BBC to air innaugural PDC Champions League of Darts, after dumping the BDO World Championships.
The BBC will broadcast the innaugural PDC Champions League of Darts live from the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff on 24th and 25th September, and as a result will cease broadcasting the BDO World Championship event.
The tournament will see the top eight players on the PDC order of merit as of the end of July's World Matchplay in Blackpool, compete over two days, battling to win a top prize of £100,000.
The format, similar to football's Champions League, will see the players split into two groups, with the top two in each group progressing to the knockout stage.
Barbara Slater, director of BBC Sport, said: "Darts has always had wide appeal and it is great that audiences will get the chance to see all the action from the world's top players live on BBC Two and across our platforms."
PDC Chairman Barry Hearn told the BBC that the "very best players" will be participating in the Champions League of Darts, which he called an "exciting, quick-fire tournament".
The move marks a switch for the BBC from the traditional support it has shown to the British Darts Organisation since the split in darts in the early 1990's. It also means that the BDO will no longer have any free-to-air televised tournaments, with only their World Championships on the television on subcription service BT Sport.