BARNEY: HEARN PROMISED £1M PRIZE 20 YEARS AGO

RAYMOND VAN BARNEVELD says darts’ march towards a £1million world champion began two decades ago with a bold prediction from Barry Hearn.

‘Barney’ revealed Hearn promised during their first talks about his switch from the BDO that prize money would one day hit seven figures.

World No35 Van Barneveld claimed a remarkable FIVE world titles between 1998 and 2007 and won his last major championship at the 2014 Premier League.

The Dutch legend reckons he and other top stars helped drive the sport into its modern boom.

He told SunSport: “Barry always told me in the first negotiations to get me from the BDO to the PDC.

“I admire the man’s future vision. He said one day a darts player will earn a million pounds. And he kept his promise.

“We all did our part. Phil Taylor, me, Michael van Gerwen, Luke Littler and Luke Humphries at the moment, Gerwyn Price.

“But now it’s going to be insane. You know, a million pounds.

“I think many other sportsmen in different sports are really like: Wow!

“Some people may say, if I win this, I will stop. But no-one will do that because then you get invited into the Premier League. You get invited to the other World Series events.

“So, more money is there for grabs.”

Van Barneveld admits his own era didn’t offer anything close to today’s riches.

The 58-year-old pocketed £100,000 in prize money after beating Phil Taylor in 2007 to claim his sole PDC World crown.

The former postman added: “You have to progress. You can’t stand still. The money wasn’t there at the time.

“I earned £100,000. You have to give something to your management. You’re paying a lot of travel costs and stuff. Then we have the tax man.

“We all know the guy who wins a million, half of that goes to the tax man.

“Of course, I’m proud that we’re getting there and we all have the ability to earn that million.

“I always said I made the path smoother for all the younger players. I’m still on that same road. All the rest are coming behind me.

“Yeah, it’s good. But if I’m in the supermarket, and I need to pay 100 euros, I could say: ‘Oh, excuse me, I’m the one who put darts on the map…’

“They say: ‘Yeah, I was watching, too, but 100 euros, sir.’

“This is the funny way of saying you still need to make money. You can’t rely on things that happened in the past. That money is all gone.

“So you have to keep earning money to have a nice living situation, to pay your bills or your rent or your mortgage.”

Image by Taylor Lanning.