The BDO organised the first World Professional Darts Championship in 1978, known for 26 years as The Embassy due to its sponsorship by Imperial Tobacco until 2003.
After the World Championship began, televised darts became more prevalent with many major tournaments appearing on ITV and BBC.
On 7 January 1993, the rebel players issued a joint statement affirming that they would only compete in the 1994 tournament if it was held under the auspices of the WDC.
After a long legal battle, the BDO was forced to acknowledge the WDC's legitimacy and the right of players to choose which body they competed for.
In return the WDC dropped its claim to being the sport's governing body and renamed itself the Professional Darts Corporation.
Following the split, the BDO and PDC ran their own tours, including their own versions of the world championship, with separate pools of players.
Raymond van Barneveld's career in the BDO helped boost the popularity of the sport in his home country, the Netherlands.
The rival PDC ran many more televised tournaments and offered greater prize money, allowing top players to make a full-time living from darts.
"[4] In 2001, six prominent BDO players, including 1996 champion Steve Beaton and two-time runner-up Ronnie Baxter, announced that they would be competing in the PDC version of the world championship in 2002.
The executive producer of BBC Darts disagreed, stating "You can't just replace recognisable people with unknowns and say it is the same and that nothing has changed.
Gary Anderson and Mark Webster were the BDO's two top ranked players when they signed with the PDC in January 2009.
Weeks after winning the Lakeside title in January 2014, Stephen Bunting became the first reigning BDO champion to join the PDC.
"[10] John Part (1997), Richie Burnett (2000), Ted Hankey (2012), Les Wallace (2013), Christian Kist (2014), and Scott Waites (2020) are the other past BDO champions who subsequently switched to the PDC.
Prior to the 2011 Annual General Meeting of the BDO, many players and officials within the organisation had expressed increasing degrees of dissatisfaction with the performance of the existing Board of Directors.
Particular areas of concern were the BDO's apparent stagnation in terms of creating new televised events and gaining new sponsors.
Matters culminated at the subsequent AGM, where all but one of the incumbent Board were voted out of office (other than Dave Alderman who had already resigned), with only Vic Sexton retaining his seat.
Due to the confusion, officials announced that there would be a redraw, which included fake names, apparently so they could be substituted if more real players arrived.
They cited the recent "breach of rules" and "draw changes during their competition", adding "we cannot be a part of or support such activities.
[18][19] In protest at the reduced prize money on offer, Fallon Sherrock, runner-up in the 2015 women's event, confirmed that she would be withdrawing from the competition.
[22] In March 2023, the 38 trophies and plaques belonging to the now defunct British Darts Organisation were put up for auction in order to pay off creditors that were affected by the liquidation of the BDO in 2020.
[26] The Topic International Darts League was a tournament staged in the Netherlands and formed the second leg of the Grand Slam having been introduced in 2003.
Van Barneveld (PDC) went on to win the title for the third time in 2006 and Gary Anderson (BDO) won the 2007 event.
The game was at an all-time low and players eventually went on to set up the World Darts Council in an attempt to bring back sponsors and television.
Jocky Wilson won the title a record four times – John Lowe also reached four finals but lost them all.
Not to be confused with the long-running game show Bullseye, this was a BBC2 tournament which ran for three years during the peak of darts' boom period at the turn of the eighties.
The tournament was broadcast on ITV and originally came from the Fulcrum Centre, Slough before switching to Festival Hall, Basildon.