Professional darts players are subject to anti-doping testing under the sport's regulatory framework, and beta blockers — which suppress the hand tremor that ruins a throw — are specifically banned. Alcohol has been prohibited in the playing area since the late 1980s, when the sport's association with drinking on stage helped cost it its television deals.
The standard professional game is 501. Each player starts on 501, throws three darts per visit, and subtracts what those darts score from the running total. The first to reduce the score to exactly zero wins the leg — but the dart that takes the score out must land in a double, either one of the twenty double beds around the outer rim or the 50 inner bullseye, which counts as double 25.
Pick two names from this sport’s all-time list. The larger number in each shared stat is highlighted.
| Stat | Phil Taylor | Michael van Gerwen |
|---|
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Professional darts players are subject to anti-doping testing under the sport's regulatory framework, and beta blockers — which suppress the hand tremor that ruins a throw — are specifically banned. Alcohol has been prohibited in the playing area since the late 1980s, when the sport's association with drinking on stage helped cost it its television deals.
The standard professional game is 501. Each player starts on 501, throws three darts per visit, and subtracts what those darts score from the running total. The first to reduce the score to exactly zero wins the leg — but the dart that takes the score out must land in a double, either one of the twenty double beds around the outer rim or the 50 inner bullseye, which counts as double 25.
The board itself supplies all the complexity the sport needs. Twenty wedges radiate from the bull, numbered in a deliberately hostile order so that the biggest scores sit beside the smallest. A dart in the thin outer ring doubles the wedge's value; a dart in the thin inner ring trebles it.
A tournament board is a bristle board 451 millimetres in diameter with a scoring area of 340 millimetres, divided into twenty wedges by thin metal or blade wire. The sequence running clockwise from the top is 20, 1, 18, 4, 13, 6, 10, 15, 2, 17, 3, 19, 7, 16, 8, 11, 14, 9, 12, 5.
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