Staging the spectacle: the panoptic–synoptic dynamics of prosumer fandom in live PDC darts
This article examines how the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) transformed live darts into a highly mediated, carnivalesque spectacle by mobilising the participatory energy of prosumer fans. It explores how surveillance, performance, and control intersect within a distinctive sport entertainment ecosystem.
Since the early 1970s, professional darts has undergone a remarkable transformation from a pub-based pastime into a sporting spectacle. This evolution unfolded through two distinct yet interconnected phases: a primary transformation under the British Darts Organisation (BDO) from the 1970s to the 1990s (see Chaplin, 2009; Davis, 2018), and a secondary metamorphosis under the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) from the late 1990s to the present (see Davis, 2024a). Following the official accreditation of professional darts as a sport in 2005 (Kelso, 2005), the PDC expanded into a multi-million-pound global circuit, staging events in major arenas across Europe, North America, and Asia (Allen, 2017; Curtis, 2019).
Under the strategic direction of chairman Barry Hearn, Chief Executive Matt Porter, PDC staff, and media partners, the organisation repositioned darts as a hybrid form of sport and entertainment. Central to this transformation was the PDC’s capacity to mobilise the participatory energy of its fanbase, harnessing prosumer fandom to co-create an atmosphere that is simultaneously commercially lucrative and culturally distinctive (ADZ, 2017; Davis & Gibbons, 2023). In this study, prosumer fandom is understood through Andrews and Ritzer’s (2018) conceptualisation of prosumption within sport as a “largely autonomous and unpaid process through which fans produce and consume the user generated content which powers (both in terms of substance and surplus capital generation) the [televised, and] social media universe” (p. 360). While fans have long contributed to the affective and performative dimensions of sport (Andrews, 2006; Gibson, 2013; Rieder & Voß, 2010), contemporary sport increasingly invites spectators to act as participatory co creators who sustain and amplify the event spectacle (Mermiri, 2009).
In the context of PDC darts, this participatory dynamic became integral to rebranding, broadcast identity, and global appeal. The live PDC event can therefore be understood as an ecosystem (Blackshaw and Coetzee, 2020; Cook et al., 2021; Ruiz and Gandia, 2023): a dynamic and interdependent network of stakeholders, media, fans, and organisational actors that enhances the entertainment product while sustaining the commercial business model of professional darts. Within this ecosystem, arena design, broadcast production, crowd choreography, and costume work together to sustain a form of managed exuberance, where participation is actively encouraged yet carefully structured.