The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Sports' Biggest Party

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

This Friday inside Madison Square Garden thousands of rowdy spectators and 16 world-class professional athletes will kick off an event often called "Sports' Biggest Party." The bet365 U.S. Darts Masters is one of several wild events held by the PDC across the world. These are known for their almost unheard of levels of raucous excitement and a carnival-like atmosphere, as well as being an incredibly popular betting event globally. Joining the show today is guest Benjamin Leander, a Danish darts betting expert, who helps Action Network host Chad Millman understand the unique world of darts. #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey guys, it's us The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

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help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, Famous? Isaiah Thomas.

And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast, Point Game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was part of you. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow.

Then after that game seven, Marquis come until he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every family has its secrets. But what happens when you discover that your dad has been living a double life? That is not the look of an innocent man.

Is everyone lying to me about who they are? I felt such desperation. I felt it was what I had to do. Listen to Deep Cover the Family Man on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the favorites, the podcast, part of the volume podcast network. I am Chad Millman of the Action Network. Simon is still enjoying time with his family in Jolly Old England. But we miss him so much.

We have to talk about one of the biggest events that comes out of England and has been imported to New York. It is taking place Friday and Saturday. Many people know it as sports biggest party. What is that party, you ask? It's the Bet365 U.S. Darts Masters at the theater in Madison Square Garden, the world's eight greatest darts players squaring off against eight of North America's best. It's an incredible party. It's incredibly popular betting event internationally and becoming more popular here in the U.S.

joining us to discuss all things professional darts all the way from his kitchen in Denmark, our better collective colleague in darts, betting expert Benjamine, Leander, brother. Hi, Jett. Thank you so much for having me. Listen, darts has a really sort of special place in the lore of action network because when we first launched, darts started to be. televised here in the United States on DeZone, I think, and a lot of people went. And it was a huge betting event that got us all catalyzed and we're having just an incredible time together.

So we've been following like the joy of betting on darts and the incredible enthusiasm and the spirit comes from the events and the attitude and the charisma of the the players. like for those who were totally unfamiliar, why is it called sports biggest party? I would say for people not knowing that darts have evolved from the traditional pub sport to the greatest party in the world, I would say that we have festival meets carnival meets sports match. Very rare that you can combine all three things.

I mean, we have all been to a soccer match. an American football match, an ice hockey match, whatever match, where you have the sport in the center of everything. With darts, you have the atmosphere as the center of everything. And I remember actually watching the first edition of the U.S. Darts Masters that was played at the Tropic Cana Casino in Las Vegas. People should go watch it. It's on YouTube. Hello again from Professional Darts Championship,

where once again we've had an evening of high drama as this tournament proceeds towards its climax. And then compared to last year's edition, it is two different worlds. Wow, the championship final Michael Van Gogh. So Darts is being the biggest party of sports due to the huge atmosphere. What do you think happened? What changed? Because by 2018, when we were starting to cover it at action, people were already going nuts. Like the attitude, the atmosphere,

it was really starting to blow up. What do you think facilitated the change in in sort of culture and enthusiasm? Professional Darves Cooperation is called the PDC, like the FIFA of soccer or the NHL of hockey, has played a huge role in professionalizing the sports along with broadcasters like Sky Sports and ITV, making a very, very good broadcast.

a product of the sports because it is universal that when you watch a darts game, you want the best angles. I mean, nobody can watch the dartboards from the places of the crowd, but with the huge monitors and on TV, the many, many different camera angles showing exactly where the players are throwing the darts, that has been a huge key in the darts rise during the last year, like you said, the last seven or eight years. The PDC has of course also provided a huge price fund, which is also this year historical in New York.

We have 100,000 pounds in the price pool against 60 even last year. So bigger price pool and the PDC making a very, very nice product. Tickets are still, what I would say, not cheap, but at least affordable where we see in other sports, both your sports in the U.S. and also the European sports, that ticket prices are simply exploding through the roof. So in general, more people are getting their eyes open for darts being very, very accessible. You don't need to be a huge fan.

