How to run
a darts tournament
Four formats will carry a darts tournament: a single-elimination bracket, double elimination, groups feeding a knockout, or a round robin. Boards count for as much as the field: sixteen players in a straight knockout need 7 hrs 40 min where only one board is free, and 4 hrs 5 min with a second, playing 501 over the best of three legs. Add half an hour for greeting and signing people in beforehand, and write the rules down: the checkout rule, ties in a group, late arrivals.
about 38 legs in all
on 2 boards
full bracket, no byes
| Round | Matches | Per match | On the boards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Last 16 | 8 | 25 min | 2 hrs |
| Quarter-finals | 4 | 25 min | 1 hr |
| Semi-finals | 2 | 30 min | 35 min |
| Final | 1 | 30 min | 30 min |
The three numbers that decide everything
The players are the one number you do not really control. Expect one or two drop-outs in every ten entries, and set a cap: a tournament that takes everyone right up to the last minute gets planned twice, badly.
The boards are the real bottleneck. Sixteen players in a single-elimination bracket is 7 hrs 40 min on one board and 4 hrs 5 min on two. A second board, even a less comfortable one, beats a bracket that drags on past one in the morning.
The time is what everyone overestimates. An evening in a pub gives you three useful hours: past that, the knocked-out players have gone home and the final is played in front of six people.
The planner applies three constraints that “matches × length ÷ boards” forgets: a round cannot start before the one before it has finished, a board stays busy for five minutes between matches — finding the players, writing the result down, settling in — and the decisive rounds are played a fifth more slowly. The counter-intuitive consequence is that past four boards it is the fullest round that sets the pace, so sixteen players take as long on four boards as on seven. Add another half hour of welcome and entries before the first dart.
Picking a format that holds up
The four formats, for 16 players on 2 boards with matches of 25 minutes:
| Format | Matches | Rounds | Time | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single elimination | 15 | 4 | 4 hrs 5 min | One defeat and you are out. The shortest format, and the least fair. |
| Double elimination | 30 | 10 | 8 hrs 40 min | Two lives each, through a losers' bracket. Twice as many matches. |
| Groups then knockout | 31 | 6 | 8 hrs 5 min | Everyone plays several matches, and the best go through. |
| Round robin | 120 | 15 | 29 hrs 55 min | Everyone plays everyone. The fairest, and the longest. |
Single elimination is the shortest format and the most thankless: around half the field will have played one match. The right choice when time is short or the field is large — provided you run a small consolation bracket for the first-round losers. It costs two boards for half an hour and changes the evening.
Double elimination gives everyone two lives: every player knocked out has lost twice. The price is mechanical — twice as many matches — and it needs careful tracking, because the losers' bracket fills in an order that is anything but intuitive, and a tournament where nobody knows who plays whom is a tournament that is over.
Groups followed by a knockout are the best compromise: every player meets everyone in their group before anyone goes out — three matches in a group of four, two in a group of three — and those matches run in parallel across all the boards. The catch is that you have to write down the tie-breaking order in advance: wins, then leg difference, then the head-to-head.
Round robin, where everyone plays everyone, only holds up with a small field. At sixteen players it is 120 matches and 29 hrs 55 min on two boards: keep this one for eight players at most, or for a full day.
Which game, and how long a match
The standard is 501, double out, best of three legs — the BO3 in the selector above: about 25 minutes a match, the rhythm everybody knows. 301 cuts a third off the matches and suits a beginners' field — but leave it straight in, because double in turns a friendly tournament into target practice on the double 10.
Cricket changes what the tournament is: less dependent on finishing, more tactical, and longer with it. It is a good format when the standards are mixed, because a player who is steady on the single beds stays competitive against someone hitting trebles.
Lengthen the matches as the stakes rise: best of three in the qualifying rounds, best of five from the semi-finals. The planner does not switch format mid-tournament — it adds five minutes a match on the decisive rounds, because they are played more slowly. To cost out genuine best-of-five finals, pick BO5 in the selector: the figure you get is the upper bound for your tournament.
A single leg — one leg, winner through — is the lever that rescues an overloaded tournament: thirty-two players on two boards go from 8 hrs 5 min at best of three to 3 hrs 59 min in single legs. It also changes the nature of the thing, since one bad visit puts you out. The usual compromise keeps single legs for the qualifying rounds and lengthens from the quarter-finals.
Standards a long way apart? Two levers. A staggered start — the good players from 501, the beginners from 301 — which evens things out without changing any rules. Or seeding: rank the players by feel and spread them through the groups or the bracket so the two best do not meet in round one.
The rules to put in writing
One sheet of A4 pinned up by the board settles most disputes before they happen. What it has to decide:
- The measurements. The centre of the bull 5 ft 8 in off the floor, the throwing line 7 ft 9¼ in measured along the floor. A visible line, or failing that a strip of tape: “about there” always ends up being argued over in the final.
- Who throws first. One dart at the bull each, nearest starts the first leg, and the throw alternates leg by leg after that.
- The checkout rule. Double out by default. If you allow master out or straight out, write it down — it is the rule most often misremembered.
- Busts and lost darts. Go past zero and the visit counts for nothing: the score goes back to where it started. A dart that bounces out or misses the board scores nothing and is not thrown again.
