How Else Will Darts Push Its Grand Expansion in 2027?

In the run-up to 2020 and for the first few years after, PDC darts was already enjoying greater audiences than ever before. The World Darts Championship cemented itself as one of the biggest sports tournaments of the Christmas to New Year window, and those who found themselves hooked on that showpiece could dive into other majors.

PDC darts was doing very well, but it stepped up yet another gear in 2024. Funnily enough, it was because of the runner-up to Luke Humphries, who’d go on to become a sports star overnight. Still riding that hype and the rise of several new elite-tier players, the PDC is looking to bring darts to an even wider audience.

 

Riding the Wave of Momentum

 

Prior to 2024, the PDC was already reliably getting viewership figures in the millions for the World Darts Championship, but the 2024 final coaxed in 4.8 million people. It was a colossus of an event just on the other side of the New Year, ushering in a new level of sponsorship agreements for the PDC and its many competitions.

The following year, fans were met with another epic final that finally paid off the promise of 2024’s runner-up. So, in 2026, Matchroom and the PDC stepped up their game. They aimed to take on two big-money sports markets: Saudi Arabia and the USA. Stars took to the oche over two nights in Madison Square Garden and debuted in Saudi.

Now, there are new plans for a shake-up to the schedule for 2027, complete with a major new tournament on the tour. The inaugural European Open will offer £750,000 in prize money, hosting the finest players from across the continent at the Salzburgarena in Austria. Facilitating an all-action occasion, there’ll be eight boards active at once.

On top of the new European Open, there’ll also be the PDC’s first European Tour event held in France. Both new additions to the PDC calendar will help to grow the sport across the continent and give another major reason to tune in beyond the World Darts Championship – especially with the reigning champion hunting a perfect season.

 

Lots of Room for Further Growth

 

Expanding the calendar and putting on exhibition showings in countries like Saudi Arabia and the USA is a straightforward approach to growing the sport. The next steps would be to build an even greater and more immersive presence beyond live darts and into entertainment.

One arena that’s long been open to branded and officially licensed collaborations is online gaming. Among the hundreds of bingo slot games, you’ll find sports titles like The Champions, officially licensed slots like The Walking Dead Cash Collect, and branded sports experiences like LaLiga Grand Chance.

It’s not difficult to envision a new, all-in PDC darts game that leans on the star power of its best players and infuses some form of darts-themed feature or two. A place among these slots would give darts a strong, evergreen presence, but there’s also an even more mainstream arena to break into.

That arena is sports docu-series. Matchroom already has one on Netflix, and the massive platform has put on a darts game show. Next would be a Drive to Survive-style docu-series that gives fans a fly-on-the-wall look at the sport’s biggest stars over the course of a tour. Here, the charismatic stars gain huge fan bases, regardless of their successes at the oche.

Matchroom and the PDC are taking this grand opportunity to grow darts further than ever before. Better still, there’s plenty of room to continue to expand even with the two new European dates.