Erm....noWe all know there is a difference in standard between the PDC and the BDO but so is there between the PL and the rest of the footballing pyramid. If you are slagging off the BDO you are effectively saying that the grass roots of darts counts for nothing, just the same as slagging off all levels of football below the PL.
The PDC needs the BDO to recruit the best up and coming talent such as Bunting. The BDO lacks the competitive sharpness of the PDC, relying on county and international matches to spot talent. Young players need the platform of the BDO to get noticed. In case you've forgotten, it was only relatively recently that MVG came through the BDO and before him many others.
There are good players at the Lakeside and there will continue to be good players coming through. They can't start their careers in the PDC, they have to earn their place via the BDO. It is the training ground for future stars.
Please don't take the lazy route and keep slagging off the BDO...' Oh its rubbish....I don't watch it...I switched off after 5 mins etc etc '
Just like the football league was here before the PL came along and became the centre of the Universe, so the BDO was here before the PDC. Darts players wanted more money and with encouragement from outside sources engineered the rift in the game that exists today. The two bodies can work side by side like football but SKY has got its ugly grubby mits on the game like football and created elitism.
Taylor, Van Barneveld, MVG, Anderson and many others owe a big debt of gratitude to the BDO for getting them started and getting them noticed and nothing will change in that respect. Without the BDO, darts has a limited future.
The PDC do not recruit players from the BDO any more.
Nor can BDO players, however good they are, simply move across to the PDC.
The organisations are entirely separate and to play PDC darts you have to earn a tour card in their annual qualifying event.
Young players can in deed start their careers in the PDC in this way.
Many will start in the BDO as the opportunities are far greater but they don't have to.