List of darts players who have switched organisation

In 1989 and in the early 1990s, the image of darts collapsed due to just 1 tournament being shown on TV (the Embassy World Championship), compared to 14 TV events in 1988 and as many as 23 TV events in 1983. This led to a 5-year civil war in darts from 1992 to 1997, and left darts with two bodies, the British Darts Organisation and the World Darts Council, before the WDC renamed itself the Professional Darts Corporation due to a Tomlin order on 30 June 1997. The Tomlin order had established the freedom of darts players to ply their trade in the WDC without being banned from all BDO-sanctioned darts.

World Darts Council foundation

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

Player	Time with BDO	Notes
Phil Taylor	1988–1993
Dennis Priestley	1989–1993	Quit the PDC in 2014
Rod Harrington	1987–1993	Quit the PDC in 2007 but got a job as a pundit for the PDC
Alan Warriner	1985–1993	Quit the PDC in 2009 but got a job as a pundit for darts on ITV
Peter Evison	1986–1993	Quit the PDC in 2008 to rejoin the BDO. Quit in 2011
Ritchie Gardner	1984–1993	Quit the PDC in 2006
Jocky Wilson	1979–1993	Quit the WDC in 1995. Died in 2012.
Eric Bristow	1979–1993	Quit the PDC in 2007 but got a job as a pundit for the PDC.
Keith Deller	1983–1993	Quit the PDC in 2007
John Lowe	1975–1993	Quit the PDC in 2007
Bob Anderson	1979–1993	Quit the PDC in 2008
Cliff Lazarenko	1977–1993	Quit the PDC in 2007
Kevin Spiolek	1987–1993	Quit the PDC in 2007
Jamie Harvey	1988–1993	Quit the PDC in 2009 to rejoin BDO in 2011. Quit in 2013
Mike Gregory	1983–1992	Quit the WDC in 1993 to return to the BDO. Quit in 2005
Chris Johns	1986–1993	Quit the WDC in 1993

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
1994	Larry Butler	1992	Quit the PDC in 1997 but rejoined them in 2007. Quit in 2011 and is now with the BDO
1994	Paul Lim	1981–1994	Quit the PDC in 2007
1994	Tony Payne	1985–1994	Quit the PDC in 1994 but rejoined them in 2003
1994	Jerry Umberger	1981–1993	Quit the PDC in 1996
1996	Phil Gilman	1992	Quit the PDC in 1996
1996	Peter Manley	1995–1996	Quit the PDC in 2012
1997	John Part	1991–1997	Also a pundit for Sky Sports Darts
1999	Richie Burnett	1993–1999	Quit the PDC in 2014
1999	Roland Scholten	1992–1999	Quit the PDC in 2014
2000	Dave Askew	1992–1998	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
2001	Ronnie Baxter	1988–2001
2001	Steve Beaton	1990–2001
2001	Andy Jenkins	1994–2001
2001	Kevin Painter	1994–2001
2002	Barrie Bates	2001
2002	Mark Dudbridge	2002
2002	Wayne Jones	1988–2002
2002	John MaGowan	1994–2001	Quit the PDC in 2011
2002	Wayne Mardle	1993–2002	Quit the PDC in 2012 and is now a commentator for Sky Sports Darts
2003	Ray Carver	2002	Quit the PDC in 2009
2003	Ray Farrell	1985–1993	Quit the PDC in 2009
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
2004	Matt Clark	1996–2004
2004	Erik Clarys	1989–2004	Quit the PDC in 2006
2004	Colin Monk	1993–2004	Quit the PDC in 2011
2004	James Wade	2001–2004
2004	Dave Whitcombe	1979–1992	Quit the PDC in 2007.
2004	Peter Wright	1995–2004	Quit the PDC in 2005 but rejoined them in 2008
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 2012
2005	Alan Tabern	2004	Quit the PDC in 2014
2006	Raymond van Barneveld	1990–2006
2006	David DePriest	2006
2006	Jann Hoffmann	1989–2004
2006	Peter Locke	1983–1992	Quit the PDC in 2006
2006	Charles Losper	2003–2006
2006	Shane O'Connor	2006
2006	Michael Rosenauer	1991–2006
2006	Kirk Shepherd	2003–2006
2007	Jamie Caven	1992–2007
2007	Michael van Gerwen	2003–2007
2007	Stuart Holden	1980s
2007	Mervyn King	1995–2007
2007	Jelle Klaasen	2003–2007
2007	Dave Ladley	1992–2005
2007	Per Laursen	1987–2007
2007	Carlos Rodriguez	2006–2007
2007	Mensur Suljovic	1999–2005
2007	Vincent van der Voort	2001–2007
2008	Rizal Barellano	2006
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
2008	Aodhagan O'Neill	2004–2008
2008	Ashfaque Sayed	2005–2006	Quit the PDC in 2008
2008	Bob Sinnaeve	1980–1992
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 2011 to rejoin the BDO
2010	Steve Farmer	2004–2010	Quit the PDC in 2013
2010	Mareno Michels	2004–2010
2010	Krzysztof Ratajski	2007–2010
2010	Tricia Wright	1999–2010
2011	Dave Chisnall	2004–2011
2011	Brian Woods	2003–2011	Quit the PDC in 2015
2011	Kurt van de Rijck	2002–2011
2012	Tony West	2002–2012	Quit the PDC in 2013
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
2012	Les Wallace	1995–2003	Quit the PDC in 2013
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

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
2008	Peter Evison	1986–1993	1993–2008	Was one of the 16 WDC defectors
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
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	2007–2012
2013	Andy Fordham	1990–2008	2009–2011
2014	Co Stompé	1994–2008	2008–2013
2014	Ted Hankey	1995–2012	2012–2014
2014	Jeff Smith	2008–2011	2011–2013

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

References