List of darts players who have switched organisation

Last updated February 06, 2024

Between 1993 and 2020 professional darts had two rival bodies which staged tournaments and had separate pools of players, the British Darts Organisation (BDO) and the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). Both staged its own world championship. In practice, players had to choose which organisation to represent, but many switched between the two, which often caused controversy.

This situation arose following an acrimonious split in the early 1990s between the leading players and the BDO. Darts had boomed in popularity during the 1980s, with as many as 23 televised events in 1983. However, by the end of the decade this had fallen to just one. This, combined with general disillusionment at the BDO's management of the sport, prompted 16 top players to break away and form their own body. Four years of legal action followed, culminating in the 1997 Tomlin order, which confirmed the existence of both bodies, and established that players were free choose which one to play for.

This list documents the players who made the decision to switch from one organisation to the other. In general more players switched from the BDO to the PDC than vice versa, attracted by the greater prize money and better competition offered by the PDC. The BDO folded in 2020, but many of their events were subsequently revived by the World Darts Federation, so the split in darts remains.

World Darts Council foundation

The sixteen darts defectors who formed the WDC were as follows:

Player	Time with BDO	Notes
Phil Taylor	1988–1993	Remained a PDC player until his retirement in 2018.
Dennis Priestley	1989–1993	Remained a PDC player until his retirement in 2014.
Rod Harrington	1987–1993	Remained a PDC player until his retirement in 2007.
Alan Warriner	1985–1993	Remained a PDC player until his retirement in 2009.
Peter Evison	1986–1993	Quit the PDC in 2008 to rejoin the BDO. Returned to the PDC in 2011 and retired from darts in 2018.
Ritchie Gardner	1984–1993	Remained a PDC player until his retirement in 2006.
Jocky Wilson	1979–1993	Remained a PDC player until his retirement in 1996.
Eric Bristow	1979–1993	Remained a PDC player until his retirement in 2007.
Keith Deller	1983–1993	Remained a PDC player until his retirement in 2007.
John Lowe	1975–1993	Remained a PDC player until his retirement in 2007.
Bob Anderson	1979–1993	Remained a PDC player until his retirement in 2008.
Cliff Lazarenko	1977–1993	Remained a PDC player until his retirement in 2007.
Kevin Spiolek	1987–1993	Remained a PDC player until his retirement in 2007.
Jamie Harvey	1988–1993	Quit the PDC in 2009 due to ill-health but returned to the BDO in 2011. Retired in 2013.
Mike Gregory	1983–1992	Quit the PDC in 1993 to return to the BDO. Retired from darts in 2005.
Chris Johns	1986–1993	Quit the PDC in 1993 and retired from professional darts the same year.

Since then, many darts players have left the BDO to join the PDC, although some players rejoined the BDO either from finding it difficult on the PDC circuit or lack of sponsorship. The PDC had new talent of their own. However some players left them to join the BDO.

