Sign up for the World Darts Championship

The Rules

This is roughly how the game works:

• Pick one player for every match.
• If your player wins, you earn 3 points.
• You may pick the same player at most 2 times.
• You have 2 jokers to double your points for a match:
  • 1 joker up to and including round 3
  • 1 joker from round 4 onwards
• In the semi-finals your points are automatically doubled:
  • Win = 6 points
  • With joker = 12 points
• In the final your points are automatically tripled:
  • Win = 9 points
  • With joker = 18 points

For the full rules: click here

In Match 1 Fred picks Michael van Gerwen. Michael van Gerwen plays Gary Anderson in that round and wins 3 sets to 1. Fred gets 3 points for the win of Michael van Gerwen, 3 sets for and 1 set against.

In Match 1 Ginger picks Gary Anderson. So Gary Anderson plays Michael van Gerwen and loses 1 set to 3. Ginger gets 0 points for the loss of Gary Anderson. The standings now look like this:

In Match 2 Fred picks Luke Littler. Luke Littler plays Mervyn King in that match and loses 0 sets to 3. Fred gets 0 points for the loss of Luke Littler, 0 sets for and 3 sets against.

In Match 2 Ginger also picks Luke Littler. So she also gets 0 points, 0 sets for and 3 sets against. The standings now look like this:

Suppose Fred had used a joker in Match 2. Then his result in Match 2 would have been doubled: 0 points, 0 sets for and 6 sets against.

We don't know what a good tactic is. It comes down to knowledge, skill, insight and pure luck.

There are 127 matches and 128 players. You may pick each player at most 2 times. Watch out: it can all be over after 1 round, because a loss means the end of the tournament (for that darts player, of course).

For using your jokers, too, we don't know what the best tactic is. It does seem wise to play a joker on a match where you are fairly sure your chosen player will win.

But in the end, things never go quite the way you planned.