David Fatum on North America

The real reason why darts is advancing in North America 

Darts’ level of play in North America has always been behind that of European countries but that is all changing. In the last few years we have seen new faces coming up and making a splash at all levels of play around the world.  
 
So why is that?
 
Could it be that the American Darts Organization (ADO) has started to drop 2/3 events and going to longer formats for singles? Yes, that helps but guess again. 
Could it be that there is the Championship Darts Circuit (CDC)? Yes, a little maybe for a few but guess again.
 
OK, OK, the answer lies in solving the problem that North America has and that is it is soooo big!!! Traveling four hours in Europe, you can go through three countries, but here you may not even get to another city.
  
While I was living/playing in Canada I would drive 8-12 hours just to be able to play top level players. When Covid hit, online darts really took ahold and the DPFLDarts.com was the huge driver and winner of this.
I had no idea about DPFL at all until I interviewed Stowe Buntz, Alex Spellman and Leonard Gates last year at the first CDC event.  I had obviously witnessed these players take their game to a new level and I asked how?  They replied “I play on DPFL”.  So obviously with my own return to the game and wanting to achieve the high levels of the game, again I went home and looked it up.
What I found was that there was divisional level of leagues, nightly cash tournaments and even a large live event held in mid-August every year paying out over $85,000 with some amazing first prizes.
 
We all know competition makes you stronger but when you either drive 12 hours or have expensive flights, you can not go every weekend to play. But with DPFLdarts.com you could compete from home almost daily.  I became obsessed with the King of the Hill practice ladder and would find myself playing for hours plus the cash events held in the evening.
 
In my league play, I had one PDC tour card holder, two former tour card holders and a total of four European players.  I then travelled to experience the live event in Orlando and was totally blown away by it.  Not only was it an amazing resort to stay at but hands down it is the best dart event in North America. 
It is completely run on DartConnect – no board calls, just a text or email to you when you were up, so no listening for your name just the music playing giving it a party-like feel.
  
If you follow my social media you would have seen three current PDC players interviews and a bunch of other players all raving about what a great time it was. 
Well, after this year’s live event the DPFL hit a bump in the road and is now under new management and promises to be bigger than ever with more online events plus a guarantee that the live event this August will be even longer format than years past.
 
This is why I believe darts in North America is finally changing for the better with levels of play going up and up along with numbers rising at live events. 
Come join the fun and check out the second best thing to happen in darts. (The first is DartConnect and it is all ran on there!) #domore #bemore
 

Written by David Fatum