With sell-out crowds in huge arenas, sponsors and broadcasters clamouring for a piece of the action and prize money higher than ever, darts is booming like never before.

But that has not always been the case.

In the early 1990s the game was in chaos as 16 top professional players and a handful of officials, frustrated by the lack of tournaments, loss of television contracts and poor leadership at the British Darts Organisation (BDO), formed the World Darts Council (WDC).

Later renamed the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and now led by Matchroom Sport Chairman Barry Hearn, the PDC has become one of the fastest growing sporting brands in the world.

Rounds of the 2008 Premier League were played out in front of crowds of 8,000 with this figure set to rise in future, while the players will be competing for more than £5million in prize money next year.

 "In the 30 years I’ve been promoting sport, I’ve never seen anything like this explosion in darts," said Hearn. "The demand for tickets has grown so rapidly that it has taken everybody by surprise.

"The secret of its success is that darts is thoroughly enjoyable and a great night out. The crowd produce the atmosphere and the players produce the sport which is exciting and the television ratings are higher than ever before.

"Although everyone tells me we’re in a recession, this has not affected darts and it has gone from strength to strength with a waiting list of sponsors and television buyers.

"Darts is now a sport where youngsters aspire to be able to play at the top level, as they do with football and cricket. Television companies are delighted with their ratings and, with its global expansion; darts is the fastest growing sport in the world.”

 With boxing-style player walk-ons, loud music pumped out of huge stereos, expensive light shows and a passionate and enthusiastic crowd, a PDC tournament is a unique sporting experience.

The players, although some very wealthy, remain down to earth, each with their own nicknames and the sport – and, as declared by Sport England on March 25, 2005, it is officially a sport – is rapidly growing in popularity.

Rod Harrington, a former world number one player but now a director of the PDC and Sky Sports commentator, remembers the dark days of darts where it appeared to be on its last legs.

"Darts was on its knees, lower than that, it was in a bad way,” said Harrington. "Playing was a bit of fun for me but the BDO, the amateur body, didn’t have a clue how to promote it. They lost all the TV contracts in the 1980s and the people were too old to even want to get it back. It was in a real dire strait.

"The WDC, now the PDC, was formed and we took it to a certain level. But we needed extra people to come in and the right people. There was no good bringing in people that did not know what they were doing as the business would not go anywhere.

 "The biggest push was when Barry Hearn and Matchroom got involved after a chance meeting with Barry at the Circus Tavern during the World Championship. He said ‘I can smell money, I want a piece’ so he put together a package, approached us and said ‘we have to do this’.

"He put his money where his mouth is and stuck in £300,000 or £400,000 of his own money. When he did that I realised he wouldn’t do that without making it correct and I knew we would be alright.

"Matchroom have a network worldwide of selling sport and they put us on that package which helped us out big time. With the razzmatazz that Matchroom brings into it and Sky that combination worked and we’re now in a fashionable sport.”

A large majority of PDC events are broadcast on television with Sky Sports frequently showing the biggest competitions such as the World Darts Championship, Premier League, Grand Prix , UK Open, World Matchplay and the Las Vegas Desert Classic.

 With commentary led by ‘The Voice of Darts’ Sid Waddell, a man famous for quips such as ‘Stopping Taylor? It’s like trying to halt a water buffalo with a pea shooter!’ and ‘He looks about as happy as a penguin in a microwave!’ broadcasters are delighted with their growing audience.

PDC events are regularly among the most watched on Sky Sports, with only Premiership football consistently attracting higher viewing figures.

With stars like former World Champions Phil Taylor and Raymond Van Barneveld, along with a host of young, ambitious contenders like James Wade and Adrian Lewis, the competition is always fierce, which makes for cracking drama and entertainment with spirited fightbacks a regular occurrence.

Taylor, the sport’s current number one, believes there has never been a better time to be a player.

 "Darts is massive now, not just here in the UK but worldwide,” said Taylor. It's down to the television coverage and everyone working on it together – Barry never stops.

"The prize money is growing more and more and as it does people are getting more and more interested.

“It’s totally, totally different from ten or 15 years ago. It has gone from five per cent to 110 per cent and we now have 54 tournaments per year instead of four. The prize money has gone up to £5million and the crowds have gone from 250 people to 10,000.”

In 2008, the PDC are hosting events in countries including Germany , Holland , USA , Australia , Canada and South Africa with the PDC looking to spread the game into Asia and the Middle East in the near future.

Harrington believes the players generally still need to improve their public image, which would help expand the sport further.

 “We’re up to £5million in prize money and if it stayed at that level for the next ten years I don’t think any dart player could complain but it will grow,” said Harrington. “But there are sides of the business that are letting the game down and we have to look at them seriously and put them right.

“We need to smarten the players up as they aren’t looking right on television, not speaking correctly on television and we also need to bring in media training. In two years time we’re bringing in a tour card like golf’s European Tour then we will bring in media training.

“We’ve got a strict governing body that deals with the discipline and they have to be stricter – zero tolerance. If you look better and conduct yourself better then you get better sponsors and the game will get more sponsors.

“I wish I could throw darts like I could in the 90s and, if I could, I would be confident of earning at least a quarter of a million next year. If you can’t earn a good wage then you are just not good enough. It’s an individual sport and if you want to complain, the only person to complain to is the one in the mirror.”

 With the ever-increasing coverage of darts in the media and on television, Taylor believes this could inspire youngsters to become professional players.

“You need people on a pedestal like David Beckham, Tiger Woods or Phil Taylor as it’s someone to aim to beat and to try and fire down - people can think ‘I want to be him’,” said Taylor.

“For me personally by doing so well it has created a lot of interest in the press and that carries more publicity for the sport. Someone told me that if you keep winning then they keep writing about you.

“The sport was in dire straits when we split from the BDO and it would have stayed the same if we hadn’t split and we would now be struggling even more. Darts is something to have a go at and anyone can buy a set of darts for a tenner and get stuck in.”

More than 120,000 fans will have watched a PDC televised event in 2008, while 70,000 tickets are currently on sale for the 2009 Premier League - and going fast.

Darts has certainly come a long way in a short amount of time and with interest at an all-time high, but set to increase even further, the future of the sport is a very bright one indeed.

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