Despite an estimated 17m people playing darts in the United States, there are no Americans currently among the top 183 players in PDC’s World Rankings. Where are all the stars?

When Peter Wright plays darts, he is escorted to and from the stage by security. The image of a snake, to match his Snakebite Wright nickname, or similar patterns are painted on the side of his head by his wife, who also dyes his hair bright colors for each competition. The crowd cheers, and if the competition happens to be the Professional Darts Corporation World Championships, the 49-year-old Scot could be playing live in front of nearly 70,000 fans in the span of a fortnight. He’s been recognized in such far-reaching places as Japan.

Such over-the-top showmanship is common in the UK and Europe, where unique personalities have boosted what was once an accessory to a few pints into a spectacle that today nets seven-figure viewerships for World Championship Finals broadcasts and elicits comparisons to professional wrestling.

Yet on the other side of the Atlantic, darts remains a pub sport. Despite an estimated 17m players in the United States according to the National Sporting Goods Association, there are no Americans currently among the top 183 players in PDC’s World Rankings.

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Personalities like Wright’s do exist in the world of US darts. American Darters Association president Karl Remick cites players in his organization who he thinks, if given the chance, would have breakout careers on a major stage. Darts leagues are growing year over year throughout the country, and Remick sees untapped opportunity on the horizon.

“There are more chances or choices or options out there as a whole,” Remick says. “We have tons of characters or people you’d want to follow or see what kind of shenanigans they can get into.”

Remick’s ADA is one of three major darts organizations currently operating in the US, along with the ADO (American Darts Organization) and the NDA (National Dart Association). The ADA, founded in 1990, operates in 30 states and is the only one of the trio that encompasses both the traditional steel tip and electronic soft tip styles of the game.

The ADO is the largest steel tip organization, while the NDA represents the less popular section of soft tip darts, primarily consisting of manufacturers aiming to increase participation by placing soft-tip machines in leagues. Tom Sawyer, current ADO president, describes a friendly relationship between the bodies, even as they’re defined by differences over rules and formats.

Remick believes the only ways darts can flourish in the US is if all parties put their resources to a distinct strategic plan. “They always think it’s a good idea, [but] they never do it in the long run,” he says. “Without one common goal we can’t go anywhere. We can’t get on the same page for some strange reason.”

Without a unified goal, darts in the US doesn’t stand a chance of rising above the current level of hobbyists

Sawyer agrees, but admits his priority is turning around the ADO before he can focus on any larger strategic picture. When he was elected president the ADO was “a financial disaster” near “rock bottom” and in need of a guiding hand to increase participation again, which has precluded him from any sort of partnership talks for the time being, though he is not opposed.

Yet without a unified goal, darts in the US doesn’t stand a chance of rising above the current level of hobbyists.

Although the ADA counts thousands of casual players as members, Remick only cites 117 professionals as being part of that group in 2019. The ADO counts around 700 dedicated players out of 100,000 total active, with as many as 2,500 getting national rankings points at some point in the year across both genders – that number fluctuating as some players don’t compete in national events until later in the calendar year.

The limited numbers of top competitors relative to the massive overall pool is due in no small part to the lack of ability to make a living off the sport for US players. According to Sawyer, many of the best players are sponsored by local breweries, regional companies or in some cases the darts companies themselves. Those deals are usually only enough to net players $350 to $400 a month, far from enough to make a living and dedicate an unfettered amount of time to darts, especially when compared to the tens of thousands of dollars players in Europe are able to net from their sponsorships.

Without an overarching plan to grow the sport further, or the ability for players to dedicate themselves fully to their careers, there can be no true consistency to what is, right now, a fragmented system of evangelizing the sport and providing a monetary reward for playing it.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Unique personalities, such as Scotland’s Peter Wright, have boosted a game that was once an accessory to a few pints, into a spectacle that today nets seven-figure viewerships in Europe. Photograph: Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images

One of the most difficult obstacles to overcome for American darts leagues as they battle for relevancy is that there are already so many other entertainment options sucking up real estate on television or other traditional platforms. Not the least of which is the PDC itself, which is featured on ESPN and has a preexisting fandom in the US. If someone who loves darts already has an attachment to the established world of the PDC, it’s much harder to convince them to tune in for a lesser known league with unknown competitors.

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US leagues also generally play cricket – a game that rarely requires a set amount of time – while the PDO is structured around the more straightforward, and thus more easily televisable, game of 501. One or two games of cricket could take as long as a best-of-11-games set of 501 matches, says Sawyer, making it “almost impossible to stream”. If deciding between a known ratings success that can fit in a set time slot for off-peak programming and an unknown entity that can take hours upon hours to finish, the choice is a simple one.

Many US organizations do stream their tournaments, mostly through a partnered streaming platform or via DartConnect scoring, an electronic platform that allows fans to track their favorite players’ matches which alerts fans when they’re up during a tournament. The ADO sets up DartConnect, which the PDO has also begun to employ, on up to 70 boards in a tournament, removing some of the scheduling issues and limitations of a local sport.

Both leagues stream their major tournaments, the ADO its national finals in Las Vegas held every January and the ADA its regional and national finals. Remick estimates 30,000 people tuned in for the ADA Championship in Memphis this year, and that all three organizations collectively stream 10 to 15 major tournaments each year.

Streaming has been a boon for the ADA, growing interest in the game on social media and increasing participation across the country. Each time a national championship visits a new city, Remick charts an increase in participation on a grassroots level.

That increased participation is coming hand in hand with additional chances for existing professional players in the US to play alongside top players. The ADO sends teams to the World Cup each year. The PDC also started holding the North American Championships as the first event in the World Series of Darts, which Sawyer calls a “huge improvement” between the two leagues.

“I don’t particularly see an American qualifying for the World Championships and surprising anybody at any extended level,” Sawyer says. “But to be able to play for a North American Championship and a really good payday, then being able to go play in that PDC event is a big step in the right direction for them.”

US darts may not ever reach the soaring heights and rockstar status of its European cousin. There are still too many built-in advantages for the latter. Gambling has been legal in the UK for decades, offering a leg up when drumming up interest in competitions and results.

Yet for some, it doesn’t matter so much. If darts is one day a massive draw, that’s great when it comes to financial opportunities for the players. But at its heart, darts has always been a local sport. For Sawyer, the personal aspect is more important than anything else.

“It’s part of what got me to play darts and kept me playing darts,” he says. “But obviously if you keep that it’s never going to be a living here. ... If there’s a way to preserve that and make it so the monetary difference was worth for us, then it would be OK.”