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Casual darts fans may not be familiar with the difference between the Professional Darts Corporation and British Darts Organisation. The PDC is the professional side of the game, whereas the BDO is a semi-professional alternative system for players after the PDC established its dominance following a bitter dispute between the boards in decades gone by.
While the vast majority of the world's best players reside in the more celebrated PDC, there are still some world-class players in the BDO and we will look at the best of them here. Some of the best to miss out on this list include Mario Vandenbogaerde, Willem Mandigers, Paul Hogan and Thibault Tricole, who almost became the first-ever professional darts player from France.
#5 Dave Parletti
London's Dave Parletti is a very talented player who has struggled to bring his best game to the stage. In his two BDO World Championships appearances, Parletti has been knocked out in the first round, first by Krzysztof Kciuk in 2019 and then Chris Landman in 2020. His best performance in a major tournament was reaching the last sixteen in the 2018 BDO World Masters, but Parletti would say he is most proud of appearing in the 2019 PDC Grand Slam of Darts.
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Getting to play Gary Anderson was a dream come true for the 36-year-old despite a 5-1 defeat followed up by another loss to Darren Webster 5-2. His average slowly decreased and even further in his third game, although it was in a winning cause as Parletti defeated Ireland's World Cup finalist William O'Connor 5-2.
To reach the next level, Parletti must get accustomed to the big stages and television cameras and until then, he only reaches fifth in this list.
#4 Scott Mitchell
This is an unusual one as the well-known former BDO World Champion is effectively a jack of all trades this year. He missed out on a tour card but has topped the PDC Challenge Tour after the early events, which means he is always first in line to replace the PDC professionals should one drop out each weekend for the floor events.
And given there are 128 at every event and some bigger players miss events to lighten the workload, Mitchell will feature at every event he wants. This could mean he may appear sporadically at BDO events and he has already dropped to seventeenth but his quality is clear.
While the PDC bar tour card holders from taking part in televised tournaments outside the PDC system, Mitchell isn't a tour card holder, so for one year only he could take part in the PDC, all the BDO events and World Darts Federation competitions alike. While he could qualify for the PDC World Championship as the Challenge Tour No.1 at the end of the year, Mitchell is still a BDO player until then and one of the very best they have to offer.
#3 Wayne Warren
One of the best success stories across all sports this year so far, Wayne Warren of Wales is a world-class thrower and very easy to watch. After his incredible success at the World Championships winning the title as fifth seed, Warren will look to strengthen his reputation and become the BDO No.1 ahead of his title defence.
After winning the championships, Wayne, known as 'Yank', was set to participate at Q-School to attempt to gain a professional tour card but changed his mind and pulled out, meaning he will defend his world title next January and feature at the Grand Slam of Darts in 2020 as the BDO World Champion. Warren's main aim will be to put right his nightmare at the Grand Slam in 2019, where he was battered by his PDC adversaries and could barely compete due to a bad injury.
#2 Richard Veenstra
Dynamic Dutchman Richard Veenstra is a very strange player with a distinct style and unusual darts, yet he is one of the very best that the BDO have to offer. At his best, Veenstra can record huge averages and his scoring and finishing are scarcely believable, but at his worst he is extremely substandard, explaining the lack of fulfilment when it comes to dominating the BDO.
Inconsistency is Richard Veenstra's biggest weakness and for every incredible performance the man from Holland puts in, 'Flyers' errs into the poorer quality side of his game at times. Veenstra attempted to make the switch to the PDC but fell short of the top seven on the Q-School order of merit having made a slow start and inconsistency may prove a barrier to him becoming a professional and fulfilling his potential in future.
#1 Jim Williams
Like Veenstra, Jim Williams was a heavy favourite to claim a tour card and while many of his BDO subordinates succeeded to accomplish this task, the more abled Jim Williams will have to wait to take to the PDC.
'The Quiff' will set his main task now to winning the BDO World Championship having missed out in 2020 to veteran countryman Wayne Warren as well as putting in a good performance at the PDC Grand Slam, where the PDC and BDO both feature in the only tournament of it's kind.
He has been hailed by much of the darting world as a hugely impressive young player, with praise coming strong from friend and three-time BDO World Champion Glen Durrant, now in the PDC, Michael van Gerwen and Adrian Lewis, who called Williams 'the best player [in the BDO] without a shadow of a doubt'. Worldwide darting success seems to be only a matter of time for Jim, who is slowly developing into a truly world-class competitor.
