsors and it has to call into question the current format of the Grand Slam.

For the Slam they could easily reduce to 4 from BDO and 4 from Tour Card qualifier. Would give them an extra 8 places for winners on the tour. Last year would could have given out a lot of those to winners. Any unclaimed just add to the number available at qualifier.

Doing this should take out some of the lowest performing players.

Could definitely see the BDO contingent reduced (don't think it'll be abolished completely though perhaps it should be). I'd like all TV finalists/tour winners to get in, plus international qualifiers, and then a tour card qualifier as a last resort if, they haven't filled up the numbers, but that seems pretty unlikely unfortunately

I’d have the winner of the North American Champs, Oceanic Master, Create an Asian Champs for top 32 from PDC Asia and then maybe a tournament for European Only players. Each one of those goes to the GSOD. Where they currently go to the Worlds I’d have an extra spot from the regional OOM

I'd be wary of players who come through a single international qualifying event, Heaven forbid we get the Asian version of Justin Pipe job through! They have the Asian Tour now so that would be ideal. A South African qualifier like they used to have would be great too, if only to see Dancing Devon again!

[Zapp Brannigan]

See the BBC article about the PDC cracking china yesterday basically called the BDO worlds the "lesser, Amateur world championship". This is the major problem the BDO has now, nobody takes then seriously as a major competitor.

They would probably get a ton more publicity and sponsorship if they just went full "we are the amateur, 2nd tier world championship" instead we are going to see every bookie on twitter do some kind of "thud, thud, thud 26 - its time for the BDO world championship" joke.

[The Jolly Man]

One big downside from Jacklins change in rules to allow BDO players at QC is if lots go and dont get cards. Then assuming the best like Durrant and Waites have gone all the BDO has is a bunch of players who have shown they arent good enough to get into the PDC.

Not great when he wants to attract new sponsors and it has to call into question the current format of the Grand Slam.

For the Slam they could easily reduce to 4 from BDO and 4 from Tour Card qualifier. Would give them an extra 8 places for winners on the tour. Last year would could have given out a lot of those to winners. Any unclaimed just add to the number available at qualifier.

Doing this should take out some of the lowest performing players.

Could definitely see the BDO contingent reduced (don't think it'll be abolished completely though perhaps it should be). I'd like all TV finalists/tour winners to get in, plus international qualifiers, and then a tour card qualifier as a last resort if, they haven't filled up the numbers, but that seems pretty unlikely unfortunately

I’d have the winner of the North American Champs, Oceanic Master, Create an Asian Champs for top 32 from PDC Asia and then maybe a tournament for European Only players. Each one of those goes to the GSOD. Where they currently go to the Worlds I’d have an extra spot from the regional OOM

I'd be wary of players who come through a single international qualifying event, Heaven forbid we get the Asian version of Justin Pipe job through! They have the Asian Tour now so that would be ideal. A South African qualifier like they used to have would be great too, if only to see Dancing Devon again!

To me the GSOD is about winning a single event. The qualification is all to do with winning an event. The likelihood would be the Asian player would be one of the players that went to the Worlds. The NA qualifier on my basis would have been Jeff Smith. The Oceanic qualifier would have been James Bailey but the likes of Anderson, Harris and Cadby could enter.

[Dannyboy]

Uncle Barry mentioned in his interview last night about further prize money increases and "announcements" in the next few weeks.

[DavidB]

Uncle Barry mentioned in his interview last night about further prize money increases and "announcements" in the next few weeks.

An announcement of an announcement !!!

[Mensur Suljovic Fan]

For the Slam they could easily reduce to 4 from BDO and 4 from Tour Card qualifier. Would give them an extra 8 places for winners on the tour. Last year would could have given out a lot of those to winners. Any unclaimed just add to the number available at qualifier.

Doing this should take out some of the lowest performing players.

Could definitely see the BDO contingent reduced (don't think it'll be abolished completely though perhaps it should be). I'd like all TV finalists/tour winners to get in, plus international qualifiers, and then a tour card qualifier as a last resort if, they haven't filled up the numbers, but that seems pretty unlikely unfortunately

I’d have the winner of the North American Champs, Oceanic Master, Create an Asian Champs for top 32 from PDC Asia and then maybe a tournament for European Only players. Each one of those goes to the GSOD. Where they currently go to the Worlds I’d have an extra spot from the regional OOM

I'd be wary of players who come through a single international qualifying event, Heaven forbid we get the Asian version of Justin Pipe job through! They have the Asian Tour now so that would be ideal. A South African qualifier like they used to have would be great too, if only to see Dancing Devon again!

To me the GSOD is about winning a single event. The qualification is all to do with winning an event. The likelihood would be the Asian player would be one of the players that went to the Worlds. The NA qualifier on my basis would have been Jeff Smith. The Oceanic qualifier would have been James Bailey but the likes of Anderson, Harris and Cadby could enter.

I guess, but at least with the ProTour, you know you're getting a quality player winning each floor event, international events are a bit more inconsistent

[Dannyboy]

Uncle Barry mentioned in his interview last night about further prize money increases and "announcements" in the next few weeks.

An announcement of an announcement !!!

The difference being that generally the eventual announcements are quite lucrative for the players.

[oche balboa]

Danny boy must be on commission

[Dannyboy]

Danny boy must be on commission

LOL you probably can't see the irony of this statement.

#WarrenBrown

[Ginge]

Ha!

[Buzz Fledderjohn]

See the BBC article about the PDC cracking china yesterday basically called the BDO worlds the "lesser, Amateur world championship". This is the major problem the BDO has now, nobody takes then seriously as a major competitor.

They would probably get a ton more publicity and sponsorship if they just went full "we are the amateur, 2nd tier world championship" instead we are going to see every bookie on twitter do some kind of "thud, thud, thud 26 - its time for the BDO world championship" joke.

Whilst your point is full of merit, BBC Sport do have previous for behaving like a spurned lover when talking about stuff they used to have the broadcast rights for but don't any longer.
I recall BBC racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaught producing a piece the day after the 2012 grand national effectively calling for it's abolition. Total coincidence that 2012 was the last time it was shown on BBC 1 before moving to Channel 4 in 2013, I'm sure.