In a rare and pointed intervention, former Lakeside champion and current PDC world number ten Stephen Bunting has broken ranks with the sport’s usual code of silence, calling on fans to become active watchdogs against cheating in darts—particularly when it comes to tournament winners.
Speaking after his second-round victory at the Players Championship event in Milton Keynes, Bunting delivered an unscripted and strikingly candid message to reporters. While he stopped short of naming specific individuals, his remarks landed like a thunderbolt just days after PDC Chairman Eddie Hearn’s promise to “fish out” players named in the so-called Gerwyn Price Files.
“I love this sport, but I’m not naive,” Bunting said. “Cheating doesn’t always look like what you think. It’s not just someone missing a double on purpose. It’s patterns. It’s consistency in the wrong places. And I’ll tell you this—if you want to find the truth, don’t just watch the journeymen. Watch the tournament winners. Watch the ones who suddenly perform miracles under impossible pressure, every single time.”
Bunting urged fans to rewatch matches with a more critical eye: track unusual betting movements, suspect timeouts, or inexplicable shifts in performance that seem to benefit one player over another in ways that defy form or logic. “You pay their wages through tickets, subscriptions, and merch,” he added. “You have the right to ask questions. Don’t idolize blindly. Monitor your favorites closely.”
While Bunting praised the PDC for launching integrity investigations, he suggested that official bodies alone cannot catch everything. “By the time a committee meets, the damage is done. The fans see everything in real time. If something feels wrong—a weird walk-on, a glance at a coach at the wrong moment, a sudden collapse from 5–0 up—don’t just cheer or shrug. Speak up. Report it.”
The remarks have sharply divided the darts world. Several top players privately expressed discomfort, with one veteran calling Bunting’s comments “irresponsible” and likely to fuel conspiracy theories. Others, however, have quietly supported him, noting that match-fixing scandals have haunted lower tiers of the sport for years and that tournament-level manipulation remains a “taboo subject.”
Former world champion John Part told Darts Insider: “Stephen is saying aloud what a lot of players discuss behind closed doors. Whether fans should act as investigators is debatable, but his warning about winners is provocative precisely because it hits close to home.”
Gerwyn Price, whose name remains attached to the leaked files despite no formal charges, declined to comment directly but posted a single emoji—a fishing rod—on social media shortly after Bunting’s interview aired, which fans quickly interpreted as a sarcastic jab at Hearn’s earlier “fishing out” promise.
Bunting concluded with a sober warning: “I’m not saying every trophy winner is dirty. Most are legends. But if we keep pretending that big names can’t cheat, we’re inviting a scandal that will destroy darts. So watch closely. Especially the ones standing on the stage at the end.”
