DARTS AND THE ‘MEDIA’

Comment: By Phil Lanning.

THE Luke Littler effect has undoubtedly changed the landscape of darts.

As many have stated over the past ten months, there has never been so many eyes on the sport.

In fact, world champion Luke Humphries, Peter Wright, Nathan Aspinall and Rob Cross have all gone on record to say that the incredible focus on Littler is fantastic for the sport for bringing in more sponsors and fans.

However, over the past week there have been alarming statements over the media interest. Some have called for papers to be banned and one suggested that the media are always full of (poo emoji).

I believe I’m in a strong position to comment. My father Dave Lanning championed the sport and was the first person to put darts regularly on TV as a commentator in 1972, then the Indoor League and World of Sport before being the first commentator on Sky Sports.

He was also the journalist that put darts on the map in the 1970s and 1980s with massive publicity in The Sun newspaper; the classic bust-ups between Eric Bristow, Jocky Wilson, Bobby George, John Lowe and Alan Evans. That made those players household names and built the foundation which the sport has gone on to flourish so wonderfully under Barry Hearn, Eddie Hearn and Matt Porter.

That was preceded by a split away from the BDO, caused by unrest from the top players because the sport had slipped off the radar; not enough tournaments, not on TV enough, not in the papers and a lack of sponsorship and prize money as a result. 

Bristow and Wilson’s managers Dick Allix and Tommy Cox helped generate so much of that initial newspaper coverage with my father at The Sun. It was Allix and Cox who then orchestrated – with 14 top players – the formation of the WDC which became the PDC as we now know it.

In the early days of the WDC, they were all so happy with newspaper coverage, the cuttings were pinned up on the wall of the media room at the Circus Tavern, I saw that with my own eyes.

The players who were part of the split all realised the importance of the papers and wider media. The likes of Phil Taylor, Dennis Priestley, Rod Harrington, Bob Anderson, Keith Deller, Alan Warriner, Jamie Harvey, Bristow and Wilson all had the greatest respect for my father and what he always brought to the sport.

I love darts and I’ve been involved in it all my life, over a 45-year period, more than any other current player.

I began working on darts in late 1999. I reported for the sport at the first-ever Premier League night in Stoke in 2005 when there were just 600 people there. I’ve been at events with less than that in the early days. 

But I nagged Editors for regular national newspaper coverage on the sport because of how much drama and controversy it can generate as a spectacle. 

I’m immensely proud of how far it has come and I greatly admire what the Hearn family and Porter have gone on to create with their excellent media team, led by the outstanding Dave Allen. 

I’m approaching working on my 25th successive World Championship for a national paper. In all that time, I’ve rarely heard the legendary players aforementioned complain too much about newspapers. There might have been a story they didn’t like now and again, but they knew how important paper coverage was to the prosperity of the game.

Taylor had to single-handedly do 99 per cent of the publicity for most of his career to help build the sport. For all his oche success, his marketing and PR skills were also world class. He was the master of his art and rarely, if ever, complained. The Power knew the power of publicity.

Fast forward to 2024 and the sport is booming. But the ‘media’ is now being openly and regularly criticised by the players.

However it is important to dissect what ‘media’ actually means nowadays and not just used in a sweeping statement. On ITV recently Jacqui Oatley delivered an excellent piece on the importance of explaining the different types of ‘media’ that publicise the sport.

There are the broadcasters. But focusing on the written word ‘media’; There are newspapers in print, newspapers online, darts sites online and then just blatant click bait online sites.

In darts there are three regular national newspaper journalists who report on the sport all year round for The Sun, Mirror, Star and Express. I am one of those journalists. All three of us are experienced quotes-based journalists and have a long-standing and respected relationship with the PDC. We go to most of the events, don’t make up stories, we tell it as the player has reacted and quoted.

We have nurtured a good relationship and respect with the players over a long period of time.

The online versions of newspapers have to compete with the marketplace on social media, therefore the headlines are a bit more sensational, but the stories remain true and the quotes are word-for-word from the players.

There are also a plethora of darts sites on social media which also need to push more eye-catching headlines. At times, some aim stir it up more by using the popcorn emoji in an attempt to generate clicks, mostly from press conference video interviews.

Lastly, since the turn of the year, there has been an influx of really awful click bait online sites which pedal stories with absolutely no fact whatsoever. They are not run by journalists and they don’t attend events or speak to the players.

Ultimately, the sport has never had a bigger focus on it than ever before.

As the current top players have suggested, that means more eyes on it and more sponsors. Which they are all very happy about.

Darts, like most sports, is one big eco system. Characters = publicity/‘media’ coverage = TV viewers = sponsors = prize money.

The warning is that without publicity, that eco system will begin to fail and the sport would eventually lose its identity and popularity. Darts needs characters and needs controversy just as much now as it did in the early days of Bristow and Wilson.

OK, there might be a story now and again that is headlined and presented in a more sensational way than perhaps a player or the purists might like. But in return, the players are now earning life-changing prize money as a result of that publicity.

In total contrast, remember that Taylor and Priestley were sharing prize money in the mid-1990s to survive when the WDC was formed and were delighted with the newspaper and TV coverage and sponsors that it generated.

Nowadays, also as a result of the more increased clamour for the sport, the purists will also benefit by getting to see more of it live on TV.

But the record does need to be put straight on some of the direct criticism of the ‘media’. 

Recently, there were claims that Luke Humphries has been overshadowed by Luke Littler in the ‘media’. Yet that is factually not true in the sports sections of newspapers. Even Humphries himself denied that.

The Sun, Mirror, Star and Express newspapers – written by the journalists who work every day of the year on the sport – have not printed a story that isn’t true or isn’t based on a direct quote from a player, ex-player or pundit.

As I stated before, there can be the odd rogue story from a journalist who doesn’t know the sport at all in a news section or an online version of a paper that doesn’t usually cover the sport. Like any profession, there’s always a maverick.

However, on the flip side, there are also a huge amount of stories that don’t make the papers thanks to discretion being used by the regular journalists. There is also an increasing danger of biased darts online reporting and that’s not a newspaper problem either.

Ironically, in some cases it’s the online sites wanting clicks by pedalling the interviews claiming that click bait stories or national newspapers are bad for the sport. The lack of self-awareness is quite astonishing. 

Therefore it’s unfair to make sweeping statements about all ‘media’.

Gerwyn Price claimed last weekend the “media are always full of (poo emoji)” based on The Mirror’s story online suggesting he might be ready to retire. 

That story was from Dennis Priestley quotes saying that: “Given Gerwyn Price’s previous retirement hints, the World Championships could quite possibly be his last in darts”. 

That’s not the media saying it, it’s a direct quote from a legend of the sport Priestley sent out to the media for use by online betting firm OLBG. That’s where the true story has originated, The Mirror haven’t made it up.

This growing narrative and sweeping statement that the media is bad is incorrect and hugely detrimental to the sport.

It also needs to be understood that not all ‘media’ is the same thing. 

Darts also needs newspaper coverage to continue its steep climb of viewing figures on TV and therefore ticket sales, sponsorship and huge money that makes the players millionaires. 

The sport currently has Humphries who is, for me, the greatest ambassador it has had since Taylor in his pomp. Newspapers and TV coverage are the key areas which crucially take darts to a new audience and the potential of new fans and sponsors. 

As former World No.1 Alan Warriner-Little said on ITV recently : “In any sport, it’s all about the media attention. Everybody benefits from that.”

The sport, and the people profiting from it, should be very careful of biting the hand that helps feeds it.