Darts chief Barry Hearn admits Premier League due ‘a refresh’ – but Luke Littler and Co will have to wait for new format

DARTS supremo Barry Hearn has revealed Premier League darts could be due “a refresh” – but admits it’s probably at least a year away. The Matchroom Sport President, 78, will be in Blackpool on Tuesday amid the World Matchplay for a top level board meeting with the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and the weekly darts roadshow will be high on the agenda. Barry Hearn has admitted Premier League darts could be worth ‘a refresh’ Credit: Getty Luke Littler, who has criticised the format, is in action at the World Matchplay this week Credit: Shutterstock Editorial World champion Luke Littler and fellow star Gerwyn Price have been among those to criticise the current format, which sees the same eight players face off in a weekly tournament for 16 consecutive weeks before a grand final. Fans have also complained the tournament is stale, while some players have hit out at the gruelling travel. Sign up for the Sport newsletter Thank you! Events are now played in eight countries after Belgium was added to the schedule. And Hearn admits change could be coming, although not immediately. He told SunSport: “We look at the format every year. “The problem is, a maximum of five per cent are hardcore die hard fans. 95 per cent of them just turn up for a night out. “Last year in the Premier League we sold out 99.28% of tickets, which is unthinkable. “There is that good old phrase, ‘If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it’. Most read in Sport BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK List of all-time Darts World Champions BELOW is a list of darts world champions by year. The list does not include winners from the pre-Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) era or BDO world champions. That means Raymond van Barneveld, for example, is only listed once – Barney also won four BDO titles – and none of Eric Bristow’s five BDO titles are included. 1994 – Dennis Priestley 1995 – Phil Taylor 1996 – Phil Taylor (2) 1997 – Phil Taylor (3) 1998 – Phil Taylor (4) 1999 – Phil Taylor (5) 2000 – Phil Taylor (6) 2001 – Phil Taylor (7) 2002 – Phil Taylor (8) 2003 – John Part 2004 – Phil Taylor (9) 2005 – Phil Taylor (10) 2006 – Phil Taylor (11) 2007 – Raymond van Barneveld 2008 – John Part (2) 2009 – Phil Taylor (12) 2010 – Phil Taylor (13) 2011 – Adrian Lewis 2012 – Adrian Lewis (2) 2013 – Phil Taylor (14) 2014 – Michael van Gerwen 2015 – Gary Anderson 2016 – Gary Anderson (2) 2017 – Michael van Gerwen (2) 2018 – Rob Cross 2019 – Michael van Gerwen (3) 2020 – Peter Wright 2021 – Gerwyn Price 2022 – Peter Wright (2) 2023 – Michael Smith 2024 – Luke Humphries 2025 – Luke Littler 2026 – Luke Littler (2) Most World Titles 14 – Phil Taylor 3 – Michael van Gerwen 2 – John Part, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson, Peter Wright, Luke Littler 1 – Dennis Priestley, Raymond van Barneveld, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Luke Humphries “But successful management teams, and I think we’ve got it at the PDC, actually plan for the future. “It’s something that will be discussed at our board meeting [Tuesday] in Blackpool. “My gut feeling is at least one more year with the same format, then we’ll have to see. “It’s something that we constantly look at to keep it fresh. “And it’s probably – my gut feeling again – reaching that stage where we might need to refresh it.” Hearn, speaking at non-League Brentwood Town after a new five-year sponsorship deal was announced, was keen to press home that the sport as a whole is in great health. He added: “When your ticket sales are of such enormous value… that’s a huge part of the income of darts, is the actual ticket sales. “[The sport] is in a really good place. Gerwyn Price has been critical of the Premier League darts format Credit: Alamy Barry Hearn will discuss the format at a PDC board meeting Credit: Getty “What I’m seeing now is amazing. The players are earning too much money. “That’s proven by the fact that all of a sudden these players are saying, ‘I’ll skip that, I’ll skip that, I’ll skip that’. “And it’s never happened before because everyone’s been so hungry to earn. “The players used to say, ‘we want more tournaments’. “But now the prize money’s gone way up – and quite rightly so. “They’re now doing what golfers do, they’re working to a schedule. “Luke Littler says, ‘I don’t want to go to Australia or New Zealand this year. I’ll have a year off because I want to have a holiday, because I want to bounce and be ready’. “I think that’s a huge compliment to them. “Yes [that makes it a challenge] but that’s what we’re there for, to try and solve problems. “Success can create problems as much as failure.” Comment now