The FTD team enjoyed a brilliant night at the Darts up in Blackpool, courtesy of our friends and partners at Betfred.
We attended the second Quarter Finals night of the PDC World Matchplay tournament, taking place at the historic Winter Gardens in Blackpool.
Betfred, who are the primary sponsor of the event, invited three of our team, as well as some of their other affiliate partners, to enjoy the pre-event hospitality, and then the main event on a fantastic table near the front of the famous ballroom.
I attended, along with Chris Humphries our Commercial Manager, as well as Luke Creigh, our CEO.
We were thrilled to get the call up from Betfred, who have been a close partner for over a decade. Initially focussing on their world-class bingo product powered by Playtech, (to whom we used to send hundreds of monthly FTDs in the heyday of online bingo), we have branched out to promote Casino, Games and Sports betting. They have also been one of the most successful brands on our paid socials project, Wildwave, which launched this year.
I arrived in Blackpool in the afternoon, where we met up with the Betfred affiliate team as well as the events team at our hotel.
We walked over to the Hospitality suite a couple of hours before the start time to get some food (a lovely Northern steak pie) and take in some of the build up. We enjoyed some light entertainment as well as a Darts competition, where audience members could take on Fallon Sherrock, the most famous female darts player in the world (aka The Queen of the Palace).
Just before 8pm we took our seats in the ballroom, where our table was practically right at the front. The atmosphere was expectant, full of chanting and cheering, as the first quarter final of the night was Andrew Gilding taking on Luke “the Nuke” Littler, the teenager who had single-handedly put darts back on the map.
The atmosphere certainly peaked towards the end of that first match as Littler staved off a last minute surge from the fellow Brit “Goldfinger.”
The second quarter final was between Gerwyn Price and Josh Rock. A slightly less rollicking affair, the young Northern Irishman Rock booked his place in the Semis with an impressive display over Price.
I had not seen live professional darts before but the atmosphere was pretty uproarious. We would certainly return. Thanks once again to Betfred for a brilliant evening and to many more successful years of partnership!
