In recent years, the popularity of darts has exploded drastically, seeing it become one of the most exciting and widely followed indoor sports across the world. Combining intense head-to-head battles, precision finishing, and eclectic atmospheres across its major tournaments, professional darts consistently delivers memorable moments across the calendar year.
Due to its notoriety today, there is a wide selection of darts betting markets at BOYLE Sports, available across the sport's biggest tournaments and televised events. From backing a top-ranked player to dominate a match all the way to targeting checkout specials, there are several ways to potentially make sports betting predictions on darts.
What Competitions Does Darts Betting Cover?
Darts betting covers many of the biggest events on the professional calendar, including coverage of many televised ranking tournaments across the PDC calendar. This features the sport's biggest players and individuals rising through the ranks, competing across different tournament formats in Europe and other regions worldwide. Due to the frequency with which competitions and events take place, there are darts betting markets available regularly, from standalone matches to outright tournaments with their own brackets.
These tournaments regularly feature the sport's leading players and top-seeded competitors in high-profile matches, with some of the most notable events being as follows:
PDC World Darts Championship
Held every December and January at London’s Alexandra Palace, this is darts’ biggest and most prestigious event. Matches are played in a set format, with the tension building as the globe’s best players progress through the rounds towards being crowned world champion.
Premier League Darts
A season-long league format running from February through to May, Premier League Darts features a smaller group of 8 top players competing across weekly nights held in different arenas around the UK and Europe. This competition uses a points system depending on how many games are won, how many finals are made, and nights players come out victorious, seeing the top four in the standings qualifying for a finals night to decide the overall champion.
Grand Slam of Darts
Held annually in November, the Grand Slam of Darts features 32 players competing across group and knockout stages. It begins with a round-robin group stage before moving into a straight knockout format through to the final.
PDC World Grand Prix
Staged in early October, the World Grand Prix is the only PDC event played in a "double in, double out" format. This requires players to start and finish legs on a double, adding an extra dimension to the game as a whole. It's held in a set format, with matches getting progressively longer as the tournament advances towards its closing stages.
World Matchplay
Taking place every July in Blackpool, the World Matchplay is one of the most iconic events on the darts calendar. This is known for its passionate crowd atmosphere, as is the case with many tournaments across the calendar, with matches being played over legs rather than sets.
How To Bet On Darts
Betting on darts can be straightforward, whether individuals happen to be following a major televised tournament or a smaller ranking event. Before each competition, the latest darts odds and fixtures are listed in advance, allowing bettors to look at the participating players and their opponents. The easy-to-understand process of betting on darts is as follows:
- Users can begin by logging in to their BOYLE Sports account.
- From here, make your way over to our dedicated darts betting page, where you will be presented with a variety of markets.
- By pressing the odds next to a selection, you can automatically add it to the betslip, where it will be stored.
- Bettors can then enter a stake and confirm their selection to place the bet.
- Any bets placed are settled automatically following games or tournaments concluding, keeping the entire process uncomplicated.
How Do Darts Betting Odds Work?
At BOYLE Sports, darts betting odds are usually displayed in a fractional way automatically, but players can still switch to the decimal format should they wish to do so in the account settings. These live odds are designed to reflect the probability of different outcomes, with there being several factors that can influence them before a match begins and as a game unfolds.
Live Darts Betting Odds
Some of the factors in question that can influence live darts betting odds can include the form of players, their recent tournament performances, checkout percentages, scoring consistency, and head-to-head records between opponents. At the same time, the stage of a tournament and the format of the match itself can affect darts betting odds, especially during longer-format games at major televised events. As matches and events approach, the odds may fluctuate based on recent performances, player news, and activity in the markets, helping to keep all the prices competitive in the process.
Types Of Darts Betting Markets
Darts betting offers a diverse selection of markets, giving individuals the option to focus on different aspects of a contest. Regardless of the tournament or fixture, the odds of each market remain competitive, as well as reflecting the likelihood of outcomes.
Match Result
Just like other sports, such as football betting, the match result market is one of the most popular and straightforward options within darts betting. This gives bettors the choice to select the player they think might win the match outright, with this usually being available for every single match that takes place across the calendar.
Full House
When it comes down to the full house darts betting markets, these focus on whether a player will achieve a specific scoring combination during a match. These can vary depending on the event at hand and are often tied to standout scoring performances from leading players in tournaments.
Handicaps
Moving on to handicap darts betting markets, these apply virtual leg advantages or disadvantages to one player in order to essentially balance the matchup. This is especially popular when a heavily seeded player faces a lower-ranked opponent, creating more level odds across a fixture in turn.
