Darts v Snooker.

tayto lover

I was once an avid snooker watcher but now I find the darts far more exciting and glitzy. Far better atmosphere too in my opinion.

I always wondered why the crowd are not allowed shout support for the snooker players too. Why would shouting support put them off. It doesn't worry the darts players or any other sports players?

Anyway which of the two sports is better for the t.v. viewer? Darts for me.

Dan man

I love both but the darts win out for me....it's amongst some of my favourite television viewing, especially the PDC World Champs at Christmas-time.

The_Kew_Tour

I remember about 10 years ago 1st prize for the World Champion in PDC was around 40k now its 250k.

That is some jump.

Darts has become hugely popular in past 10 years

DEFTLEFTHAND

Sky sports got firmly behind the PDC in the 2000s, Barry Hearn also deserves credit for his promotion of the game.

The BDO to their credit have stuck out over the years since the split and continue to run a massive organisation of localised dart leagues and competitions throughout the UK and further afield, as well as their big stage professional tournaments that still draw viewing figures on BBC and Eurosport. Their World Championship at Lakeside next month sees a £100,000 cheque for the winner.

I know that Hearn is keen to buy out the BDO and merge the two organisations, it may happen one day but I'd imagine there's still a lot of bad blood between some the older BDO board members and the PDC.

cack_handed

Hearn tried it with the snooker already of course, with that power snooker format where players wore casual gear in what looked like a shopping mall and a couple of hundred drunken idiots sang idiotic football chants as they played. The players all said they loved it but in reality they hated it and it won't catch on.
Remain a snooker fan despite all the games obvious problems, but can see the appeal of darts. Are the people who go to watch darts, drink beer and shout all the time real darts fans though or just out to get hammered?

tayto lover

cack_handed wrote: »

Hearn tried it with the snooker already of course, with that power snooker format where players wore casual gear in what looked like a shopping mall and a couple of hundred drunken idiots sang idiotic football chants as they played. The players all said they loved it but in reality they hated it and it won't catch on.
Remain a snooker fan despite all the games obvious problems, but can see the appeal of darts. Are the people who go to watch darts, drink beer and shout all the time real darts fans though or just out to get hammered?

There were a lot of idiots at the recent World Championship. Some of them were more interested in chanting football stuff than watching the darts.

grey_so_what

tayto lover wrote: »

There were a lot of idiots at the recent World Championship. Some of them were more interested in chanting football stuff than watching the darts.

Drove me mad watching it.

Especially when they turned their backs to the Board while the players were throwing....:mad:

Mugser

tayto lover wrote: »

I was once an avid snooker watcher but now I find the darts far more exciting and glitzy. Far better atmosphere too in my opinion.

I always wondered why the crowd are not allowed shout support for the snooker players too. Why would shouting support put them off. It doesn't worry the darts players or any other sports players?

Anyway which of the two sports is better for the t.v. viewer? Darts for me.

It's fairly simple; every time a darts player steps up they have pretty much the same shot to make: get the dart into a particular spot on the board... whereas no 2 snooker shots are alike and therefore a greater level of concentration is required.

wnolan1992

Snooker for me. There's nothing more entertaining than 30 minutes of safety shots back and forth, watching them battling with the cue ball, each knowing that one misplaced shot will lose them the frame. And when a good player gets on a run, gliding the balls around the table effortlessly... it's just mesmerising.

The crowds have started to irritate me more and more as years go by. Maybe I'm just noticing it more than I did before, but the amount of random shouting seems to be on the increase. I watched a match once where the crowd were clapping nearly every shot, completely ruined it for me. Part of what I love about it is the tension. Would hate to see it go down the darts route.

Mugser

wnolan1992 wrote: »

I watched a match once where the crowd were clapping nearly every shot, .

Sounds like World Snooker on the PS3:P:P

DEFTLEFTHAND

Snooker is protected by the 'World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association' It will never go down the road of PDC Darts for their Majors and World Championship at the Crucible.

Outside of their running Barry Hearn has offered more tournaments in the traditional 'off season', sure there's gimmicks like the shot clock tournaments but it does give the touring pros a chance to earn more money. Remember the sport is nowhere near as lucrative as it once was. No big tv ratings outside of the Majors (premier league snooker isn't setting the world alight on Sky) and sponsorship has struggled since tobacco companies were banned. Darts has risen in the last 10 years and snooker has fallen.

The_Kew_Tour

Just taking the World Championships in both PDC and Snooker Prize Money

PDC
winner £250,000
Runner Up £100,000
Semi Finalists £50,000

Snooker
winner £250,000
Runner up £125,000
Semi Finalists £52,000

Very little difference there which I think would have been hard to believe say 10-15 years ago.

I dont think anyone would question that snooker requires more skill and to see where both sports lie Snooker is going downhill, same cant be said for Darts.

tayto lover

I think the match fixing and corruption have hit snooker very hard.
It put a lot of people off watching it as they didn't know when the game was being played in a genuine fashion or was fixed.
Darts has not had any bad publicity in this regard .....yet.