Nathan Aspinall has made an honest admission about the Saudi Arabia Darts Masters after the sport made its debut in the country.
The event, which takes place over two days, is the first the PDC have held in Saudi Arabia and comes after conversations between Barry Hearn and the nation's General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki Alalshikh.
The second event in the 2026 World Series of Darts, 16 players are competing - including eight representatives from the PDC as the likes of Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Gian van Veen, and Stephen Bunting look to add to their trophy cabinet.
The decision to put the event on caused a stir, with many expressing concerns about how darts would translate in Saudi given the role the crowd plays.
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In the first round, there appeared to be a startling lack of atmosphere for the walk-ons and matches and next to no participation for those in attendance.
Aspinall defeated Lourence Ilagan 6-1 in his first fixture and addressed backlash for the overall presentation of darts in the Middle Eastern country.
"There's definitely a long way to go," 'The Asp' told Darts Now.
"It was certainly different. I'm not stupid. I feel like they wasn't all there off their own accord shall we say and it was quite a small venue.
"Everything needs to start somewhere. As long as people walk away from this week and go, 'I really enjoyed the darts' and it gets good coverage - with the Saudi Arabia press talk highly of the darts then there's no reason why not."
Aspinall is back in action in the quarter finals, taking on Asian representative Man Lok Leung.
Topics: Darts, World Darts Championship
Josh Lawless