PDC vs WDF: Darts’ Two Governing Bodies Explained

Why Does Darts Have Two Governing Bodies?

The short answer is a breakaway. In 1992, a group of leading players — unhappy with the British Darts Organisation’s (BDO) prize money and its handling of television coverage — set up a rival body, initially called the World Darts Council (WDC). In January 1993, sixteen of the world’s top players, including reigning world champions, left the BDO to play under the new organisation instead.

What followed was a four-year legal battle between the two sides. It ended in 1997 with an out-of-court settlement known as the Tomlin Order. Under its terms, the BDO recognised the WDC and agreed that players would have freedom of choice over which open events they entered. In return, the WDC dropped its claim to be a rival world governing body, renamed itself the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), and formally recognised the World Darts Federation (WDF)as the sport’s international governing body — with the BDO recognised as the governing body for darts specifically within the UK.

That settlement is the root of the split that still shapes the sport today: one organisation built around a commercial, televised professional tour, and another built around the traditional structure of national federations.

What the PDC Does

The PDC is the organisation behind the darts that most casual fans watch on TV — the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace, Premier League, World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, and the weekly ProTour circuit of Players Championship and European Tour events. It runs its own ranking system, the Order of Merit, and issues Tour Cards that give players the right to compete on that circuit.

Player conduct and disciplinary matters on the PDC side are handled by the Darts Regulation Authority (DRA), an independent body that issues fines and suspensions — you can read about a recent example in our DRA case list breakdown.

What the WDF Does

The WDF is the sport’s recognised international federation, sitting above a network of national member associations rather than running a single commercial tour. Its focus is on amateur, youth and team darts worldwide, and it maintains its own world ranking system separate from the PDC’s Order of Merit. It also runs its own World Darts Championship, which is a different tournament from the PDC’s event of the same name, with a different scale, different prize fund and a different field of players.

For most of its history the WDF operated in the shadow of the BDO, which used its recognition from the 1997 settlement to run UK darts and stage its own BDO World Championship alongside the WDF’s international structure. That changed in September 2020, when the BDO folded into administration after years of declining sponsorship and television interest. The WDF took over the running of the BDO’s former events, including its world championship, absorbing the role the BDO had played in the UK.

So Which Is “Official”?

Both are, in different senses. The PDC is not recognised by the WDF as a rival international governing body and does not claim to be one — it recognised the WDF’s role as part of the 1997 settlement. But the PDC is, by a wide margin, the dominant commercial and broadcast entity in the sport, and its Order of Merit is what most fans mean when they talk about the “world rankings” in darts. The WDF, meanwhile, remains the structure through which national federations and the amateur game are organised globally, and its ranking system and world championship carry weight within that side of the sport.

The freedom-of-choice principle from the 1997 settlement still applies: a player is not barred from entering both PDC and WDF-affiliated events. In practice, though, the two circuits attract largely different populations of players — Tour Card holders on the PDC side, and predominantly amateur or federation-affiliated players on the WDF side — because qualification, prize money and playing calendars pull in different directions.

Frequently Asked Questions