Players who transferred from the BDO to the PDC

Year of transfer	Player	Time with BDO	Notes
1993	Tom Kirby	1992	Quit the PDC in 2007. Died in 2008
1994	Mick Manning	1988–1994	Quit the PDC in 2005
1994	Larry Butler	1992–1993	Quit the PDC in 1997 but rejoined them in 2007. Quit in 2011 and is now with the BDO
1994	Paul Lim	1980–1994
1994	Dennis Smith	1993–1994
1994	Graeme Stoddart	1990	Quit the PDC in 2009
1994	Dennis Hickling	1980–1994	Quit the PDC in 1996
1994	Tony Payne	1985–1994	Quit the PDC in 1995 but rejoined them in 2003. Quit in 2007
1994	Jerry Umberger	1981–1993	Quit the PDC in 1997
1994	Gerald Verrier	1987–1993	Quit the PDC in 2000
1994	Sean Downs	1993	Quit the PDC in 2010
1994	Whit Whitley	1993	Quit the PDC in 1995
1994	Damien Tonge	1993–1994	Quit the PDC in 1995
1994	Gary Stevens	1993	Quit the PDC in 2009
1994	Jim Watkins	1993	Quit the PDC in 1995
1994	Jim Widmayer	1993	Quit the PDC in 2007 to rejoin BDO in 2008
1994	Dave Kelly	1991–1993	Quit the PDC in 1996 but rejoined them in 2006. Quit in 2008
1994	Kevin Burrows	1989–1994	Quit the PDC in 2004
1994	Shayne Burgess	1989–1994	Quit the PDC in 2008 to rejoin BDO in 2012. Quit in 2014
1994	Steve Raw	1993	Quit the PDC in 2001
1995	Gary Mawson	1994	Quit the PDC in 2001 but rejoined them in 2004.
1995	John Russell	1994	Quit the PDC in 1996
1995	Reg Harding	1988–1993	Quit the PDC in 2006
1995	Nigel Justice	1991	Quit the PDC in 2003
1995	Kevin Kenny	1987–1994	Quit the PDC in 2001
1995	Jef Scheyltjens	1994	Quit the PDC in 1995
1996	Tony Holyoake	1983	Quit the PDC in 1997
1996	Phil Gilman	1992	Quit the PDC in 2006
1996	Bruce Robbins	1995	Quit the PDC in 2008
1996	Peter Manley	1995–1996	Quit the PDC in 2017
1996	Harry Robinson	1990–1996
1996	Johnny Deley	1987–1990	Quit the PDC in 1996
1996	Paul Cook	1990	Quit the PDC in 2017
1996	Avtar Gill	1981–1987	Quit the PDC in 1997
1996	Frans Harmsen	1995	Quit the PDC in 2000 to rejoin BDO in 2002. Quit the 2017
1996	Jack North	1975–1976	Quit the PDC in 2004
1996	Fran Lynch	1994–1996	Quit the PDC in 1997
1996	Jason Lucas	1995–1996	Quit the PDC in 1997
1997	John Part	1991–1997	Also a pundit for Sky Sports Darts
1997	Drew O'Neill	1986	Quit the PDC in 1998
1997	Dean Allsop	1995–1997	Quit the PDC in 2010 to rejoin the BDO in 2011
1997	Chris Whiting	1986–1994	Quit the PDC in 1997
1997	Mark Robinson	1995–1997	Quit the PDC in 2015
1997	Carl Mercer	1993–1997	Quit the PDC in 2004 to rejoin the BDO in 2006. Quit the 2009
1997	Anthony Ridler	1977–1983	Quit the PDC in 2006. Died in 2014
1998	John Ferrell	1994–1997	Quit the PDC in 2017
1998	Dan Lauby	1996–1998
1998	Scott Cummings	1997–1998	Quit the PDC in 2001
1998	Alex Roy	1998	Quit the PDC in 2018
1999	Richie Burnett	1987–1999	Quit the PDC in 2014 but rejoined them in 2016
1999	Roland Scholten	1989–1999	Quit the PDC in 2014 and is now a pundit for RTL7 Darts
1999	Colin Lloyd	1998	Quit the PDC in 2015 but rejoined them in 2018. Quit in 2018
1999	Darin Young	1998	Quit the PDC in 2014 to rejoin BDO in 2014
2000	Braulio Roncero	1994–1998	Quit the PDC in 2010. Died in 2018
2000	Dave Askew	1988–2000	Quit the PDC in 2011
2000	Roger Carter	1996–1999	Quit the PDC in 2012
2000	Denis Ovens	1986–2000	Quit the PDC in 2015
2000	Les Fitton	1998–2000	Quit the PDC in 2004
