How many legs in a set in darts and how many sets at the World Darts Championship final?
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DARTS scoring can appear very intimidating to uninitiated viewers. The World Darts Championship has been the biggest and best ever, but plenty of new fans have been wondering how players win matches and progress. While scoring to win an individual leg will not change, each round at Alexandra Palace sees the players needing to win a different number of sets.
![[Michael van Gerwen and Luke Littler met in the final of the World Darts Championship]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/luke-littler-congratulates-michael-van-893459807.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
With the darts extravaganza set ending on Friday, January 3, here's how darts scoring is worked out. A leg is the way that darts is scored, with all players starting each leg on a score of 501 and have can only when they get down to 0. However, players must 'checkout' on a double - get themselves down to an even score and then hit the relevant outer ring of the board.
For example, a player might work down to a score of 40 and then checkout on a double 20. The maximum score during one trip to the oche is 180, which entails players scoring three 'treble' 20s - the inner ring on the board. The quickest way to win a leg is to hit the famed 'nine-darter' - using just nine darts to get down to 0.
There have only been 99 televised nine-darters ever with only 14 of those coming at the World Championships. Darts sponsor Paddy Power have confirmed they will pay players a £60,000 bonus for every nine-dart finish they hit during the tournament - plus another £60,000 to one person in the crowd.