Match 180s
Focusing on the total number of maximum scores hit during a game, the match 180s market in online darts betting gives individuals a set line. From here, they could predict whether they believe the final total of maximum outcomes scored will finish over or under that amount, working the same way as the run total markets also seen in cricket betting.
Most 180s
Similarly, the most 180s options give bettors the chance to predict which player will hit the highest number of maximums during a game. This market is popular within darts betting as a whole, especially when games involve aggressive scorers and players known for consistently finding maximums.
Total 180s
Total 180s expands on the match scoring, instead focusing on the combined number of maximums achieved throughout the contest. This darts betting market factors in both players, with longer format matches at major tournaments being a popular choice for these types of predictions.
Highest Checkout
The highest-checkout darts betting markets involve predicting which player will produce the highest finishing combination to win a leg in a match. This highlights the finishing ability of competitors, especially those who are known for being elite checkout specialists.
Outright Darts Betting
Finally, outright darts betting lets users look beyond a single match on its own and instead back a player to go all the way in a tournament, rather than predicting the outcome of just one leg or fixture. They can cover outcomes such as a player to win the PDC World Darts Championship, lift the World Matchplay title, or top the Premier League standings come finals night; however, the longer-term outcomes aren't limited to these alone. Because outright darts betting markets run for the duration of an event, odds tend to shift as the tournament progresses, with these markets being rather popular around the sport's marquee events, given the extended build-up and wide field of players involved.
In-Play Darts Betting
Moving on to in-play darts betting, this can bring an extra layer to making predictions, letting users place bets once a match is already underway rather than only beforehand. Odds update continuously throughout a game as legs and sets are completed, reflecting momentum shifts, checkout success, and overall scoring form as the match develops.
Bettors could react to things such as a competitor finding their rhythm on the doubles or building a commanding lead, rather than being locked into a pre-match prediction. Markets commonly available for in-play darts betting include next-leg winner, correct score, and updated match-winner odds, alongside various handicap and total-legs markets that adjust as a contest progresses.
Darts Betting Promotions
Darts often sees a handful of betting promotions available around its biggest events throughout the year, with these being especially common around major televised tournaments. Some of the most common darts betting promotions you might find include:
- Ultimate Acca: This darts betting promotion could boost the odds on accumulators containing three or more legs, or add insurance to bets made up of five or more legs, provided each individual leg is priced at minimum odds of 1/5.
- Acca Loyalty: For every five £5 accumulators placed with a minimum of five legs and odds of 3/1 or higher, bettors could qualify to earn free bets.
- Cash Out Option: This feature allows users to settle a bet before an event has finished based on how the match or tournament is progressing at that moment.
Darts Betting Tips
There are a couple of things that could be taken into consideration if choosing to bet on the darts, with a bit of research potentially highlighting how a player may be expected to perform:
Recent Averages and Checkout Percentages: These can give a clearer picture of current form rather than looking at a player's overall reputation alone, since darts form can fluctuate significantly between events.
Tournament Format: Some players perform notably better in sets-based events compared to single-leg matches, or vice versa, so it could be useful to check a player's record on the specific stage being contested.
Head-To-Head History: This can offer useful context, particularly in matchups where one player holds a strong edge over the other.
World Rankings: Although it may seem like just a number, the PDC world rankings highlight how strong a player has performed over the last two years.
Bet On Darts With BOYLE Sports
From the biggest tournaments each year to the smaller televised ranking matches that take place frequently across the sporting calendar, there are many darts betting markets available at BOYLE Sports. Whether individuals prefer the Premier League, PDC World Championship, or any of the other Opens that take place throughout the year, they can find competitive darts betting odds across the plethora of markets we have covered. It is also worth noting that selected options may have price boosts, especially when it comes to the top tournaments and games that feature major seeded players.
Alongside the handful of darts betting markets found on-site, individuals could potentially browse the listings for golf betting and esports betting, too.
Darts Betting FAQs
What Factors Affect Darts Betting Odds?
Darts betting odds can be affected by a variety of different factors, whether that be the recent form of the players, their checkout percentages or head-to-head records. Similar to other sports betting, the format of the match can play a role, whereas things such as pressure and nerves can affect the odds of specific players.
How often are Darts Betting Markets available?
Professional darts events take place frequently throughout the year, but the darts market depends on what events are ongoing. For example, the Premier League of Darts takes place once a week, meaning there are markets for this tournament every week, yet the World Championship sees different games in consecutive days, meaning the markets are more frequent.
Is Darts easy to bet on for beginners?
Darts is considered to be one of the most beginner-friendly sports when it comes to betting, largely due to the straightforward head-to-head markets. The match result market is a simple starting point, as it only requires a prediction of who will win the match.