Darts at Christmas – The PDC’s Winning Formula For A Global Spectacle

As the new year period wraps up once again with the conclusion of this season’s PDC World Darts Championship, Lead Consultant Elliott Charles considers what it is about the UK’s new favourite festive tradition that has become so appealing in recent years.

“Christmas is for spending time with family… and darts”

This phrase has become synonymous with the festive season in the UK, thanks to the Professional Darts Corporation’s (PDC) ‘World Darts Championship’, now firmly established as a marquee event. The 2024/25 edition is its most successful yet, boasting sold-out sessions across the event with overall attendance at approximately 90k, record broadcast figures (up nearly 40% on last year) and web traffic (16% increase on last year), and 16% growth in first-party owned audience acquisition.

Held annually from mid-December to early January, the recently completed tournament marks the 18^th consecutive year it’s been held at the iconic Alexandra Palace in London. The health of the event is the product of constant year-on-year improvement, as its relevance and commercial performance continues to strengthen.

Two Circles is proud to have supported the PDC since 2018 in growing their revenue and audiences, allowing us first-hand visibility of the event’s growth. There are important lessons that we believe other sports rights holders can learn from the event’s success, notably around owning a part of the calendar, venue fixation, and continuous enhancement of the event experience.

Growth in attention on darts is centred around its Christmas peak

This year is the 32^nd edition of the World Championships being held during the Christmas period, at a time when audiences are primed for television viewing. By consistently delivering a TV-friendly and entertaining product at a moment of mass availability and creating an appointment to view, the event has carved itself into holiday habits as a cultural staple.

Google Trends reveals the growth in attention on darts, with the World Championship as its unquestionable focal point. This growth is also evident in broadcast figures – the PDC’s long-standing partnership with Sky Sports has provided a consistent viewing experience and reinforced audience familiarity, with a 3.7m audience for this year’s final the highest non-football audience on Sky Sports in the last year.

Meanwhile, the increasing demand for tickets has driven the expansion of tournament sessions and capacity at Alexandra Palace. UK’s sport attendances in December have historically been dominated by football, but the PDC’s success and consistent visibility implies that a differentiated product and proposition can effectively cut through.

With an increased field the event now features 28 sessions, up from 22 in 2018, reflecting the growing demand. However, supply has remained relatively stable, with only 20 sessions hosted annually from 2008 to 2016, leaving demand to consistently outstrip supply. That excess demand has enabled significant first-party audience growth through the event’s ‘register your interest’ form, helping the PDC to create a direct pipeline of engaged fans (growth in the PDC’s owned audience to over 1 million in six years), primed to drive ticket sales and further fuel demand.

The surge in attention around the World Championship has consequently elevated awareness and consideration for the PDC’s other events. While the World Championship remains its flagship, the stars and high-energy experiences showcased at Christmas have increased interest in darts events across the calendar with faster paced sell-out events and higher year-on-year broadcast figures – both in the UK and internationally.

Using dynamic content to personalise direct communications and drive ticket sales during the Christmas buzz, the PDC has effectively promoted local events to sell out earlier each year. Crucially, this has allowed more resource to be invested in other marketing and commercial strategies, such as the increasingly creative ways that the PDC have activated their partnerships around events.

The benefits of a fixed location

At the Two Circles EMEA Client Summit in June, we discussed the benefits of ‘fixation’ – hosting an event in the same fixed location for each edition. Where rotation might help directly engage new territories and expand audience reach, the PDC’s longstanding decision to anchor the event in London has yielded compounding benefits over nearly two decades, mirroring how attention on The Masters has grown in the face of a flat market in golf.

The PDC’s commitment to a fixed location and timeframe has helped grow commercial and audience metrics by scaling its brand and building attention on the sport. Adam Perfect, head of commercial at the PDC, reiterates this point – “Having a reliable London home has really helped the event establish a strong identity with fans, especially those who tie it in with a Christmas trip to the city, and has allowed us to grow revenues more efficiently. Our atmosphere combined with this event’s prestige are a perfect match for the passion and energy that darts and its fans embody.”

The PDC’s position as the promoter for professional darts, without needing to juggle the diverse and occasionally conflicting objectives of a governing body with member federations, has given it the freedom to fully commit to a London home. This approach has resulted in the PDC eliminating any logistical and political challenges that often arise with location rotation.

This fixation has also enabled the PDC to steadily build its international audience. Traditionally, darts fandom has been UK-centric, but that is changing, with a more international field reflected in 30% of purchasers coming from outside the UK, and an equally diverse age range that reflects the event’s broad appeal. Whilst this implies the World Championship could take place elsewhere, the demand and relevance it has grown, driven by the compound benefits of fixation and its UK audience, would be far harder to generate.

The growth of the PDC’s World Series of Darts events are proof of a growing appetite amongst international audiences to taste the product that a focus on UK audiences has created.

Continuously enhancing operations and the fan experience

Two Circles has helped the PDC better understand their event experience and uncover where its fan experiences can be optimised. The World Championships boasts a ‘Net Promoter Score’ of +81 this year – a gauge of how willing someone is to recommend an event, and ranked between -100 to +100, a ranking of +81 sits in the top few events amongst all we’ve tracked around the world. There really isn’t another event like it, as you’ll hear vouched by anyone who’s attended.

The world-class experience is a vital ingredient that the PDC invest in, as Adam Perfect explains – “delivering an unforgettable experience for fans attending has always been a key focus. The atmosphere at Ally Pally is unmatched, and through continuous enhancements, like the tailored activations during breaks in play, we’re ensuring every attendee leaves with lasting memories. We’re proud of the experience metrics we record, but we’ll keep trying to innovate.”

Its exceptional experience stems from a proactive approach to fan insight – understanding fans’ enthusiasm to throw darts has helped shape activations in the venue’s ‘Fan Village’, delivering a considerably improved venue feature satisfaction score this year. Equally, learnings across other PDC events are constantly applied to Alexandra Palace, while the exclusive partnerships at the World Champs offer inspiration for the delivery of other PDC events, fostering ongoing innovation and ever-evolving fan experiences.

The PDC’s World Darts Championship stands as a case study from which there are plenty of learnings. Off the back of the event’s steady growth to one of sport’s calendar highlights, it’ll be interesting to see how it evolves further, using the event’s surplus demand and building on its shoulders as the sport’s marquee event. With fan-first thinking and bold, long-term planning at its core, the event will continue to elevate darts to unprecedented levels of popularity and success.