Imagine the scenes

New tournament ideas for darts: Royal Rumble, Shoot-Out, 1001 and Pick Your Pair are among Paul Nicholson's suggestions

By Paul Nicholson

Darts

Tue June 25, 2024 · 5M ago

Does the darts calendar need a little more variation when it comes to tournament formats? Paul Nicholson runs through some ideas that could be popular with fans and players.

A usual darting year is jam-packed from start to finish with a plethora of televised majors, globe-trotting ‘invitationals’, European Tour events and the essential ‘bread and butter’ ranking Players Championship tournaments away from the crowds.

Although we’ve seen some variations with formats, qualifying criteria and field sizes down the years, virtually every event is the standard 501 played over legs so there are still so many other possibilities that haven’t yet been explored in this ever-growing sport of darts.

When it comes to calendar management, we don't really appreciate the hard work that goes on in the background. So, when we talk about new tournament ideas, we’ve got to understand there’s only 52 weeks in a year and an entire month is taken by the World Championship for starters, then January is about qualifying school and holiday time for those who already have a Tour Card.

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Does the darts calendar need a little more variation when it comes to tournament formats rather than the standard 501 played over legs? Here, former major winner and leading commentator Paul Nicholson joins Sporting Life darts expert Chris Hammer and host Dom Newton to runs through some ideas that could be popular with fans and players including a Royal Rumble and a Ryder Cup!

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So when you look at things that can be potentially revamped or replaced altogether, you first and foremost look at the unranked events, such as the World Series events, rather than the bread and butter tournaments and majors.

Ultimately, to grab the public's attention once more you may have to constantly evolve the product and try to challenge the audience a little bit. Darts is a remarkably simple game to follow and watch, so if it's too complicated then the punter won’t like it.

So, it needs to be an idea that people can get a hold of quickly to understand and enjoy fast. So that's where we look at the ideas for tournaments and potentially what we can do to make time.

Let’s Get Ready to…Royal Rumble

The whole idea of having a Royal Rumble-style darts tournament floated around on social media over the past couple of years and I am going to give credit to Matthew Edgar from Edgar TV, because he released a little video on his channel about how it would work.

Being a wrestling fan myself – I don’t have much time to watch it anymore - but I love the idea of having ‘mystery’ opponents coming out on stage and I think the PDC have missed a trick by never doing it before.

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A little like the 'Challengers' we've seen during past Premier League seasons, this time the PDC could unveiled one unknown opponent behind a curtain each week, and when their music hits, there’s a huge reaction from the crowd and then the player on stage.

That’s a great idea in itself, but Matt took it one step further by thinking of a way to create a full Royal Rumble out of it.

He thought of having four different groups, with a seeded player in each waiting on the board for his first mystery opponent. The winner of that match stays on for another mystery opponent and so on.

All four winners during an afternoon session would then advance to the semi-finals and final during the evening.

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I’m sure you’d agree that there’s a lot of potential in this, but the PDC and media would have to keep it a secret without leaks in order to maximise the excitement and drama for the fans.

Imagine Rob Cross, for example, wins a match, the arena goes quiet in suspense and then Phil Taylor’s music hits! Where did that come from!? Social media would go into meltdown with surprise twists like this – let alone the crowd in the arena.

If it’s a one-day gig, not taken too seriously and includes some players plucked from retirement, I can’t see how anyone wouldn’t enjoy this.

My own personal take on this Royal Rumble idea is as follows.

Firstly, it would be a one-night tournament played just once in the entire season.

If there were 30 players involved like the original Royal Rumble in wrestling, you’d definitely need the top 10 in the world involved, then there would be a qualifying event for another 10 spots - but preferably held secretly – and then there would be 10 wildcards selected by the PDC and the chosen broadcaster to maximise drama and ensure shock factor. Only they would know.

On the night itself, one player from the qualifiers is drawn randomly to start on stage and his opponent comes out and they play a best-of-three 501 match. It has to be cut-throat and short. I wouldn't want the matches be best-of-19 legs for instance – that’s too long and you need fans really engaged from the off.

