Burnett was born in Cwmparc, Treorchy, Rhondda Cynon Taff, and first came to prominence shortly after the split in the game, after the PDC and the BDO players went their separate ways.
After defeating Peter Wright, Russell Stewart, Paul Hogan and Andy Fordham, he went on to win the title, beating Raymond van Barneveld 6–3 (sets) in the final.
[8] He showed an improvement in his form in October 2010, by reaching the semi-finals of the John McEvoy Gold Dart Classic, losing in a last-leg decider to Gary Anderson.
A week later, he reached two successive PDC Pro Tour finals in Bad Nauheim, Germany – losing 4–6 to fellow Welshman Mark Webster on Saturday,[9] and then by the same scoreline to Simon Whitlock on Sunday.
The improvement continued throughout 2011 reaching the semi-finals of the World Grand Prix, where he lost to Phil Taylor, which was Burnett's best result at a television event for 10 years.
[16] In the first round of the European Darts Open Burnett produced a stunning 121 average during a 6–2 win over Andy Jenkins,[17] and went on to reach the semi-finals where he lost 4–6 to Raymond van Barneveld.
[19] After all 33 ProTour events of 2012 had been played, Burnett was 22nd on the Order of Merit, comfortably inside the top 32 who qualified for the Players Championship Finals.
[23] He played in his second World Cup of Darts with Mark Webster and they reached the semi-finals where they faced the number one seeds of Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis.
[26] At the German Darts Championship Burnett came through final leg deciders against James Richardson and Robert Thornton and then averaged almost 102 in beating Steve Brown 6–2.
[27] His best run of the year continued with a 6–4 quarter-final success over Jamie Caven before missing one match dart in the semis against Peter Wright to lose 6–5.
[28] Burnett topped Group 7 of the Championship League and then beat Kim Huybrechts 6–3 in the semi-finals and survived five match darts in the final against Gary Anderson to win 6–5.
[34] In September he reached his first final on the PDC tour in almost three years at the 13th Players Championship, beating world number one Michael van Gerwen along the way, and led Gary Anderson 3–1 and 5–3, but would lose 6–5.
[37] Burnett was due to play at the 2015 World Championship as the 26th seed, but was removed from the field the day before the first round draw was made for personal reasons.
[39] In October 2015, it was confirmed by UK Anti-Doping that Burnett had tested positive for cocaine at the Grand Slam of Darts Qualifier in November 2014.
[41] He tried to get his Tour Card status back at Q School in January 2017 and succeeded on the third day by beating Paul Nicholson 5–3 in the final round.