WDF — World Darts Federation

What is the WDF?

The World Darts Federation is the world body of national darts associations. It describes itself as “a non-political, non-racial and non-profit making organization”, states that it was established in 1976, and says membership is open to the official national organising body for darts in a country.^[1] It is incorporated in the United States, uses English as its official language and the US dollar as its official currency.^[1]

Darts is institutionally split, and the split is the first thing a reader needs. The WDF sits on the national-federation side: member associations, continental cups, a ranking list and a world championship. The Professional Darts Corporation, a private promoter founded in January 1992 as the World Darts Council by sixteen players who left the British Darts Organisation, sits on the commercial professional side and runs its own circuit and its own world championship.^[5] This page describes the arrangement and does not adjudicate which title is the more significant.

What does the WDF govern or do?

The federation's stated aims are to promote darts among and between its member bodies and to work towards international recognition of the sport.^[1] Its concrete functions are membership administration, a competition calendar of sanctioned events, a ranking system, and anti-doping: the WDF states that it has signed the World Anti-Doping Code and works with WADA on clean-sport programmes.^[1]

The ranking system is the federation's main continuous instrument. Players accumulate points from their best ten tournament results over a rolling twelve-month period, with sanctioned events graded Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze and points allocated in proportion to that grade.^[2] Because ranking points come only from WDF-sanctioned events, players competing on the PDC circuit are excluded from the WDF list, so the two bodies maintain entirely separate orders of merit — a case discussed generally under world ranking and reflected in the site's world no. 1 entry.^[2] [5]

The federation holds an annual General Meeting alongside its Cup events and maintains committees including athlete representation.^[1]

When was the WDF founded and where is it based?

The WDF gives 1976 as its founding year, and the Union of International Associations yearbook entry for the federation also records 1976.^[1] [3] A widely used secondary reference instead gives 1974 and fourteen founding nations.^[2] This page follows the federation's own date and the UIA entry and flags the divergence; it could not establish the founding city from any retrieved source.

The federation is incorporated in the United States and administered from there.^[1] A secondary source places its address in Downey, California; the WDF's own organisation page retrieved for this entry does not state a street address, so the location is carried on secondary sourcing only.^[2]

Neither of the federation's dates should be confused with the founding of a former member. The British Darts Organisation was established on 7 January 1973 by Olly Croft as the governing body for darts in Britain, with 66 member counties, and was a separate organisation throughout.^[6]

How is the WDF recognised?

The clearest instrument is a court settlement rather than a charter. The dispute between the British Darts Organisation and the breakaway World Darts Council was settled by a Tomlin order in 1997 under which, in the terms of that settlement, the PDC accepted and recognised the World Darts Federation as the governing body for darts worldwide and the BDO as the governing body for darts in the United Kingdom.^[5] The PDC has since positioned itself as a tournament promoter operating independently within that framework rather than as a rival world governing body.^[5]

In the Olympic structures the WDF is a member of AIMS, the Alliance of Independent Recognized Members of Sport, which lists the WDF among its member federations.^[7] The federation states that it is working towards IOC recognition, which it hopes for “in near future” — that is, it does not claim to hold it.^[1] A secondary reference records the WDF as a full member of the Global Association of International Sports Federations until that body was dissolved in 2023.^[2]

One source conflicts with the rest: the UIA yearbook entry lists the WDF as “Recognized by: International Olympic Committee”.^[3] That is inconsistent with the federation's own statement that recognition is still being sought, and this page follows the federation.

What does the WDF organise?

The federation sanctions a graded international calendar and runs team and individual events of its own, including the WDF Cup and continental cups, with rankings attached.^[1] [2] National-team selection for the Cup events runs through the member associations, which is the national team selection route in this sport.

Its largest event is the WDF World Darts Championship, created after the collapse of the British Darts Organisation. The BDO had staged its own world championship at the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Surrey, from 1986 to 2019; after the BDO's liquidation the WDF took over responsibility for its championships and staged the first WDF World Darts Championship at the same venue, postponed from January to April 2022 because of COVID-19.^[4] [6] Since 2024 it has run from late November to early December, with Open, Women's, Youth and Girls categories and a reported total prize fund of £221,000.^[4]

It is one of two events described as a world championship in darts; the other, the PDC World Darts Championship, has run separately since 1994 and is not sanctioned by the WDF.^[4] [5] The site's world champion entry records both lines.

Who are its members?

Membership is institutional: the WDF states that it is open to official national darts organising bodies and that its member nations cover all six continents — Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.^[1] A secondary reference gives 80 national full members across those six continents; the organisation page retrieved for this entry does not give a count, so the figure is carried on secondary sourcing only.^[2] [1]

The best-documented membership case is also the one that ended. After a dispute over the 2019 World Masters the WDF demoted the British Darts Organisation to associate member status; the BDO, already losing sponsorship and players to the professional circuit, went into liquidation in September 2020 after 47 years, and the United Kingdom Darts Association subsequently took over as the governing body for darts in Britain.^[6] That sequence shows both what WDF membership consists of and what the federation can do with it.

The federation's own structure is thin by the standards of bodies filed under international federation: an annual General Meeting held alongside the Cup, committee chairs and an athlete representative, with the work of the sport done by the member associations.^[1]