In 2005 he narrowly lost a last-32 match to Lionel Sams at the UK Open and made a superb run to the final in 2006 before losing to Raymond van Barneveld.
He made a great impression on the circuit in 2006, winning the John Smiths Singles in February and May's Le Skratch Sarantos Retsinas Memorial event in Montreal.
He reached two PDPA Players Championship finals in 2006 losing to Colin Lloyd in the Isle of Wight in June, but beat Phil Taylor to take his biggest title to date in the Netherlands event in November.
He made his World Championship debut in 2007 as the number 17 seed but suffered a surprise first-round defeat to Canadian Brian Cyr.
In 2010, he represented Wales in the inaugural PDC World Cup of Darts alongside Mark Webster, where despite losing all seven singles in which he competed in, he and Webster reached the final, after defeating New Zealand, Spain, Scotland and Australia (thanks to Bates' 116 checkout in the sudden death leg), before losing to the Netherlands pairing of Raymond van Barneveld and Co Stompé.