Darts is a variety of related games, in which darts are thrown at a circular target (dart board) hung on a wall. Though various different boards and games have been used in the past, the term 'darts' usually now refers to a standardised game involving a specific board design and set of rules.
As well as being a professional competitive activity, darts is a traditional pub game, commonly played in the United Kingdom (the first country to officially recognize darts as a sport), across the Commonwealth, the Netherlands, Ireland, the Scandinavian countries, the United States, and elsewhere.
Dart boards are usually made of sisal fibers or boar bristles, low quality boards are sometimes made of coiled paper. A regulation board is 18 inches (45.72 cm) in diameter, and is divided into 20 sections. Each section is lined with thin metal wire. The numbers indicating the various scoring sections of the board are normally made of wire, especially on tournament-quality boards, but may be printed directly on the board instead.

Height and distance
Various designs of dartboard have been used, and regional variations remain in parts of Staffordshire, Manchester (log-end board).

Scoring
A game of darts is usually contested between two players who take turns in throwing up to three darts. Starting from a set score, usually 501 or 301, a player wins by reducing his score to zero. The last dart in the leg must hit either a double or the inner portion of the bullseye, which is the double of the outer bull, and must reduce the score to exactly 0. Successfully doing so is known as "doubling out" or "checking out" (see the Glossary of darts for more darts terminology). A throw that would reduce a player's score to less than zero does not count, his turn ends, and his score is reset to what it was before that turn. (Sometimes in friendly games a player is allowed a dog's chance by "splitting the eleven" if he has a remaining score of 1. This required placing a final dart between the legs of the number 11 in the normally non-scoring part of the board). Since the double areas are small, doubling out is usually the most difficult and tense part of a leg. Longer matches are often divided into sets, each comprising some number of legs.
Although playing straight down from 501 is standard in darts, other variations exist, notably "doubling in", where players must hit a double to begin scoring, with all darts thrown before said double contributing nothing to their score. Other games that are commonly played differ in their scoring methods. These include "Round The Clock", "Jumpers", "Killer" and the more complicated "Cricket".
In "Round the Clock", players must hit each numbered section in turn, finishing with a bull to win. Far from being a beginner's game, Round The Clock is a good training game since it practices targeting all areas of the board, a skill which is essential when finishing a classic leg.
In Killer, a number of players "own" a number on the dartboard (often selected by throwing a dart with their non-playing arm) and compete to build up "lives" (by hitting that number) until a threshold is reached (usually 4 or 6) before attempting to "kill" other players by removing the lives they have built up (by hitting those other players' number) until a single player is left.

Playing darts
see also: main article split in darts
Of the two professional organizations, the British Darts Organisation (BDO), founded 1973, is the older. Its tournaments are often shown on the BBC in the UK, and on SBS6 in the Netherlands. The BDO is a member of the World Darts Federation (WDF) (founded 1976), along with organizations in some 60 other countries worldwide. The BDO originally organized a number of the more prestigious British based tournaments with a few notable exceptions such as the News of the World Championship and the national events run under the auspices of the National Darts Association of Great Britain. However many sponsors were lost and British TV coverage became much reduced by the early nineties.
In 1992 a breakaway organization was formed, initially known as the World Darts Council (WDC) but shortly after known as the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). The PDC tournaments have a considerable following, although due to their coverage on subscription-based Sky television, the PDC World Championship has lower TV viewing figures that of the BDO.
The PDC tournaments often have higher prize money and feature the leading player in the history of the game, 13-time World Champion Phil Taylor. The highly successful BDO player Raymond van Barneveld switched to the PDC and won the World Championship at his first attempt in 2007.

Professional organizations
The BDO and PDC both organize a World Professional Championship. They are held annually over the Christmas/New Year period, with the PDC championship finishing slightly earlier than the BDO tournament. The BDO World Championship has been running since 1978; the PDC World Championship started in 1994.
Both organizations hold other professional tournaments. The BDO organize the World Masters and many Open tournaments. They also organize county darts for their 64 county members in the UK including individual and team events.
The PDC's major tournaments are the World Championships Premier League, UK Open, Las Vegas Desert Classic, World Matchplay and the World Grand Prix. All of these are broadcast live on Sky Sports television in the UK. They also hold PDC Pro Tour events and smaller category events around the UK. As of 2007 the PDC have introduced two new televised major tournaments - the US Open (to be broadcast on Challenge TV) and the Grand Slam of Darts (to be screened on ITV).
There are two Dutch independently organised major tournaments the International Darts League, and the World Darts Trophy which as from 2007 feature a mix of BDO and PDC players. Both organizations allocate rankings to the tournaments.
The WDF World Cup for national teams and a singles tournament has been played biennially since 1977. The WDF also organize the Europe Cup.

