The Dark Side of Darts

For two years I have been pulling together the stories the broadcasters skip over. The court records nobody reads. The tribunal rulings buried on regulator websites. The Press Association reports filed and forgotten. The autobiographies whose most uncomfortable passages no one quotes.

What I found was not a sport with a few stains on its reputation. What I found was a fifty-year record of convictions, fixes, doping, ruin and gambling money so substantial that it deserved a book of its own. Nobody had written it.

So I wrote it.

— Jack Mercer, author

What's inside

Thirteen chapters covering every major scandal of the modern professional game, drawn from court records, tribunal rulings and reputable reporting.

The Phil Taylor and Ted Hankey criminal cases in full, from the verdicts to the sentencing remarks. Including the indecent assault conviction at Dunfermline that cost Taylor his MBE, and the two-year prison sentence Judge Everett handed down to The Count at Chester Crown Court.
The match-fixing wave that rocked professional darts between 2018 and 2025. Every ban from Gilbert Ulang's seven years through Kyle McKinstry, Wessel Nijman, Prakash Jiwa, Leighton Bennett, Billy Warriner and the record eleven-year ban handed down to a former World Championship semi-finalist.
The doping cases the public never expected. Dom Taylor's failed test at the World Championship that cost him a £25,000 cheque and his Tour Card in a single night. The Rusty-Jake Rodriguez case. Why the substance that would actually help a darts player has never produced a public scandal.
Eric Bristow's career-ending fall. The 2016 Twitter messages that ended his Sky Sports career within twenty-four hours, the survivors who responded, and the death that followed less than two years later.
The price of the party. The drink-driven decline and early deaths of Jocky Wilson and Andy Fordham, two beloved champions destroyed by the culture that celebrated them.
The collapse of the BDO in 2020. The reduced prize fund, the all-Welsh final, Wayne Warren's £23,000 winner's cheque, and the auction of the trophies in 2023 that ended forty-seven years of darts history.
The money. The £125 million Sky deal. The £1 million champion's cheque. The tour-card holders earning less than £12,000 a year. The gambling industry that funds the sport and corrupts it in the same breath.
The unfinished argument over women in darts. The 2018 removal of the walk-on girls, the backlash that followed, and Fallon Sherrock's historic 2019 night at Alexandra Palace.

The chapters

Before the BDO
Origins of the Dark Side
The Split
In the Dock
The Fix
Powder and Pills
Bad Blood
The Crafty Cockney's Last Throw
The Price of the Party
The Death of the BDO
Show Me the Money
The Walk-On
Verified and Alleged

Plus: 16 pages of source notes, four appendices (the rulings in brief, a darts chronology, a cast of characters, and a complete roll of honour of every world champion from 1978 to 2026), a reading group guide and a full index.

Questions readers ask

Is this just gossip dressed up as a book?

No. Every claim in the book is sourced from a court record, a tribunal ruling, an official statement or a reputable news report. Sixteen pages of source notes at the back identify the principal sources for each chapter, and the entire final chapter is dedicated to the question of evidence and the stories the book chose not to print because they could not be verified.

I'm a casual darts fan. Will I follow it?

Yes. The book opens with two chapters of background on the history of the sport and the founding of the BDO and the PDC, so no prior expertise is assumed. The major scandals are introduced with the context a general reader needs to follow them.

What format do I get?

A 192-page PDF, set on a standard 6 x 9 trade trim. It reads cleanly on any phone, tablet or computer, and can be printed at home or through a self-publishing service like Lulu if you want a paperback copy.

Are living players named?

Yes, where their cases are part of the public record. Every named figure has been treated with the legal care the subject requires, and contested or unverified material has been excluded. The book reports what the courts and the tribunals have already established, not what the rumour mill has claimed.

Is this in English only?

Yes, the book is in English.

What happens after I buy?

You'll receive an email with the download link within sixty seconds. You can also download the book directly from the Gumroad page after checkout. The file is yours forever; download it as many times as you wish.

How long does the launch price last?

One week from launch. After that, the price returns to its standard €14.99. The €9.99 launch price will not be repeated.

Will there be more books?

Yes. The next investigation is already in progress. Buyers of this book will be among the first to hear about it.