How many legs in a set in darts and how many sets at the World Darts Championship final?
DARTS scoring can appear very intimidating to uninitiated viewers.
The World Darts Championship has been the biggest and best ever, but plenty of new fans have been wondering how players win matches and progress.
While scoring to win an individual leg will not change, each round at Alexandra Palace sees the players needing to win a different number of sets.
With the darts extravaganza set ending on Friday, January 3, here’s how darts scoring is worked out.
What is a leg in darts and how do players win one at the World Championships?
A leg is the way that darts is scored, with all players starting each leg on a score of 501 and have can only when they get down to 0.
However, players must ‘checkout’ on a double – get themselves down to an even score and then hit the relevant outer ring of the board.
For example, a player might work down to a score of 40 and then checkout on a double 20.
The maximum score during one trip to the oche is 180, which entails players scoring three ‘treble’ 20s – the inner ring on the board.
The quickest way to win a leg is to hit the famed ‘nine-darter’ – using just nine darts to get down to 0.
There have only been 99 televised nine-darters ever with only 14 of those coming at the World Championships.
Darts sponsor Paddy Power have confirmed they will pay players a £60,000 bonus for every nine-dart finish they hit during the tournament – plus another £60,000 to one person in the crowd.
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- All the action as it happens in our LIVE BLOG
- Everything you need to know about the Ally Pally extravaganza
- How much prize money can be won?
- What is the format for the tournament?
- Who are the Sky Sports presenters and pundits?
- How much do players and crowd win for a nine-darter?
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How many legs in a set at the World Darts Championship?
The format is quite simple on this one.
Players simply win three legs to earn a set at the tournament.
How many sets in a match at the World Darts Championship?
This is where things get a little bit more complicated as the matches increase in legs as the tournament progresses.
In rounds 1 and 2, players play the first to three sets, but by the final it will have increased to first to seven sets.
The full breakdown is below:
- Round 1 – First to 3 sets
- Round 2 – First to 3 sets
- Round 3 – First to 4 sets
- Round 4 – First to 4 sets
- Quarter-finals – First to 5 sets
- Semi-finals – First to 6 sets
- Final – First to 7 sets
Who is favourite to win the World Darts Championship?
Luke Littler is the current favourite to win the title with the bookies.
He is narrowly in front of defending world champion and current world No 1 Luke Humphries – who beat Littler in last year’s final as well as the final of the Players Championship just last month.
Gary Anderson and Michael van Gerwen round out the favourites, with the likes of in-form Wessel Nijman and Mike de Decker followed by former world champions Michael Smith, Gerwyn Price and Rob Cross as outside shots.
When is the World Darts Championship and how can I watch it?
- The tournament starts on Sunday, December 15 with the final on Friday, January 3.
- The tournament will run every night during that period bar Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day
- There will be afternnon sessions (12.30pm) and evening sessions (7pm) every day except for the semis and final, which just have evening sessions.
- Seeded players such as Littler and Humphries get a bye into round 2.
- All the action will take place on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Darts.
- Alternatively, SunSport will have a rolling blog covering all the action LIVE for every day of the tournament.
List of all-time Darts World Champions
BELOW is a list of Darts world champions by year.
The list does not include winners from the pre-Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) era or BDO world champions.
That means Raymond van Barneveld, for example, is only listed once – Barney also won four BDO titles – and none of Eric Bristow’s five BDO titles are included.
- 1994 – Dennis Priestley
- 1995 – Phil Taylor
- 1996 – Phil Taylor (2)
- 1997 – Phil Taylor (3)
- 1998 – Phil Taylor (4)
- 1999 – Phil Taylor (5)
- 2000 – Phil Taylor (6)
- 2001 – Phil Taylor (7)
- 2002 – Phil Taylor (8)
- 2003 – John Part
- 2004 – Phil Taylor (9)
- 2005 – Phil Taylor (10)
- 2006 – Phil Taylor (11)
- 2007 – Raymond van Barneveld
- 2008 – John Part (2)
- 2009 – Phil Taylor (12)
- 2010 – Phil Taylor (13)
- 2011 – Adrian Lewis
- 2012 – Adrian Lewis (2)
- 2013 – Phil Taylor (14)
- 2014 – Michael van Gerwen
- 2015 – Gary Anderson
- 2016 – Gary Anderson (2)
- 2017 – Michael van Gerwen (2)
- 2018 – Rob Cross
- 2019 – Michael van Gerwen (3)
- 2020 – Peter Wright
- 2021 – Gerwyn Price
- 2022 – Peter Wright (2)
- 2023 – Michael Smith
- 2024 – Luke Humphries
Most World Titles
- 14 – Phil Taylor
- 3 – Michael van Gerwen
- 2 – John Part, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson, Peter Wright
- 1 – Dennis Priestley, Raymond van Barneveld, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Luke Humphries