[3] He became a full-time professional later in 1993 at a time after the split, which saw the WDC players banned from all BDO tournaments – and Beaton went on to win the prestigious Winmau World Masters, beating Les Wallace in the final.

Beaton continued to play in the BDO version of the World Championship until 2001 (reaching the semi-final in 1997 and quarter-final in 1998), while also participating in some televised PDC events.

Beaton has never made the same impact in the PDC, having failed to reach the quarter-finals in any of his attempts at the world crown, his best finishes being three Round of 16 losses in 2002, 2004 and 2020.

He also finished runner up in the European championship beating Adrian Lewis, Mark Walsh and James Wade en route to the final where he was defeated 11–3 by Phil Taylor.

This result however gave Beaton a place in the 2009 Grand Slam of Darts, where he progressed from the round robin stage courtesy of wins over Co Stompé and Kevin McDine before being comprehensively outplayed by Simon Whitlock.

At the 2010 Grand Slam of Darts, Beaton produced a major upset by beating three-time defending champion Phil Taylor 16–14 in the quarter-finals, having trailed 9–13 and 11–14.

Despite his good form in 2010 he was narrowly defeated in the first round of the 2011 PDC World Darts Championship by Mark Hylton eventually losing by 3 sets to 2.

The following year, Beaton recovered from two sets and three match darts down against Magnus Caris to win 3–2, but was beaten by Simon Whitlock 1–4 in the second round.

[8] On the PDC Pro Tour he lost in the semi-finals of the second Players Championship in a deciding leg to Dave Chisnall and also reached two other quarter-finals.

[11] He reached the quarter-finals of a PDC Pro Tour event for the first time in six months in April at the seventh UK Open Qualifier, but lost 6–3 to John Part.

[18] His surge in form during the latter half of the year saw him finish eighth on the ProTour Order of Merit to qualify for the Players Championship Finals, where he came back from 3–1 and 5–3 down against Wade in the first round to win 6–5.

He lost 16–13 to Gary Anderson after fighting back from 9–4 down to level the match at 12–12 before eventually succumbing to the two-time reigning world champion.

[33] After Beaton took the opening set with a 135 finish in the first round of the World Grand Prix, van Gerwen won six unanswered legs to win 2–1.

[38] Beaton qualified for a single European Tour event in the season at the 2024 German Darts Championship, where he suffered an early exit against Dylan Slevin in the first round 4–6 in legs.

[39] To celebrate the career of Beaton, fellow professional players on the circuit, Chris Dobey, Andy Boulton, Ross Smith, Nathan Aspinall, Joe Cullen, Adam Hunt, Ryan Joyce, Jonny Clayton, and John Henderson all dressed up as Beaton from when he used to play in the 1990s as a celebration for what he has accomplished for the sport.

[41][42] For the first time since his debut in 2003, Beaton failed to qualify for the 2025 PDC World Championship, having finished the season outside the top 32 on both the PDC Order of Merit ranking and the Pro Tour ranking, and not progressing through the Tour Card Holder Qualifier, meaning the 2024 event was his final professional world championship appearance.

His appearance is maintained 12 months a year via his warm weather training camps in Playa de las Américas, Tenerife.