Few sports have a relationship with its spectators quite like darts.
It's a sport built to be watched; it's head-to-head, high-frequency, with a calendar packed full of televised tournaments and an audience who can match an occasion with the appropriate amount of noise.
From the packed floors of Alexandra Palace to the Premier League arenas that tour the country each spring, darts has become one of the most watched and most bet-on sports in the UK. And with good reason.
In this article, we take a whistle-stop tour of the sport’s colourful history, cover how darts betting works and explore the popular markets you’ll find at MONOPOLY Casino & Sports – and how each one works.
A sport with genuine character
Darts has been played in British pubs since at least the 19th century, though the precise origins of the game are contested enough to have spawned a minor academic dispute or two.
What's not disputed is that by the time the British Darts Organisation formalised the sport in 1973, darts already had a culture: loud, communal, unashamedly working class and entirely its own.
The sport's television history began in earnest with the BBC's coverage of the World Masters in the 1970s, and the Embassy World Professional Darts Championship - first held at Nottingham's Heart of the Midlands casino in 1978 - established the template for what major darts would become.
The venue moved to the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Surrey in 1986, and for the next decade and a half that carpet, those lights and that particular hush before a crucial checkout defined the sport's public image.
Then came the split. In 1993, a group of leading players broke away from the BDO to form the Professional Darts Corporation, frustrated by the organisation's approach to prize money and promotion.
The PDC held its first World Championship at Purfleet in 1994. What followed was one of the more dramatic schisms in British sporting history: two rival world championships running simultaneously for decades, two governing bodies, two different visions for what the sport could be.
The PDC won. Not immediately, and not without a long period of parallel existence, but the combination of television deals, rising prize funds and the emergence of Phil Taylor - 16 world titles across both organisations, a dominance so complete it reshaped what the sport looked like - meant the PDC gradually became the home of professional darts. The BDO ceased operations in 2020.
Taylor's legacy is the sport's most significant, but the generation that followed him has been, in its own way, even more compelling to watch.
Van Gerwen, Wright, Wade, Anderson, Cross – a field of world-class players who make each major genuinely difficult to predict. That unpredictability is part of what makes darts so interesting to follow.
The tournaments that define the calendar
The PDC calendar runs almost year-round, with tournaments of varying prestige and prize fund spread across the twelve months. A handful stand out.
The PDC World Darts Championship is the one that matters most. Held at Alexandra Palace in London every December and January, it draws the largest televised audience in the sport and the most competitive field.
Ally Pally - as it's almost universally known - has a particular atmosphere: the fancy dress, the noise, the 3,000-capacity crowd (over 5,000 when the tournament moves to the Great Hall) that treats every session as an occasion. Markets open well before Christmas, and the outright winner market remains one of the most widely engaged-with in darts all year.
The Premier League runs from February through to May, with a different arena hosting each of the sixteen weekly nights.
The format is a round robin followed by a play-off final, with eight of the sport's leading players competing across the full run. The league structure produces a sustained betting market across five months, and match odds, outright winner and nightly results all generate consistent interest.
The World Matchplay, held in Blackpool each July, and the World Grand Prix, which uniquely requires players to start and finish each leg on a double (“double in, double out”), are two further highlights of the summer and autumn calendar.
The Grand Prix's double-start rule changes the nature of the game considerably - and the markets around it - making it one of the more technically demanding tournaments on the circuit.
The Grand Slam of Darts brings together players from the PDC and BDO traditions, the latter now represented by players from smaller tours rather than the BDO itself. It rounds out the year's major tournaments before the World Championship begins.
How darts betting works
Darts betting follows the same principles as any head-to-head sport. Before a match, you can back one player to win, predict the scoreline in sets or legs or take a view on specific events within the game. During a match, in-play markets update in real time as each leg develops.
The sport's format varies by tournament. Some use sets - with each set played to a fixed number of legs - while others use a straight-legs format with no sets involved.
The World Championship uses a sets format that grows as the tournament progresses, with the first round being best of five and the final being best of 13. The Premier League uses legs throughout, also growing in number as games play out (regular nightly matches are best of 11; the final is best of 21). It's worth knowing the format before placing a set betting or legs handicap bet, since the market structure depends on it.