2001	Norman Fletcher	1999–2001	Quit the PDC in 2013
2001	Ronnie Baxter	1988–2001
2001	Steve Beaton	1990–2001
2001	Andy Jenkins	1994–2001
2001	Kevin Painter	1994–2001
2001	Chris Mason	1990–2001	Quit the PDC in 2014 and is now a commentator for ITV Sports Darts rejoined the BDO in 2015. Quit in 2016
2001	Paul Williams	1993–2001	Quit the PDC in 2007
2001	Robbie Widdows	1987–2001	Quit the PDC in 2006
2001	Lionel Sams	1994–2001	Quit the PDC in 2011 but rejoined them in 2013. Quit in 2015
2002	Matt Chapman	1999–2001	Quit the PDC in 2006
2002	Mark Holden	1990–2001	Quit the PDC in 2007
2002	Paul Whitworth	1990–2001
2002	Ian Brand	1994–1997	Quit the PDC in 2007
2002	Barrie Bates	2001
2002	Mark Dudbridge	2002
2002	Arjan Moen	2000–2002	Quit the PDC in 2003 the rejoin BDO in 2005. Quit in 2010
2002	Aaron Turner	2000-2002	Quit the PDC in 2015 to rejoin BDO in 2016.
2002	Al Hedman	1995–2001	Quit the PDC in 2005
2002	Mick Savvery	1985–2002	Quit the PDC in 2016
2002	Lee Palfreyman	1995–2001
2002	Wayne Jones	1988–2002
2002	Jack McKenna	1974–2002	Quit the PDC in 2005 the rejoin BDO in 2006. Quit in 2007
2002	John MaGowan	1994–2001	Quit the PDC in 2012 to rejoin BDO in 2012. Quit in 2016
2002	Brian Roach	1998	Quit the PDC in 2017
2002	Wayne Mardle	1993–2002	Quit the PDC in 2012 and is now a commentator for Sky Sports Darts
2002	Les Hodkinson	1997–2002	Quit the PDC in 2004
2002	Crissy Manley	1997–2002	Quit the PDC in 2004 to rejoin BDO in 2005. Quit the 2011.
2002	Dave Smith	2001	Quit the PDC in 2012 to rejoin BDO in 2013. Quit the 2015
2003	Dave Jowett	1996–1997	Quit the PDC in 2008
2003	David Platt	2002	Quit the PDC in 2010 to rejoin BDO in 2011
2003	Ray Carver	2002	Quit the PDC in 2010 to rejoin BDO in 2011. Quit in 2015. but rejoined them in 2018
2003	Ray Farrell	1985–1993	Quit the PDC in 2009 to rejoin BDO in 2012. Quit in 2014
2003	Vic Hubbard	1985–1986	Quit the PDC in 2006
2003	Marshall James	1991–1999	Quit the PDC in 2003
2003	Andy Smith	1997–2002
2003	Simon Whatley	2002	Quit the PDC in 2008 to rejoin BDO in 2010. Quit in 2011
2003	Gerry Convery	2001–2003	Quit the PDC in 2011
2003	Colin McGarry	1995	Quit the PDC in 2014 to rejoin BDO in 2014. Quit in 2017
2003	Vijay Kumar	1989–2002	Quit the PDC in 2004
2003	Geoff Wylie	1991–2003	Quit the PDC in 2009 to rejoin BDO in 2013. Quit the 2015
2004	Matt Clark	1996–2004
2004	Erik Clarys	1989–2004	Quit the PDC in 2006
2004	Bruce Cottrell	2003	Quit the PDC in 2017
2004	Norm Tremblay	2002–2003	Quit the PDC in 2007 to rejoin BDO in 2010. Quit in 2017
2004	Ricky Villanueva	2004	Quit the PDC in 2011
2004	Colin Monk	1993–2004	Quit the PDC in 2011
2004	James Wade	2001–2004
2004	Ron Miller	2004	Quit the PDC in 2013
2004	Dave Whitcombe	1979–1992	Quit the PDC in 2007.
2004	Peter Wright	1995–2004
2004	George Walls	2003	Quit the PDC in 2007
2004	Ed de Behnke	2004	Quit the PDC in 2017
2005	Mark Frost	2004
2005	Steve Gittins	1985–1990	Quit the PDC in 2005
2005	Tomas Seyler	1998–2004
2005	Russell Stewart	1983–2005	Quit the PDC in 2016
2005	Alan Tabern	2004
2006	Raymond van Barneveld	1987–2006
2006	David DePriest	2006	Quit the PDC in 2017
2006	John Kuczynski	2000–2005	Quit the PDC in 2012
2006	Bill Davis	2001–2004	Quit the PDC in 2012