- Late arrivals. Set a threshold and hold to it: ten minutes late costs the first leg, fifteen the match. Without one written down, a single late player shifts the whole bracket.
- Ties in a group. Wins, then leg difference, then the head-to-head, and a deciding leg if everything is level. Decided after the fact, that order always leaves someone aggrieved.
- Quiet at the oche. Nobody talks behind the player throwing, and everyone stands back from the line. It takes thirty seconds to say at the briefing and it heads off half the friction of the night.
Marking and refereeing
Marking is the weak link in every first tournament. Name a marker for each match, and rotate them by a simple rule: the loser of the previous match marks the next one, or the players due on after it. They turn up on time, and they pick up the rhythm of the bracket.
Write the remaining score down after every visit, not just the total scored: that is what lets you reconstruct a disputed leg. When there is a disagreement about a finish that cannot be done, the checkout chart settles it in two seconds.
The bracket has to be visible from across the room and updated within a minute of each result. A bracket that lags behind means an organiser answering “who's on?” twenty times over instead of keeping the boards turning.
On what? A chalkboard is immediate but gets wiped — so it leaves nothing to separate the groups on. A printed match sheet files away and serves as evidence. A scoring app is quicker and works out the averages, but depends on a battery and a signal: whichever you pick, try it over a full match before the day itself.
The logistics checklist
The board and its wall
- —A sisal board in good condition, with the wires still readable
- —A light above the board, throwing no shadow from the player
- —Something protecting the wall around it: a board surround, a mat, an old rug
- —The throwing line marked on the floor, or an oche mat
The space
- —A metre of room behind the throwing line
- —A way past that does not cross the line of throw
- —Room for the bracket and for spectators, out of the thrower's eyeline
- —A visible clock, and a finish time announced
The kit
- —Two sets of darts to lend
- —Spare flights and stems: something always breaks
- —Marker pens, tape, a cloth
- —The bracket, the rules and the match sheets, printed
Looking after people
- —Water, and something to eat past the three-hour mark
- —The prizes out and visible from the start
- —The entry list, with phone numbers
- —A five-minute briefing before the first match
Entry fees, budget and prizes
Among friends, a simple pot does the job: five pounds a player, split by a formula announced before entries open. It is the first thing a tournament falls out over, and the only one you can avoid entirely with a written sentence.
In a pub, a ten-pound entry that includes a drink works well, and the landlord often has an interest in funding the prizes — you are filling the room on a weeknight. Negotiate that before you announce anything.
For a club night, twenty players at ten pounds gives a budget that holds: two hundred pounds in, a hundred out in prizes split 60 / 30 / 10, forty on refreshments, thirty on supplies — sheets, loan darts, tape — and thirty put aside to start the next one off.
Token prizes often count for more than the amount: a trophy, however modest, a free entry to the next one, a shirt. Twenty pounds more in the pot does not photograph.
What sinks a first tournament
- Opening entries with no cap. Twenty-six players turn up for one board and the tournament runs eight hours. The cap comes from the time you have, not from not wanting to turn anyone away.
- Drawing the bracket on the night. Have the empty bracket ready and write the names in as people arrive. Otherwise it is forty minutes of milling about before the first dart, while the room fills up and the mood drains away.
- Not announcing a finish time. Without one, nobody knows whether they can go and eat, and the final gets played to an empty room.
- Improvising the marking. A disputed score with nothing written down means a replayed match and twenty minutes lost for everybody.
- Skipping the briefing. Five minutes covers it: the format, the checkout rule, who marks, where the bracket is, what time it finishes.
- Putting off the prizes. They are handed out straight after the final, while the players are still there. A presentation pushed back to midnight happens in front of six people.
Frequently asked questions about running a tournament
How many players for a first tournament?▼
Between eight and sixteen. Eight players in a single-elimination bracket fit into 2 hrs 5 min on two boards; sixteen need 4 hrs 5 min. Past that you want another board or a whole day, not an evening.
How long does a sixteen-player tournament take?▼
About 4 hrs 5 min single elimination on two boards, with 501 matches at best of three legs — but 7 hrs 40 min on a single board. The number of boards matters more than the format you choose. Add half an hour of welcome and entries on top.
How many boards do you need for twenty-four players?▼
Two at the very least, three to fit it into an evening: 6 hrs 5 min on two boards, 5 hrs 5 min on three. On one board the tournament runs past eleven hours and nobody is left for the final — at that size, shorten the matches to single legs or move to groups.
Which format works when the standards are very mixed?▼
Groups followed by a knockout: everyone plays two or three matches whatever their standard, depending on the group size. A staggered start — 501 for the good players, 301 for the beginners — evens things out further without changing a single rule.
Should you play 501 or 301?▼
501 with double out is the standard, around fifteen minutes a match. 301 cuts a third off the matches and suits a beginners' field, as long as you leave it straight in: double in turns a friendly tournament into target practice.
How do you separate two players level in a group?▼
By wins, then leg difference, then the head-to-head, and finally a deciding leg. The order of those has to be written down before the first match: decided afterwards, it always leaves someone aggrieved.
More questions? See the full FAQ