You don't need to know who Michael Van Gerwin or Matt Campbell or whoever is. So darts is extremely accessible for both young and old. So explain, you just mentioned a couple. couple of the guys. Who are the people that the players that people need to know as they think about betting for the weekend? And quite frankly, in the U.S., there's not a ton of stuff to bet on as we're heading into, you know, out of the basketball season. Who are the people? Why are they so charismatic? What makes them so popular? I think it's impossible not to mention teenage sensation and upcoming defending world champion and upcoming many, many, many, many, many times world champion.

He is the picture and the face of darts right now, 16 years old, when he participated at his first World Darts Championship and World Champion at the age of 17. Look at this. One of the greatest sets of darts potentially we have ever seen at the World Championship. He's gone through the gears and this is for the match. Lickler, you cannot contain this lad's talent and a great. He's participating, of course, in New York, did it as well last year, but lost to Gervon Price.

Also a big name to keep an eye on, both due to his skills on the stage, but also because Price is the face of what Darts can also be former rugby professional in his home country, Wales, decided to give Darts ago 10 years ago and got crowned world. champion. So completely shifted sports like another Michael Jordan from from basketball to baseball, maybe even more successful. And we have tons of faces. Luke Humphreys, the world number one, also a very, very good guy, a guy everyone likes on the tour where litter and price are dividing opinions, maybe a little more. Then I would say for the Americans, we have a very special case with Jules van Dengen, born in the Netherlands, but is representing the US.

He is at the moment suffering from DARTitis. Please don't laugh. It's a real thing where you are struggling with the dart in your hand to release it at a proper time. And Jules have suffered from this for over a year now, was a really, really, is still a really, really good player. but has suffered so much from this d'artitis thing that he actually spent hours and hours and weeks and months changing his throw from right to left-handed.

Imagine doing that in any sports. Imagine Tom Brady suddenly saying, I can't release the ball when throwing for my wide receiver. So now I'll use my left hand. Jules van Dung and actually did that. He is in the middle of a process and he's still playing at a much lower level than before. But he will participate in New York. And I think everyone in the Doris universe is cheering for Jules to finally have a good experience on the stage

because he has really suffered for the last year or even one and a half. So he is definitely the guy that everyone in the American DART world will cheer for this week. So basically, Jules got the yips. like he just couldn't do it anymore. I mean, you wouldn't see it in any other sports. I mean, looking at any NBA player not being able to release the ball or any soccer player, you wouldn't see Messi say, I can't shoot. I can't shoot.

But yeah, he is suffering from the dirtitis, which is, of course, a physical condition, but also this mental condition where you just can't make. get right. I mean, that's heartbreaking, dude. I feel terrible. I feel terrible for this guy. How did it even like, how did it start to become known? And then like, what was his process for trying to change it? Like, I've tried to throw darts left-handed. You know, Darts becomes one of those things where everyone feels like they know how to do it because it's accessible at every bar and pub throughout the world, it's really hard to be that coordinated to be able to change hands. It is an exceptional case. I mean, he suffered from some kind of wrist condition in the start,

and then it somehow got worse. So it is the mix between an injury where you keep throwing in the wrong way, and suddenly your wrist and your underarm becomes a great issue, combined with your head saying, I can't throw like this, I need to kind of do something that I'm not used to. So that's simply suffering from dartitis and many darts players have been through it. Even Nathan Aspinall, who will also participate this, or was supposed to participate this year, but is being replaced by Australian Damon Hatter, has suffered from it on stage during this year's Premier League, but has come back from it, actually delivered many, many good matches. But in Jules' case, it's been going on for over a year now,

and he is luckily recovering from it, but it's a very long process. You know, this year's competition is Europeans versus North America. Are Europeans known as being better players? historically than the Americans? Yes, definitely. Darts has been evolving very slowly on every other continent than Europe.

We've seen still South America. I mean, in almost every other sport like soccer, basketball, okay, maybe not hockey, but almost every other sport, you would have South America, Africa, Asia, even, having at least one dominant player.