2006	Brad Wethington	1998	Quit the PDC in 2015
2006	Jann Hoffmann	1989–2004	Quit the PDC in 2016
2006	Peter Locke	1983–1992	Quit the PDC in 2006
2006	Charles Losper	2003–2006	Quit the PDC in 2015
2006	Shane O'Connor	2006
2006	Brian Cyr	1998–2006	Quit the PDC in 2008 to rejoin BDO in 2011
2006	Michael Rosenauer	1991–2006	Quit the PDC in 2016 to rejoin BDO in 2017
2006	Kirk Shepherd	2003–2006
2007	Jamie Caven	1992–2007
2007	Michael van Gerwen	2003–2007
2007	Stuart Holden	1983	Quit the PDC in 2015
2007	Mervyn King	1994–2007
2007	Jelle Klaasen	2003–2007
2007	Dave Ladley	1992–2005
2007	Per Laursen	1987–2007
2007	Carlos Rodriguez	2006–2007
2007	Mensur Suljović	1999–2005
2007	Vincent van der Voort	2001–2007
2007	Rory Orvis	1998–2007	Quit the PDC in 2013
2007	Dan Olson	1990–2007	Quit the PDC in 2011
2008	Rizal Barellano	2006	Quit the PDC in 2009
2008	Sammy Cruz	1990–1992	Quit the PDC in 2017
2008	Nándor Bezzeg	2000–2008
2008	Dietmar Burger	2002–2007
2008	Marko Kantele	1996–2008
2008	Ken MacNeil	2005–2008
2008	Miloslav Navrátil	2005–2007	Quit the PDC in 2008
2008	Aodhagan O'Neill	2003–2008	Quit the PDC in 2012
2008	Ashfaque Sayed	2005–2006	Quit the PDC in 2015
2008	Bob Sinnaeve	1980–1992	Quit the PDC in 2010 to rejoin BDO in 2010
2008	Robert Thornton	2002–2008
2009	Gary Anderson	2000–2009
2009	Magnus Caris	1987–2009
2009	Andy Fordham	1994–2009	Quit the PDC in 2011 to rejoin the BDO in 2013
2009	Jarkko Komula	1998–2009	Quit the PDC in 2015
2009	Mark Webster	2006–2009
2010	Antonio Alcinas	2005–2009
2010	Stacy Bromberg	1995–2010	Quit the PDC in 2012. Died in 2017
2010	Steve Farmer	2004–2010	Quit the PDC in 2013
2010	Mareno Michels	2004–2010
2010	Krzysztof Ratajski	2007–2010
2010	Tricia Wright	2000–2010	Joined the PDC in 2005 Still plays in the BDO since 2013
2010	Ian White	2005–2010
2011	Dave Chisnall	2004–2011
2011	Brian Woods	2003–2011
2011	Kurt van de Rijck	2002–2011	Quit the PDC in 2014 to rejoin BDO in 2014
2012	Tony West	2002–2012	Quit the PDC in 2016
2012	Steve West	2004–2012
2012	Stuart Kellett	2006–2012
2012	Ted Hankey	1994–2012	Quit the PDC in 2013 to rejoin the BDO in 2014
2012	Dean Winstanley	2008–2012	Quit the PDC in 2016 but rejoined them in 2018
2012	Les Wallace	1995–2003	Quit the PDC in 2013
2013	Wayne Weening	1988–2012	Quit the PDC in 2015
2014	Christian Kist	2009–2014
2014	Stephen Bunting	2002–2014
2015	Alan Norris	2006–2015
2015	James Wilson	2007–2015
2015	Jan Dekker	2008–2015
2016	Jeffrey de Graaf	2010–2016
2017	Madars Razma	2009–2017
2017	Jimmy Hendriks	2010–2017
2017	Krzysztof Ratajski	2007–2017
2018	Cameron Menzies	2006–2018
2018	Danny Noppert	2012–2018
2018	Davy Van Baelen	2016–2018
2018	Darryl Fitton	2002–2018	Quit the PDC in 2018
2018	Dennis Nilsson	2006–2018
2018	Tony O'Shea	1995–2018	Quit the PDC in 2018
2018	Martin Atkins	2002–2018	Quit the PDC in 2018
2018	Jamie Hughes	2013–2018
2018	Ryan Joyce	2007–2018
2018	Eddy Sims	2005–2018
2019	Geert De Vos	2004–2019
2019	Andy Baetens	2010–2019
2019	Darius Labanauskas	2006–2019
2019	Glen Durrant	2004–2019
2019	Mark McGeeney	2010–2019
2019	Scott Waites	2004–2019
2019	Jim Williams	2012–2019
2019	Daniel Day	2016–2019
2019	Kyle McKinstry	2014–2019
2019	Conan Whitehead	2016–2019
2019	Dean Reynolds	2015–2019
2019	Scott Baker	2016–2019

