World Cup darts player must change “rude and overly sexual nickname” from the PDC: “Too hot for TV” | formula 1

Every professional darts player has his own nickname. Just think of Dimitri Van den Bergh as ‘The Dreammaker’ or Kim Huybrechts as ‘The Hurricane’. The 20-year-old English darts player Bates chose … ‘Master’.

Combined with his last name, his shirt says ‘Master Bates’, which sounds like ‘masturbates’, or masturbating. That is not possible for the PDC, the organizer of the World Darts Championship. Loxley Darts, the company that sells Bates’ darts, sees the fun and the interesting marketing side of it. “Too hot for TV,” they write on ‘X’, the former Twitter. “Get the uncensored darts while you still can.”

Opinions are divided on social media. From “this is just rude” to “brilliant name, he is the master.” So we won’t see ‘Master’ Bates at the Darts World Cup anyway. The Englishman is currently looking for another nickname and is asking for help from his fans on social media.

Dutch darts player Martijn Kleermaker provided more information about the situation in the darts podcast Double Top. “The PDC can ban certain nicknames, including sexist names, for example.” It is not the first time that there has been controversy surrounding a darts player’s nickname. According to Kleermaker, the PDC also discussed Jermaine Wattimena’s nickname: ‘The Machine Gun’. “That name could encourage people to become aggressive, while I think: what are you talking about, it’s a nickname.”

Kleermaker is sure fans will remember this. “We can already assume that ‘Master Bates’ will be written on signs in Ally Pally anyway (laughs).”