It's been a very, very slow evolvement in these continents because the professional darts cooperation have not succeeded bringing the game to other continents than Europe, where everything has been focused on European tour, the World DAS championships being played in London every year. And now discussions have come to do we need to put the world championships another place than London? And could it be played outside Europe even? Because the sport is on the rise in so many different continents. Asia has had a huge success of players coming in. We've seen it at the World Cup of Darts that was held a couple weeks ago, where you play in teams as in pairs of two. Jules von Dungen competed for the USA, along with Daniel Laubee,

who will also be playing this week. In Canada, had Jim Long and Matt Campbell, who will also participate in the New York. this week. But traditionally, the Americans have had a tough time when playing the US darts masters. In 2023, Canadian Jeff Smith actually went all the way to the final. He beat Luke Humphreys, the current number one. He had other very, very good matches against Peter Wright with the Mohawk, very good player as well. And then he beat Michael Smith also, but lost eventually in the final 8-0 to Michael Van Gogh,

and the legend of the sport. But he is the only player that have processed after round two. We have the eight American players joining in in the first round. Then you have the quarterfinals, round two, the semifinals, round three, and then the final. And Jeff Smith is the only North American who has processed from round two.

Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, Nick? Huge news. We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how did we, how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And, well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas,

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That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls,

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everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Genshin win. I mean, she went down at three to Rubakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay.

Listen, Lena Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now and I actually can win on any surface because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast on the Eye Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. All right, so you sort of got into the format a little bit.

This is a betting show. Darts came on the scene largely because I think a lot of people started betting on it. Like with a lot of sports, sort of the popularity trails behind the betting influence, and Darts certainly falls into that category. So how do you bet on darts? What's like, what's a comparison that people who haven't done it before could hold on to so they can understand it a little bit better? I don't think that tennis is a bad comparison because in tennis you have two players who are shifting between serving. You're also serving in darts where one player, of course, has the throw before the matches the players gather in front of the board.

and then you throw closest to the bullseye. And the player closest to bullseye is starting the match, which is, of course, a big advantage. Since we are playing first to six legs, both players starts on 501 points and will then play down eventually to zero points. And if the game is tied at 5-5, you play the ultimate round of the match, of course, then the player who won the bullseye before the match will throw in the deciding leg, which is a huge advantage.

And just like in tennis, yeah, you're serving in darts, one can say. I mean, in tennis you have your serve where one player can be bad at the, at playing or hitting, but having a good serve. It's a little bit difficult in darts. But you have the ability of scoring, of course, pounding the triple 20 area, where you get the most points. But in darts, you're only winning if you can finish on a double, the outer circle of the of the board.

And some players having a real torrent time. I've seen top professional players just a month ago having to use 41 darts to finish one round. Chris Dobie and an opponent needed 41 darts to finish one route. You and me could do a round in 41 throws chat. I definitely wouldn't doubt. Well, that's the thing is like, sometimes I feel like you can get a double on the outer ring by accident.

And these are the best dart throwers in the world who aren't able to end it. Is it because everything gets into their head? Like what happens when it's time to close that they can't get to that final throw? It's in their head. And then I mentioned the 2017 edition in Trubicana, where the crowd was completely silent. That's not the case in these days. The crowd is getting loud.

And some crowds are even getting hostile. In the World Cup of Darts two weeks ago, we had Germany on home soil. They beat England with Luke Litter and Luke Humphreys. Two of the three best players in the world, they beat them easily due to the crowd whistling and booing every time the Englishman was throwing. And I mean, we can discuss is that good sporting ethics or what it is. But I mean, even if the Madison Square Garden crowd will not get hostile, it can still get into the heads of players when you can't just get that double done. Then you miss and you miss more.

And that's when both darts and betting becomes tough. The European players are playing later this season than normally. Normally, the US Darts Master has been in the first week of June, the latest of editions. Now it's in the end of June. So it is colliding with some players holidays. All these players have family. So that might influence on European players going to America, dealing with jet lag.

We've seen it many times. There's always one or two of the European players who are really struggling. And you don't know until you see them on stage. And imagine something is wrong here. His darts are flying low. His darts are flying high. He's not mentally strong in this game. And we won't know until we see the players on stage.

But one of the cases I'm quite sure about is that we have Michael Van Gerwin, the Dutch giant who has won many world championships. He's been going through a divorce, splitting from his partner in many, many years and haven't played in one month. So his condition is very questionable. Has he trained? He hasn't played. And how is he dealing going to the USA without, of course, his family? And with all these thoughts going through his head. So that is what you have to take into account when betting on the darts.

