Phil Taylor Says Darts Star Would've Been 'Multi-Millionaire' If He'd Joined PDC

Phil Taylor believes a former darts star would have become a 'multi-millionaire' if he had joined the PDC.

The prize pot for the ongoing 2026 PDC World Championship stands at a record £5 million, with £1 million on offer for the winner.

A total of 62 players on the two-year Order of Merit have earned over £100,000 in prize money, with that number potentially increasing by the end of the tournament at Alexandra Palace.

It is the money on offer from the PDC that has tempted a number of top stars from the BDO - now WDF - to make the switch in the past.

Raymond van Barneveld, Gary Anderson and Michael van Gerwen are among the players to have left the BDO before winning a world title in the PDC.

In 1993, the BDO - full name British Darts Organisation - was the leading power in darts, but the majority of its top stars broke away to form the World Darts Council following a dispute.

There were several legal battles between the organisations over the following years after the BDO suspended the 16 breakaway players, which included Taylor, Eric Bristow and Dennis Priestley, from competing in their events.

A court order resulted in the lifting of the bans, though the PDC and BDO would rarely mix across the next 15 years until the inaugural staging of the Grand Slam of Darts in 2007.

As part of the tournament structure, six of the top-performing BDO stars, based on World Championship and Masters performances across the previous two years, were invited to compete in the event.

Van Gerwen, Jelle Klaasen and Mervyn King were among those to take up the offer in year one.

But among the players to turn down the invitation was Martin Adams, who had won the 2007 BDO World Championship.

'Wolfie' rejected the invitation again in 2008 and 2009, with the PDC deciding they would no longer invite him to compete in the Grand Slam.

It wasn't until 2015 that Adams - by this point a three-time BDO world champion - accepted the invite, and he was unbeaten in all three group matches before losing in round two.

Adams had previously competed in PDC events, reaching the semi-final of the 2001 World Matchplay before losing 17-9 to Taylor.

He also reached the World Grand Prix quarter-final that year.

But eligibility rules changed in 2001 to bar BDO talents from those events, and Adams subsequently refused to compete in any PDC tournaments for 14 years.

Now 69, Adams still occasionally competes on the World Seniors Tour and in MODUS Super Series events.

Speaking ahead of a match against Adams at the 2023 World Seniors Champion of Champions, Taylor said: "He's a player I thought, 'You should have come over'.

"He sticks by what he believes in. But when I look at Martin now, I think, 'You could have been a multi, multi-millionaire.

"He had the talent to go up there and be in the top three in the world. Could he have made a splash on the PDC? I don't think he would. I know he would have done. It would have improved Martin and his game."

Adams told Wayne Mardle's Club 501 YouTube channel in 2024: "At the time, I was captain of England and I didn't want to give that up.

"To get there, to get to that position, over the years you've had loads and loads of help from all the different officials, who do their job for nothing. And I wasn't going to walk away from them.

"I was still captain of England. I was part of the BDO, so why change?"