At MONOPOLY Casino & Sports, darts markets are available across the PDC's major tournaments, and that’s pre-match and in-play, from the opening round to the final. For a full look at the markets available and how to place a bet, our darts betting page covers it in detail.
Darts betting markets at MONOPOLY Casino & Sports
Match winner
Back one player to win the match outright. The most straightforward darts market, where if your selection wins, regardless of the scoreline, the bet lands. Odds reflect the relative quality and current form of the two players.
Correct score
Predict the exact sets or legs score at the end of the match. More precise than a match winner bet, with longer odds to reflect the additional condition. In a first-to-seven match, for example, a 7-4 correct score bet loses if the match ends 7-3 even if the same player won.
Handicap
A virtual advantage or disadvantage applied to one player's score in sets or legs.
A -1.5 sets handicap on the favourite means they need to win by at least two sets. A +1.5 on the underdog means they can lose by one set and the bet still lands.
Handicap markets in darts work the same way as in other sports: they level the market when there's a clear perceived difference in quality.
Total legs/sets
An over/under line on the total number of legs or sets played across the full match. A useful market when you have a view on how competitive the match will be without wanting to call the winner. A closely fought match will typically produce more legs than a one-sided one.
Tournament outright
Back a player to win a tournament before it begins or as it progresses. Odds update after each round as the draw opens up. One of the more widely placed darts markets, particularly for the World Championship, where outright betting opens weeks before the tournament starts.
In-play betting
Live markets run throughout each match at MONOPOLY Casino & Sports, with odds moving in real time as legs develop.
A break of throw, a missed double on a big checkout, a nine-dart finish building – darts moves quickly and in-play markets reflect that. Make your move when you feel the time is right.
What makes darts unpredictable
On paper, darts looks like a sport that should be straightforward to assess. Two players, a fixed target, a clear scoring system. In practice, it's one of the most volatile head-to-head sports to predict, and the betting markets reflect that.
Form in darts can shift within a match, let alone across a tournament. A player averaging consistently high in the early rounds can have a difficult night in the quarter-final for reasons that have nothing to do with their broader quality.
The mental side of the game - handling pressure, managing the crowd, navigating the specific atmosphere of a big occasion - is significant and difficult to quantify from averages alone.
The draw matters too. A quarter of the draw loaded with top 10 players is a different proposition to a more open section, and the route a player takes to the later rounds can affect how much they've had to put into the tournament physically and mentally.
None of this predicts outcomes - darts is always a game of chance at its core - but it gives you more to go on when assessing a match.
Getting involved at MONOPOLY Casino & Sports
Darts markets are available throughout the PDC calendar at MONOPOLY Casino & Sports, and that includes pre-match and in-play across the major tournaments, from the World Championship in December through to the Grand Slam in November. Outright markets open ahead of each tournament and stay live until a winner is crowned.
Before you place, set a budget and use the spend limit tools in your account to keep things in control. The darts calendar is long and the markets come thick and fast, particularly during busy weeks when multiple sessions run across several days.
Being selective about which matches you get involved with, and treating each one as its own decision, is a more considered way to approach a full tournament. Make your move, and stay in control of the board.
All darts betting at MONOPOLY Casino & Sports is available to UK members aged 18 and over. Play responsibly. Our full range of responsible gambling tools - spend limits, session reminders and self-exclusion - are available in your account settings.
Darts Betting FAQs
What is the difference between sets and legs in darts?
A leg is a single game of darts: starting on 501, both players reduce their score alternately and the first to reach zero on a double wins the leg. A set is a collection of legs, used in major PDC tournaments like the World Championship.
What is the PDC World Darts Championship and when is it held?
Featuring 96 players and held at Alexandra Palace, it begins in mid-December and runs through to the final in early January, making it one of the few major sporting events that spans the new year.
Can I bet on darts in-play at MONOPOLY Casino & Sports?
Yes. In-play darts markets are available throughout each match, with odds updating in real time as legs are played and the scoreline develops.
Make your move to the MONOPOLY Casino & Sports blog for more helpful content just like this. We cover a range of topics that span sports betting as well as online casino, so no matter what you choose, you can always stay sharp and play smart.
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