The lightbulb moment that inspired Barry Hearn to revolutionise darts

dailystar.co.uk:

darts, players and fans, owes a lot to Barry Hearn, the long-time chief of the PDC.The legendary promoter transformed a number of sports from fringe entities into successful industries, helping rid the game of its bloke-down-the-pub image and open it up to a new legion of fans, who pack out arenas across the country and around Europe on a weekly basis, and watch in their millions on TV.Hearn, who stepped down as PDC chairman last year, becoming president as part of his semi-retirement, has recounted his rise from a council estate in Dagenham to his place as one of sport’s preeminent promoters in his soon-to-be realised autobiography, ‘My Life’.Having played a key role in the boom of snooker in the 1980s, Hearn turned to darts over 20 years ago and shook up the Professional Darts Corporation.

His lightbulb moment came when he attended the World Championships, then held at the legendary Circus Tavern venue in Purfleet. “I just saw thousands of me,” he recalled in an interview with GQ Magazine last year. “I looked around and saw blokes having a good time, having a few pints and having a bet.

They were watching world-class sport in a party atmosphere. And they didn’t hate one player and love the other, like an Arsenal fan might dislike a Tottenham fan and vice versa.

I thought it had the ingredients of something unique. I didn’t know another sport with that kind of atmosphere. I was captivated from day one. “I thought, ‘I want to own the bar here.