THE Professional Darts Corporation have released the following statement following the recent announcement of a League of Legends.
The League of Legends was discussed at the PDC's monthly Board meeting in Birmingham on March 27 and subsequently with representatives of the Board of the PDPA.
Whilst we obviously want every dart player to maximise his earnings from the sport, it is essential that opportunities for darts on television are managed and controlled in a professional and collective manner.
When the original members of the, now, PDC broke away from the BDO they did so because of their dissatisfaction with how darts was being promoted and the lack of commercial opportunities available to darts players.
This is certainly not the case now with the expanded PDC circuit set to hit 50 tournaments and £5 million prize money in 2009. Our success has been built on maximising the value of darts on TV and to sponsors by guaranteeing our players exclusively to PDC events and this is a level of control and ownership which we will not relinquish.
The PDC players contract prohibits individual players or groups of players appearing in any competitive televised darts event not under the control of the PDC.
This contract protects the business of the PDC and the membership of the PDPA and we will not grant any exception to this rule.
This is the unanimous view of both the Board of the PDC and the Board of the PDPA.
Of the announced players on the Legends Tour, only Bob Anderson has a current contract with the PDC. Notwithstanding the fact that he has signed a legally enforceable two year contract, we have agreed with Bob to tear up this contract and let him act as a free agent.
What we cannot, and will not do, is allow any player to benefit from the PDC events whilst not following the rules that apply to all players, as that would create a precedent detrimental to both the PDC and the membership of the PDPA.
We wish all darts players every success at whatever level they participate, but we insist that the benefits of participating in PDC events mean that the PDC and the PDPA rules must be adhered to.