Professional competitions
Darts first appeared on British television in 1962 when Westward Television broadcast the Westward TV Invitational to the south-west of England. In 1970, ITV broadcast the News of the World Championship and from 1972 the Indoor League, which featured a darts tournament.
Over the next decade darts coverage expanded with many major tournaments appearing on both ITV and BBC through the 1970s and early 1980s, but the cancellation of ITV's World of Sport show in 1985 was the start of their gradual withdrawal from coverage. The BBC also cut back on their coverage to the extent that one major event was still broadcast on either channel by 1988 - the World Championship.
With the creation of the PDC and expanded coverage of the BDO on BBC, darts has since grown again. There are again several major tournaments broadcast in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world.
In Europe, Eurosport broadcast the Lakeside World Championships having signed a three-year contract in 2006 and also broadcast the Finland Open, BDO British Internationals, the BDO England Open and the BDO British Open that year. There has been no Eurosport coverage of Open events thus far in 2007.
In the UK, The Lakeside and the Winmau World Masters are currently broadcast by BBC. However it wasn't until 2005 that viewers were able to see every dart thrown live at the World Championship. This was the year that BBC introduced interactive coverage on its BBCi service.
In the Netherlands, SBS6 broadcasts the Lakeside (since 1998), International Darts League, World Darts Trophy and the Dutch Open. RTL 5 broadcast the Dutch Grand Masters in 2005. Some of these tournaments can also be watched on the internet for free using a live stream, depending on contractual restrictions (external links: SBS Streams [2][3][4][5][6] and Watchdarts.com stream [7])
The PDC's Premier League, UK Open, Las Vegas Desert Classic, World Matchplay and World Grand Prix are all televised live and in their entirety in the UK by satellite and cable broadcaster BSkyB on Sky Sports. Dutch station, Sport One, DSF in Germany and several other tv stations across the globe also broadcast the PDC events.
The PDC launched the World Series of Darts for the first time in the United States in 2006. Its $1 million prize showcased professional darts in the United States. Unfortunately the programme was not a ratings success and was taken from its peak time broadcast slot on ESPN after just a few weeks. The tournament was replaced with a US Open event in 2007 which was screened in the UK on digital television channel Challenge TV.
The PDC have also confirmed that a new Grand Slam of Darts event will be broadcast on ITV1 and ITV4 in November. This represents the first major darts tournament to be covered by the ITV network in almost twenty years.

Televised darts
In places where alcohol is consumed, English law has long permitted betting only on games of skill, as opposed to games of chance, and then only for small stakes. An apocryphal tale relates that in 1908, Jim Garside, the landlord of the Adelphi Inn, Leeds, England was called before the local magistrates to answer the charge that he had allowed betting on a game of chance, darts, on his premises. Garside asked for the assistance of local champion William "Bigfoot" Anakin who attended as a witness and demonstrated that he could hit any number on the board nominated by the court. Garside was discharged as the magistrates found darts, indeed, to be a game of skill. More recently, in keeping with Darts' strong association with pubs and drinking, matches between friends or pub teams are often played for pints.
In the professional game, betting is prominent with many of the big bookmaking companies sponsoring events (particularly within the PDC). Sky Bet (World Grand Prix, Premier League), Stan James (World Matchplay), Blue Square (UK Open) and Ladbrokes (World Championship) are all title sponsors of major PDC events.
On FSN broadcasts in the United States, the logos for Ladbrokes are pixelized out and digitally obscured, along with any audible references to Ladbrokes, due to American laws and policies against online gambling.

Betting
BDO: Martin Adams Wolfie
PDC: Raymond van Barneveld
Multiple World Champions
13 Phil Taylor The Power (11 PDC, 2 BDO)
7 Trina Gulliver The Golden Girl
5 Eric Bristow Crafty Cockney
5 Raymond van Barneveld Barney (4 BDO, 1 PDC)
3 John Lowe Old Stoneface
2 Jocky Wilson
2 John Part Darth Maple (1 BDO, 1 PDC)
2 Dennis Priestley The Menace (1 BDO, 1 PDC)
Bob Anderson The Limestone Cowboy
Steve Beaton Magnum-PI/ The Bronze Adonis
Richie Burnett The Prince of Wales
Tony David The Deadly Boomerang
Keith Deller The Fella
Andy Fordham The Viking
Ted Hankey The Count
Jelle Klaasen The Matador
Leighton Rees
Les Wallace McDanger
John Walton John Boy

World Champions
BDO
Martin Atkins The Assassin
Gary Anderson The Dreamboy
Dick van Dijk The Player
Darryl Fitton The Dazzler
Bobby George Bobby Dazzler / Mister Glitter
Shaun Greatbatch 9 Dart
Phill Nixon Nixy
Tony O'Shea Silverback
Gary Robson Robbo
Co Stompé The Matchstick
Mark Webster Webby
Tony West The Tornado
Simon Whitlock The Wizard
PDC
Ronnie Baxter The Rocket
Mark Dudbridge Flash
Tony Eccles The Viper
Terry Jenkins The Bull
Mervyn King The King
Adrian Lewis Jackpot
Colin Lloyd Jaws
Wayne Mardle Hawaii 501
Peter Manley One Dart
Chris Mason Mace the Ace
Kevin Painter The Artist
Roland Scholten The Tripod
Vincent van der Voort Greased Lightning
Michael van Gerwen Mighty Mike
James Wade 009
Alan Warriner-Little The Iceman
Former Players
Tony Brown
Richie Davies
Alan Evans
Mike Gregory
Rod Harrington
Paul Lim - 1st World Ch'ship 9-darter
Marshall James
John Lowe
Dave Whitcombe

Other famous players
There are a number of regional variations on the standard rules and scoring systems. Round the Clock is a variation that involves hitting the numbers in sequence.

Variations
American Darts uses a board made of basswood, using the end grain. Embedded in the board are wires that separate the board into scoring sections. High quailty board have rotatable centres, that can be turned so the board will wear more evenly. The centre of the cork is 5' 3" from the floor
There are also a number of games regarding placing pictures of famous people onto dart boards.

American darts

Cricket See also