Barry Hearn has stated that darts will not be going to Saudi Arabia anytime soon unless they meet a single requirement for the game, and it’s not money related, surprisingly…
Earlier this week, the PDC announced a bumper increase in prize money starting in the 2026 season. This comes on the back of a new broadcast deal with Sky Sports worth £125m over the next five years.
See more – PDC agree new 5-year £125m tv deal with Sky Sports
The biggest headline announcement would be that the 2026 World Darts Championship winner will receive £1,000,000 in prize money, double the amount for the 2025 tournament won by Luke Littler.
Darts just continues to grow and increase in popularity as more fans AND more money comes into the game.
Something that has been cause of speculation for some time now is if we’ll see darts move to Saudi Arabia where they are already putting huge sums of money into snooker and boxing – both in partnership with Matchroom.
Last year, Barry Hearn, President of the PDC hinted that he was weighing up the option of moving the World Darts Championship to Saudi Arabia, however, those talks seem to have cooled and Hearn has revealed a key reason why.
SEE MORE ON DECENT DARTS
👉 Barry Hearn believes Luke Littler will be the GREATEST darts player ever
👉 Chris Dobey reveals his ‘MARATHON’ warm-up routine before darts practice
Barry Hearn Says Darts Won’t Be Going to Saudi Arabia Until They Meet a Single Requirement
Barry Hearn is known as an incredibly shrewd businessman who is driven by money. Therefore, it’s easy to assume he’d cash in on darts popularity combined with Saudi Arabia pumping money into sporting events.
Speaking to talkSPORT darts however, Hearn has revealed he’s turned down tournaments in Saudi Arabia for the moment for a very specific reason.
He said:
“I had the Saudi’s ask me the other week ‘can we have the darts please?’.
“I said, can we have alcohol?
“They said no.
“I said then you can’t have darts.
“That is the first time anyone from Saudi Arabia has been told the word no.”
See his full interview with Jeff Stelling and Ally McCoist below:
It’s probably just a matter of time before we see darts being played in Saudi, however, without the ‘party atmosphere’ it’s difficult to see how the game will be successful.
While darts is taken much more seriously as a professional sport these days, a big component is still the crowd and atmosphere at the big tournaments and with no alcohol, it may not work…
READ NEXT
➡️ 7 most UNDERRATED darts players of all time [ranked]
➡️ Michael Smith stat shows WORRYING form as he continues to fall down the rankings
If not already, make sure to follow Decent Darts on X or Facebook where we bring you daily darts content including news, quotes and quizzes that you won’t find on the site.