BDO darts players who joined the PDC before returning

Year of transfer	Player	Time with BDO	Time with PDC	Notes
2004	Steve Brown	1976–1991	1993–2004
2007	Steve Alker	1998–2005	2005–2007
2007	Steve Coote	1994–2004	2004–2007
2007	Mark Salmon	1994–2005	2005–2006	Quit the BDO in 2017
2008	Peter Evison	1986–1993	1993–2008	Was one of the 16 WDC defectors. Quit in 2018.
2009	Deta Hedman	1990–1997	2002–2005
2009	Anton Pein	2003–2007	2007–2009
2010	Remco van Eijden	2004–2008	2008–2010
2010	Chris Loudon	1998–2009	2009–2010	Quit the BDO in 2018 rejoined the PDC in 2018.
2010	Jan van der Rassel	2002–2003	2004–2009	Quit the PDC in 2010.
2011	Anastasia Dobromyslova	2004–2008	2008–2011
2012	Tony Eccles	2002–2007	2007–2011	Quit the PDC in 2011 rejoined the BDO in 2012. Quit in 2014.
2013	Andy Fordham	1990–2008	2009–2011	Rejoined the BDO in 2013.
2014	Co Stompé	1994–2008	2008–2013	Rejoined the PDC in 2018.
2014	Ted Hankey	1995–2012	2012–2014	Rejoined the BDO in 2014.
2014	Jeff Smith	2008–2011	2011–2013	Rejoined the PDC in 2018.

PDC darts players who joined the BDO before returning

Year of transfer	Player	Time with PDC	Time with BDO	Ref
2009	Simon Whitlock	2002–2003	2004–2009	^[1]
2011	John Henderson	2002–2003	2004–2011	^[2]
2012	Toon Greebe	2008–2010	2006–2008, 2010–2012
2015	Robbie Green	2003–2007	2008–2015	^[3]
2018	Jeff Smith	2011–2013	2002–2011, 2014–2017
2020	Andy Hamilton	2004–2018	2018–2020
2020	Wes Newton	2002–2018	2018–2020

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References

↑ "Simon Whitlocks World Championship Results". Darts database. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
↑ "John Henderson BDO results". Darts Database. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
↑ "Robbie Green BDO results". Darts Database. Retrieved 24 January 2017.

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[1] "Simon Whitlocks World Championship Results". Darts database. Retrieved 25 October 2016.

[2] "John Henderson BDO results". Darts Database. Retrieved 25 October 2016.

[3] "Robbie Green BDO results". Darts Database. Retrieved 24 January 2017.

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Organisations	British Darts Organisation World Darts Federation Professional Darts Corporation
See also	Split in darts List of darts players who have switched organisation Darts world rankings PDC World Professional Darts Championship BDO PDC WDF Bullseye One Hundred and Eighty