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Eric Bristow has predicted that snooker’s star names could take their lead from darts and form a rival tour if Barry Hearn’s plans for a revamp of the sport are not supported.

Star players including Ronnie O'Sullivan have thrown their weight behind Hearn, who is proposing more tournaments and more prize-money.

New world champion Neil Robertson said: "He is one million per cent the man to take the game forward, and so many of us are behind him."

But other players have concerns about Hearn’s plans to take a 51 per cent stake in World Snooker, the commercial side of the business, and separate it from the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA).

Five-time world darts champion Bristow sees similarities with the situation his sport found itself in at the start of the 1990s, when there was just one televised event left on the calendar and many players had lost faith in the British Darts Organisation.

A Professional Darts Corporation was created, and is now the strongest of the two tours, providing the most prize-money.

Snooker professionals will vote on Hearn's proposal at the end of May or early June, and will meet in Sheffield today (May 5) to discuss the plans.

If WPBSA chairman Hearn is defeated, he has vowed to walk away from snooker.

"If it goes against Barry, they might do what we did years ago," warned Bristow.

"Sixteen of us pulled away, we went to Sky and had to do our own tournaments and had to fight with the BDO.

"Look at what we've done – we've created a monster now and darts has gone a long way up.

"We'd do it again, every time. We did the right thing.

"It was hard for the first two or three years, but snooker hasn't got much of a move to make.

"It's just the few who are going to vote against it and they're the people at the bottom who are earning no money anyway.

"I did it because I love the game of darts – so did all the other people."