As edifying as turkey and all the trimmings, the tasty match-ups at the World Darts Championship have become an unmissable fixture of the festive period.
But darts is for life, not just for Christmas, and punters should be aware that the stacked PDC calendar ensures there are so many chances to bet on the sport throughout the year.
Most will naturally opt for the match-winner betting market when having a wager on the darts, but there’s another option for bettors that can, in theory, make it a little easier to predict than trying to analyze who will win a game.
So here’s your guide to betting on 180s in darts.
Making a Score
It comes as absolutely no surprise to learn that the favorites in the PDC World Darts betting are all amongst the heaviest 180 hitters in the sport – from Michael van Gerwen (+300) and Luke Humphries (+400) to Stephen Bunting (+750) and Michael Smith (+1000).
Those watching along at home have been having fun with a darts name generator, coming up with their own nickname based upon their unique character traits and interests, while tungsten titans like ‘MVG’, ‘Cool Hand Luke’, ‘The Bullet’ and ‘Bully Boy’ battle it out for honors in London.
There are, in essence, two elements to darts: the scoring phase, which dictates how quickly a player gets their 501 starting score down to a checkout, and the finishing phase; the ability of a player to hit the double that wins the leg, set or match.
The latter can be riddled with variance: hitting the winning double comes with its own unique pressures, which ramp up the difficulty of a sport governed by millimeters at the best of times.
But the scoring phase? That tends to be more predictable, with players famed for their 180 prowess generally taking that skillset with them wherever they go. Two of the most prolific maximum hitters in world darts, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Ross Smith, proved as much when they broke a long-standing record at the 2023 World Championships.
All of which can be a source of much interest for bettors…
Getting to Know You
In the interests of impartiality, we won’t call out the many different darts stats sites and social media channels that can act as the base for your darts betting research – a quick Google search will ensure that you strike gold in that regard.
But there’s one metric in particular that we want to shine a light on: 180s per leg.
Many stats sites offer a cumulative look at this data point over the course of an entire PDC darts campaign, which can be a fantastic insight when plotting your darts bets that focus on maximum hitting.
There’s a handful of 180 betting markets that you can explore, including the head-to-head option – which of the two players will throw the most maximums in the game?
If you want to spread your risk, you can also bet on the total 180s market – this offers a simple over or under line, which can be breached should one or both players have a good day at the office (or the opposite, if you opt for the ‘unders’ line).
The 180s per leg stat is preferable to simply using a total 180s metric, because some players on the PDC tour play in more games/tournaments than others – therefore, they are more likely to throw maximums due to their increased time on the oche.
But maximums per leg treats all players the same, offering a better basis for comparison when predicting how a match will shape up. And while this isn’t a silver bullet for your wagering – darts players are humans, not machines, and may not perform to their normal levels every game, it can certainly add a new dimension to your darts betting portfolio.