ONE of the most powerful men in world sport wants to get involved in running darts – and give it a “crazy” concept.
Turki Al-Sheikh is the Saudi Arabian politician who has a significant war chest of petro-dollars to spend, primarily to help improve his country’s image and make it a long-time destination for sports and entertainment events.
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Over the past two years, he has transformed boxing – some would say not all for the better – by staging the biggest fights in the Kingdom.
And darts, which is one of the success stories of British sport over the past 15 years, is now firmly on his radar.
Al-Sheikh was the brainchild behind the addition of a 20-point Gold Ball for a snooker tournament staged in Riyadh in March 2024, therefore making a 167 break on the table achievable.
Nobody has done that so far but whoever in the future does manage to clear up a 147 maximum break and then sink the 23rd ball would receive a $1million (£733,000) bonus.
And in a new Netflix series – Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen – the Middle Eastern official has now proposed a radical change to darts.
News of this emerged during negotiations with Barry and Eddie Hearn over buying a potential stake in Matchroom Sport, which was established in 1982 at Romford Snooker Club and has become a highly-profitable business.
The Essex-based company runs darts, boxing, snooker, fishing and nineball pool.
The men discussed the idea at the Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn fight at Tottenham in April – their conversation was captured by Netflix cameras and will be revealed in the six-episode series.
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Eddie Hearn, 46, said: “This is another big night as we reach a very important time in terms of Matchroom’s future.
“My dad has no relationship with His Excellency. If we’re going to be working together on a deeper level, it’s important.
“This is even out of my depth, because it’s his company. It starts with him, it ends with him.”
Barry Hearn said: “Every journey comes to an end. What do you wanna do? Tell me. And if it makes me smile, then we have a deal.”
While sitting ringside before the main event, Eddie said: “Your Excellency, I explained to him about our conversations, about our deal with…”
Al-Sheikh interrupted: “And I said to him: ‘We want the snooker and the darts’.
“I want to do the darts, but I want to do it crazy way. Crazy concept, yeah? Crazy play, something.”
Barry replied: “We’re on a mission. We want to have relationships with people like you for a long term, in place, and then we want to grow a massive business.
Negotiations ongoing
“Because we can do anything, and we’re honest. And we need partners the same.
“We’re very choosy on our partners. It’s not just the money. It’s the relationship where we can work together.
“This is your legacy, Your Excellency. And this will be something that will go down in history.”
Al-Sheikh responded: “I can give you a long contract, three, four, five years.”
Barry countered: “I want a 10-year deal with this. Let’s just go for it. Let’s build a massive global company.”
Al-Sheikh said: “Let’s go.”
It is not yet known what type of “crazy concept” could emerge from these talks and like the Gold Ball, it could be panned by oche traditionalists.
According to PDC CEO Matt Porter, “darts turns over north of £60m a year” while Eddie says it outperforms his boxing stable and is “probably twice as profitable”.
There is lots of sport in darts and the 2026 world champion will receive £1m on January 3 – while a new five-year £125m Sky Sports deal kicks in later this year.
Barry said: “As enthusiastic as Turki is, I trust contracts more than I trust people. I need to see it in black and white.”
