I’m reasonably happy with the Premier League. If you accept that the top four are always going to be in it, then the wild cards are pretty much the next highest seeds excepting those (Anderson, Searle, Wade) who wouldn’t want to do it. The only guy who’s been screwed is Danny Noppert.
I understand why they’ve not picked Noppert. Hopefully he continues to improve this season and then it could look quite different next season
Wade very much wanted to do it (or at least wanted to be asked)
bet365 has Clayton with the shortest odds for finishing bottom of the premier league table
which is mad cos his record is impeccable - in 3 full seasons he’s always qualified for the play offs, one time he won the play offs and another time he topped the table after the league phase
whereas Bunting finished bottom last year in his first full appearance since 2015
I can’t believe I’d not heard of this.
Pairs game and Beau’s partner isn’t hitting big scores. But Beau his three 180s and then nails tops first dart. So in the leg she threw 10 perfect darts. Complete madness 
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from Mardle’s book (which is really really great)
for context, Manley and Mardle were in the prem nearly 20 years ago, so I’d say that £2m a year for 10 years is not actually as insane as it may first sound
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I’d love to see a chart of annual dartboard sales from 2000-2022 and then 2023-2025. I suspect that there have been more boards purchased in the last 3 years than in the 20 previous years combined. Including magnetic/soft-tip
God if this trend continues by 2045 the loser will have a higher average than the winner
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Has happened a few times
Wiggy will absolutely love this
Would be interested to see how the losing player’s average in earlier rounds has changed over time. Feel like the best in the world has stayed at a fairly consistent level from Taylor to MVG to Humphries to Littler. The top 5 or so has gone up a bit but the 6-32 area has absolutely shot up in the last 5-10 years
What’s the second biggest spectator sport in the UK now? Feels like darts could get there if it isn’t already. Can’t really be arsed looking.
Depends what metric you use. On numbers attending it’s horse racing (4.8m in 2024), on viewing figures it’s supposedly cricket, except it might be rugby union or tennis, and in pubs it’s boxing.
Assume with these three it depends whether you’re looking at averages or totals? Feels instinctively like Cricket & Tennis are more popular but there are fewer events and exclusively in the summer
I’m pretty sure one of the recent world finals (maybe the Luke Luke final) was the highest viewing figures for a single event on Sky Sports that wasn’t premier league football
which is incredible really, and is why the prize money was able to double vs last year, the PDC were quite reasonably able to get more money out of them
I watched a documentary series on the Hearns and they say in it that they earn more from darts than all their other sports combined, which surprised me a bit given how active they are in boxing especially. No wonder the Saudis have offered them a couple of billion.
925 people took part in q school this week and entry to that costs £475 + VAT
I think a few people get free entry to Q school but that must still be over £400,000 in fees to run a week of darts matches without an audience
someone won a match at darts q school with a 33 average and a 77 dart leg 
it me
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