PDPA leaving the majority of players begging like Oliver

What is the PDPA (and why are players complaining)

What is the PDPA (and why are players complaining)

The Professional Darts Players Association (PDPA) was established 35 years ago with the primary mandate to protect, improve, and negotiate the conditions, rights, and status of professional darts players. As the sole professional darts association, the PDPA works collaboratively with key organizations such as the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), the Darts Regulation Authority (DRA), and the Junior Darts Corporation (JDC) to advocate for its members’ interests. Its core mission is to provide a unified voice for professional players, ensuring their needs are met through collective bargaining agreements and negotiations with relevant bodies.

In order to compete in PDC events membership of the PDPA is mandatory and the following fees are payable in full by it’s members:

Full Membership: £500 + £75 DRA Fee

– Q-School Membership: £400 + £75 DRA Fee

– Junior Membership: £50 + DRA FREE (For DT players who are not members. (Only after 5 events)

– Honorary & Directors Membership: FREE

– Women’s Series & Development Tour: FREE

– Day Membership: (For European Qualifiers only, as a supplement to their entry fee with a maximum of 2 in one season (Not N&B).

– 2% levy: As per PDC and PDPA rules, all players are subject to a 2% levy on all prize money won at all PDC events.

Why are professional dart players complaining?

With such representation in place it seems there is a great system in place so why are we seeing more and more professional dart players complaining in interviews? It appears that the professional dart player interviews coming out at the moment all seem to include complaints about the system with former players turned pundits such as Matthew Edgar and Devon Peterson weighing in.Dart players and pundits critical of their representation from PDPA

Many of the complaints centre around the fact that the PDC introduced a number of changes to the tour which seemingly protect the elite and negatively impact every other player. According to the mandate of the PDPA the collaborative work done with the PDC should have meant that when the changes were suggested they would have been discussed and approved by the PDPA on behalf of the players.

For reference the PDPA describes this part of their mandate as follows:

TO EVALUATE

CHANGES IN THE GAME: Its no secret that many people involved in our sport don’t fully understand the procedures and processes that have to be followed to change any rules, events, dates, venues, prize money, conditions of playing, playing equipment etc.

Our role is to determine if any changes would be more proficient for the game as a whole, and not just for individuals. These can be either our own proposals, from the PDC or requests made by our members to look at a certain part of the game.

Once these are established, we would discuss these with the PDC in a multidisciplinary environment and come up with a decision which would benefit the game as a whole.

These interviews mentioned can be watched in full on the excellent Youtube channels of Online Darts and Tungsten Tales (among others) from which the screenshots in the image above have been taken.

Protecting the elite and sending the rest begging

A key complaint centres around the change to the seeding for the Eurotour events with the world’s top 16 ranked players seeded straight into the second round, and previous year’s changes having greatly reduced the number of qualification places open to the rest of the field. Before the 2024 season players could realistically expect to qualify for anywhere between 6 and all 13 Eurotour events but with the rule changes a good number would be 3. When you consider that the top performers on the Eurotour qualify for the EUropean Championships, the changes massively reduce the chances of any player outside of the top 16 qualifying for what is effectively a major tournament. Quite apart from all the extra prizemoney on offer due to being gifted a spot in the second round of each tournament, being seeded in all events where mpost players can expect to only qualify for a quarter, the prizemoney on offer at the European championships means missing out drops you way behind on the rankings.

Players aren’t quite holding up their bowl like the Dickension character Oliver, but the board they pay significant money to should surely have ensured they were given a fair chance to eat? Every sport has a ranking system where the opportunity for players to come through the ranks is based on talent not protectionism and the PDPA seem to have dropped the ball in terms of their membership.

Bursitus RSI and many other injuries among darts players

Protectionism is a double edged sword as the workload of the elite players has greatly increased in recent years. 17 nights of premier league darts, seeding into all eurotours on top of the “regular” darts events in the schedule has seen many players nursing (long-tem) injuries. Interviews and darts media are full of well publicised cases of these injuries and former world champ Michael Smith even felt the need to post about it on his social media recently:

Michael Smith opens up on his many injuries

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Players suffering from Bursitus, RSI and or back injuries include stars like Nathan Aspinall, Michael van Gerwwin, Michael Smith, Gary Anderson and Gerwyn Price, all of whom have had significant workloads in recent years.

With the amount of money being put into the PDPA surely a travelling physio should/could be made available at all PDC events for all players to utilise, just like in most other sports?

PDPA overstepping their mandate but why?

In recent weeks an announcement from the PDPA has caused discussion in some circles claiming that the PDPA has greatlky overstepped it’s mandate and is doing their membership a disservice. Opening up a self proclaimed “Only official training certification for darts coaches” to the general public in recent days by this organisation alledgedly representing professional players seems to be overstepping the mandate of their role. If, and its a big if, this course which states 3 levels of coaching certification despite levels 2 and 3 currently not exisiting (see quote below) surely opening this to the general public and not gearing the course specifically to members and former members as part of their professional development brief is wrong?

Following the introduction of the official Level 1 -PDPA Darts Coaching Course, the PDPA working in partnership with 1st4Sport Qualifications will research and develop its Level 2- Certificate in Darts Coaching and its Level 3 Certificate in Advanced Darts Skills introducing a highly trained team of certified Professionals to support its Darts course delivery team of Glen and Jamie to deliver Nutrition, Sports Psychology, Bio Mechanics and Elite Darts practice and performance training together any additional aspects which the group feels are required to meet the needs of the sport.

Drastic restructure of the PDPA is needed

Given the money involved, the number of complaints, and the overstepping of the mandate it is surely time for a full restructure of the PDPA. A board of members that actively represent the players, speak to players on a regular basis and address their concerns in a documented fashion needs to be put in place sooner rather than later. Perhaps introducing new blood to the board rather than people who played the game in a different (and less high profile) era should be considered. This could then avoid criticism like that made in the online darts interview by Matthew Edgar of members of the board adhering to the saying “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you”

And let us not forget that membership of the PDPA is mandatory and as such the professional players are handcuffed in their voices!

Players agents or even the PDPA may comment on any of my social media posts or may send me an email if they wish to discuss any of what I have written.