Dude, we got divorce. We got DARTitis. We got heckling. We got jet lag. We got rivalries. We got teenage up-and-comers. We got people who want to knock that kid down to size. Like, Darts has more drama than the Gilded Age.

It is just a fantastic. I do not entertain. You mentioned all these guys. Darts isn't something, and you mentioned the prize pool, 100,000 pounds. What do these guys do for a living? These aren't professional athletes. What do they do? How are they practicing?

Money and darts have gone so big that all of the players competing on this World Series tour that the U.S. Darts Masters is are completely professional. winning millions of dollars and also having sponsorships that will easily top a lot of professional players not from the highest of clubs or athletes but at least close I mean winning the the world championships is guaranteeing you 500,000 pounds equaling I would say what 700,000 dollars. And I would say that probably top 50 or top 60 on the professional Darts Corporation tour can make a living of darts.

Of course, big difference from Luke Littler at the top, earning many, many, many, many, many thousands a year. And then number 64 who could maybe do with a small part-time job. But the hard thing for Darts players is that the top guys are guaranteed a place in the most tournaments where the qualifiers are not getting any part of the price pool unless they win a match. Making it very, very hard. I mean, in tennis you would see even the loser of the first round in the US Open receiving, I guess, rather big payment just for showing up, maybe even losing.

three times six nil. In darts, there's been criticism of recent tournament structure changes where it favors the biggest players, but we have fewer occasions where we see upcoming talents, sensational qualifiers, winning four matches in one day and participating in their first televised tournament ever. That's making life hard also for potential American players. players where we are having this tournament. We're having four North American players participating due to the fact that they have won a tour card. Just like when you are competing for a tour card in golf, you have it on the darts tour as well, giving you the permission to attend these tournaments, but you have to win it.

And that is very, very tough to do so. So in this tournament, we have, like I said before, we have Danny Lauby, we have jewels, we have Jim Long, We have Matt Campbell, who are playing professionally on the PDC tour. And then we have four qualifiers, Leonard Gates, Stawi Bunts, and then Adam Sabata and Jason Brandon, who will be playing as part-timers. So there is a huge gap between the big guys making the big money and then some of the qualifying players we will see during Friday and Saturday. All right.

So we've run through the lineup. We've run through the format. We've run through the drama. give us your best bets for the tournament? We have yet to see the draw, which will obviously have great importance in terms of which players will be placed in what brackets, what opponents and stuff like that.

But like I mentioned before, I would very much like to bet against Michael Van Gogh if he gets any other opponents than an inexperienced Jason Brandon if he gets drawn against a young guy like Adam Savada, who is getting very, very big amounts of praise in the dark community, can maybe be the next big thing in US darts. I would definitely like to take Adam maybe not to win the match,

but then to cover it by a handicap that player first of three legs. And if I can get something like Adam with three or two legs in front, I think that will be a great. bet. And then, of course, Luke Liddler, the teenage sensation, he has this hunger of winning tournaments that he haven't won yet. And he got defeated in his debut last year in New York by Goevin Price. I think he will be very, very motivated. Also thinking about this huge disaster that it was that him and partner, Luke Humphreys, was defeated in the first match at the World Cup. So I think we'll see motivated Luke Litter, motivated Luke Humphreys, and then

Michael Van Gogh with a big question mark out of his floor. I feel fully briefed. Benjamin Leander from his kitchen in Denmark with the greatest darts breakdown we've had in the history of the favorites podcast. Thanks for coming on the show. Brother, we will return with our next episode of the favorites Tuesday on the Action Network YouTube page. Download us from Spotify, Apple Pods, wherever you get your pods, rate, review,

subscribe. Leave us five stars. Say whatever you want. Feedback is a gift. Until next time. Love you. Action Network reminds you. Please gamble responsibly. If you or someone you care about has a gambling problem, help is available 24-7 at 1-800 gambler. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast?

Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, reader Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano.

It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was crying. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to him, he's like, you know, I love you, dog.

You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every family has its secrets. But what happens when you discover that your dad has been living a double life? That is not the look of an innocent man. Is everyone lying to me about who they?

are. I felt such desperation. I felt it was what I had to do. Listen to deep cover the family man on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.