The Darts World Championship

You may have noticed (especially if you look at Sky Sports), Christmas and New Year is a rather large number of darts on television. This is due to the fact that the two world championships are played. This is very unusual in any sport (except boxing), but how did we get here?
Darts is a game that has become popular among the working class and often played in bars. In 1973, he formed the British Darts Organisation (BDO) and this led to the first World Championships to be held in 1978. Darts started enjoying a golden age that tournaments were selected on the BBC and ITV and players like Eric Bristow, John Lowe and Jocky Wilson became household names.
But one fateful day in 1980 a program of the BBC comedy called "No to program new nine-hour" (with Mel Smith and Rhys Jones Gryth) provides a skit mocking dart players, the famous pints slaughtered the oche. Despite the popularity of the game does not diminish at this time, the damage is done to the image of the game was great. A slow descent continued and in 1988 ITV show had stopped completely darts world championships and was the only event left on television.
The initial burst of darts had led to an influx of eager players to ply their trade, but with television coverage and decreased with the prize money as sponsors left the sport, the players are disappointed with the BDO, they felt could do more to promote the game Even the move to ban alcohol on stage after 1989 did little to improve the public image of dart players and darts. In 1992, a group of six players formed the World Darts Council (WDC). The group included all former world champions assets, including Phil Taylor, Eric Bristow and John Lowe. Leighton Rees had already retired was the only former world champion has not joined. The first event was held WDC Lada UK Masters in the same year.
In 1993, the WDC players participated in the World Cup BDO as usual while sporting their new WDC badges on their sleeves. BDO then asked to remove the plates. The players have decided if your organization BDO would not recognize their own way and form a separate visit. The WDC has signed an agreement with Sky Television to screen three tournaments year.This in turn leads to another world championship with the first taking place in 1994 (although it started the day after Christmas 1993) with Dennis Priestley victory.
The WDC has changed its name to the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). The relations between the two bodies remain difficult darts after a legal battle that cost three years ended in 1997. The PDC has the biggest tour, with more events and more prize money, while the BDO maintained coverage and BBC audiences vision because terrestrial TV. The PDC has been busy tournaments development in the United States, Australia, Netherlands, South Africa and Germany, among others. Televised PDC events are broadcast on Sky you Kingdom. An important development for darts in 2007 was the return of ITV that was screened the Grand Slam of Darts. The event was unusual in that it was led by the PDC, but was open to players who have won or been finalists in the main event of the PDC and BDO in the previous two years. The only player who refused to play was the then BDO champion Martin Adams.
So with the two professional associations again happy to hate each other to the detriment of the sport looks like we'll have two world champions darts for years to come. This year, it was John Party (PDC) and Mark Webster (BDO). On the one hand, there are more darts to see, but surely there must be a true world champion.