Sports broadcaster Eurosport has struck a multi-territory, three-year deal for rights to British Darts Organisation rights, from 2019 to 2021.
The deal covers rights in the UK, Netherlands and Australia to the three major tournaments in the BDO calendar each year: the World Professional Darts Championships, the World Darts Trophy, and the World Masters. Darts is a popular sport in each of the three markets where Eurosport has acquired BDO rights.
Coverage will be shown live on Eurosport in each of the three markets. In the UK, coverage will also be available free-to-air via digital-terrestrial channel Quest. Both Eurosport and Quest are owned by US media company Discovery.
Rights to the World Professional Darts Championships in the UK were previously held by commercial broadcaster Channel 4 in a two-year deal, covering 2017 and 2018. Channel 4 had a sublicensing deal in place with pay-television broadcaster BT Sport.
Des Jacklin, chairman of the BDO, said the deal represented the first time Eurosport had acquired World Professional Darts Championships rights in the UK. He added that having coverage on Quest would continue the tradition of the championships having been shown free-to-air for 41 years.