Darts ready to become more than just a festive favourite

With darts growing in popularity over the festive period, Jack Rathborn wonders how much more the sport can grow into 2022 and beyond

Alexandra Palace hosts the William Hill World Darts Championship (Getty)

As football staggers onwards over the festive period despite Covid-enforced postponements, darts looks set to seize its opportunity to continue its rapid rise and growth in popularity. The PDC World Championship has long-since muscled in on the festive calendar for British sport fans, but the sport is now evolving further.

With Phil Taylor’s vice-like grip on the sport far in the rearview mirror, a more engrossing spectacle has emerged with greater diversity among the field of players with an unpredictable edge to games throughout tournaments.

That last aspect is crucial, too, despite the sport perfectly suited to analytics, there have been numerous upsets at the Ally Pally this year as averages and check out percentages yo-yo from set to set.

So what next for darts? A sport that seemingly has immense untapped potential and will look to seize the next surge of new fandom after Formula 1 beautifully laid down the blueprint.

The off-the-oche stories would suit a Netflix series and the ingredients are already in place. A quick glance at the top 50 of the PDC’s Order of Merit shows that in addition to traditional darts hot spots in the UK and Netherlands, there are now players from Portugal, Belgium, Poland, Austria, Australia and Latvia inside the top 50. While there is also the added intrigue of Fallon Sherrock crossing over to the men’s circuit to shake things up further.

Michael van Gerwen in action at Alexandra Palace (Getty)

Her journey alone over the coming years will make for a fascinating subplot in a sport where men and women can compete on an even playing field. While its rule-makers have enough control to insert wildcards to tournaments such as the Premier League, while allowing the purity of the arrows and the board to still be the star - unlike Michael Masi and co. in Abu Dhabi two weeks ago.

While the sport can draw you into an entire match, which may suit those enjoying cheese and wine on the sofa over the coming days, it also works well on social media. Never has this been demonstrated better by the 6.3 million at the time of writing who tuned into Willie Borland’s nine-darter last week.

Not only was it sporting perfection in less than 60 seconds, but it was the ultimate performance under pressure given it was the deciding leg, on the Scot’s debut. No wonder he later admitted: “This is the best night of my life.”

Darts also works beautifully for those passionate fans alongside family and friends over Christmas and New Year who know very little.

The live occasion is among the most unique experiences in sport, as fans sing and dance for hours, while briefly glancing up at the screens to follow the game. Covid, of course, will threaten this element of the sport, but there is a very good product that can stand alone on television.

Defending world champion Gerwyn Price celebrates during his second round match against Ritchie Edhouse (Getty)

The frenetic nature of the sport, the swift zoom angle every time a 180 or double appears in sight and an eclectic mix of walk-on music make for a great watch.

Darts is clearly trending upwards, its job now is to retain its audience beyond New Year’s Day. A first world champion in sport crowned in 2022 will remain its highlight, but there’s great depth and more subplots beneath the elite trio of Gerwyn Price, Peter Wright and Michael van Gerwen.

So as fans spread themselves ever thinner in the age of social media where they consume a little and often, darts is primed to grasp the limelight.