Thousands of people, some dressed as Super Mario, others as giant bananas or historical characters. Stadium chants, rivers of beer and entrance songs that make the stadium shake. No, we are not in a football corner or even at a rock concert. We are atAlexandra Palace, London – or Ally Pally – for one of the most anticipated events of the year in the UK: the PDC World Darts Championship 2025this year on stage from 11 December to 3 January.
If you think darts is just a pub pastime for those who aren’t good at other sports, prepare to think again. While maintaining their playful soul, let’s talk about professional athletes that compete millionaire jackpots (the total for the World Cup exceeds 5 million pounds in total), capable of hitting aarea of a few millimetres with impressive consistency and equipped with a mathematical mind capable of processing additions, subtractions and numerical combinations in a fraction of a second. But how exactly does it work? Why do players aim high and not the center? Let’s analyze how the score is calculated and what the rules are.
How the dartboard is made and how the score is calculated in darts
The target (board), made of sisal fibers obtained from the sisalian agave, has a diameter of 45 cm and is divided into 20 segmentsnumbered from 1 to 20but the numbers they are not in ascending order. We find, for example, 20 next to 1 and 5. Why is this? To “punish” the mistake: if you aim for 20 and miss just a little, you don’t end up on 19 or 18 but on low numbers, obtaining a miserable score.
The target then has two rings (circles) which multiply the score:
- THE’outer ring (double ring): double the value of the segment (double 20 = 40 points, double 3 = 6 points)
- THE’inner ring (triple ring): triples the value of the segment (triple 20 = 60 points, triple 11 = 33 points)
- The center it is divided into two parts. The outer green ring (oruterus bull) is valid 25 pointswhile the central red circle (bullseye) is valid 50 points.
Here the most common myth falls. The center is not the area that is worth the most. The maximum score achievable with a single dart is tI repeat 20which is well worth it 60 points. For this reason, professionals almost always aim for the 20 segment, trying to hit that tiny red portion of the inner ring.
In the professional setting, the center of the target is set at 1.73 meters from the ground and the athlete shoots from a distance (the line is called geese) Of 2.37 meters.
The rules: 501 to zero with surgical precision
A standard game of darts works by “subtracting”. Each player starts with a score of 501 points. The goal is to get to 0 before the opponent. Each turn, the player has available 3 dartscomposed of a tip, a body, a shaft and a fin with a total weight usually between 18 and 26 g (each player chooses and customizes their own).
How do you win a game? In the most prestigious championships, such as the World Cup, the “set format”a mechanism that is very reminiscent of the tennis: you have to win a certain number of leg (similar to gameusually 3) to take home a setand in turn conquer a certain number of sets to win the match. In some tournaments, however, there is the “Matchplay format” in which there are no sets and simply the first to reach a pre-established number of legs wins (in a best of 11 legs challenge, the person who wins 6 first wins). THE’order of play of a match is established by a shot to the center (Bull), whoever comes closest will have the right to choose whether to shoot first or second in the first leg.
The maximum score in a round is 180 (three darts on triple 20): when this happens, the referee shouts the famous “One hundred and eighty!” and the audience explodes into wild cheering.
But there is a fundamental rule that makes everything much more difficult: closing or checkout. To win the leg (the single round), you must reach 0 by hitting obligatorily a “double” (the outer ring) or the Bullseyewhich counts as a double 25) with the last dart.
Let’s take a practical example, if you miss them 40 pointsyou have to hit the double 20 (tops). If you accidentally hit the 20 singleyou have 20 points left and you will have to try to hit the double 10 on the next shot. If the score goes below zero – you miss 10 and you score 20), the roll is null and yes “gets high” (bust), returning to the previous score.
Part athlete, part mathematician
It is in the final stages of a leg that the mathematics. As long as the points are high (above 170), the goal is simple, which is to score as many points as possible by aiming for triple 20 or triple 19. When the score drops, the player’s brain must change mode to be able to get to zero by finishing with a double.
Players know dozens of by heart combinations (finishes). They have to calculate in real time: “I have 121 points. I roll triple 20 – I stay at 61then triple 11 – I stay at 28 and finally double 14 to close”. And what if the first arrow goes wrong? They have to recalculate everything instantly before shooting the second.
There are some finishes which, in addition to having nice names, are among the most complicated and most famous. There is the Big Fish (two triple 20s and a final Bullseye 50), the most spectacular and difficult possible closure when they miss 170 pointsit shanghaiwhen in one turn the player hits the single, double and triple of the same number and the 9-Darterthe “perfect leg”. Close the 501 points using only 9 darts (the minimum mathematically possible). It is a very rare event, comparable to a hole in a golf shot.
To understand the level of these athletes, we must understand the sizes and distances of this sport. Throw a dart from 2.37 meters and hitting the target can be simple, hitting exactly where you need it or where you aim is another story. The area of the triple is a small rectangle of approximately 2.5 cm²little more than a thumbnail, where they can often fit 3 darts. Double is only about 1.5 times larger than triple and the little red circle in the center has a diameter of 12.7mm less than a coin from 1 cent.
The difficulty lies in the consistency of the world champions who, thanks to training, manage to replicate the exact same arm movement thousands of times, with a very low margin of error, under the pressure of millions of spectators.
The World Darts Championship: how it is structured and prize money
Born as a simple pub pastime in the early 1900s, darts has evolved into a professional sport which, especially during the World Cup at Christmas, becomes the most watched non-football sporting event on television throughout the world. United Kingdom.
The PDC World Darts Championship 2025 it started on Thursday 11 December and will continue until the final on 3 January. In this year’s edition they will compete in direct elimination phases 128 players including five players from the Women’s Series who compete in direct elimination phases with increasingly longer matches.
Each player has his own nickname or nickname like Peter “Snakebite” Wright or Gerwyn “The Iceman” Price or the seventeen-year-old world champion Luke “The Nuke” Littler. Their entry into the crowd (walk-on) escorted by security, and announced by the voice of Master of Ceremonies accompanied by their own cpresentation areachosen specifically to make the fans sing or dance, is a truly iconic moment.
Thanks to numerous sponsors, many of which are linked to the world of betting, the total prize money exceeds 5 million pounds, of which 1 million is expected for the winner. The runner-up will “settle” for £ 400,000while whoever loses the semi-finals goes home with £200,000.