As soon as the match-winning double is hit, a big countdown clock in the arena starts ticking from 10 to 1, with the crowd chanting along with it. As soon as it hits zero, the curtain lifts up and the next player’s music hits.

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It's so important that the audience and social media do not know who the first two players are too. As soon as they see the walk-on of number one, they think “oh he's got to go through all of this whole thing to win it.”

And then there’s the drama of who he plays first. There’d have to be a social media blackout backstage so nobody lets the cat out of the bag.

Like the Royal Rumble, it has to be unfairly hard for the players at the start so there’s no breaks either.

I’d personally have 32 players in this tournament and if you happen to be the 32nd one coming out onto the stage, you do only have to win a best-of-three match to win the title!

Imagine MVG coming out as number one and getting all the way to the very end only to lose that last match!

Whether the draw is created to incite extra drama – or completely random – you could argue the case for both. It’s all about having fun, rather than being taken too seriously as a ranking event.

Finally, I’d have this event staged in Scotland or Ireland to make it as mad as possible. It can’t be in England as they have a plethora of events already.

I want to commentate on this thing so badly. It gets my juices flowing and we are screaming for this right now. This has got to be done.

I think darts as a product is fantastic as it stands but the constant evolution of our sport does hinge on how we intensify things in the future.

1001 Shoot Out

We know how much the snooker Shoot Out is loved by the public. It's got a different atmosphere for starters and it doesn't take a great deal of time to have so many players involved across a weekend.

Why isn’t darts doing this already? We could get this done in possibly a day or two and it would be a great weekend spectacle. You could do it on a Friday night and then all day on the Saturday, for example.

You could have a simple structure of the players ranked in the top 64 of the Order of Merit at the start of the year. If any of them can’t make it for whatever reason, then you have reserves, but you’ve got to keep this qualification format simple as it’s so unique.

The player ranked one in the world would start against 64, second would play 63 and so on in a straight knockout format.

Each match is played over just one leg of 1001 so the eventual champion would effectively have to win seven legs in a weekend!

I personally think that this event could be ranked even though the format is so short. A lot of people would disagree with that but you do see some players get knocked out of ranked events in less than 20 minutes if they get thrashed so what’s the difference?!

It might be a bit cut-throat but so was the old News of the World tournament which was 501 best-of-three legs – and that was regarded as one of the most prestigious and toughest to win at the time.

Would this format suit the heavier scorers? Yes it would, but everyone would have to adapt and find their own tactics and put pressure on their opponents.

I believe this event would captivate the public and give them something completely different to stay on the edges of their seats. There would be no lull period in any match – you have to stay glued to it from start to finish. The format intensifies the standard game and will get everyone talking.

Although a nine-darter is obviously impossible, the perfect leg in 1001 would be achieved in 17. You could end up on 101 after five visits and then go 51-bullseye finish for the 17-darter.

That’s so difficult, you could get a bookmaker or sponsor to offer a prize of £1million as a publicity stunt because it really won’t be done!

Bob Anderson once did a 14-darter from 701, but this would be another level!

It might be a short-lived tournament for the losing players in the first round but at least – unlike the snooker shoot-out – they are guaranteed a few visits! Some players in the snooker version, which is ranking, might travel half the way around the world and not pot a ball.

You could also make the bull-off at the start of the match a best-of-three because it would be so crucial in a one-leg match.

Pick your pairs

We don’t play enough pairs events – which were a popular part of the BDO tour back in the day – and every time the World Cup comes around in the PDC, everybody gets really excited.

At the start of the World Cup, people said it’s a bit of a novelty, but look at it now?

The intricacy of playing pairs as opposed to singles is very, very different and that’s what makes it so fascinating and enjoyable for competitors and fans alike.

I would have a pairs event where the top 16 players in the world automatically qualify. In terms of how they pick their partners, you could go down two possible routes.

Option one would be ‘Blind Pairs’. This is where the top seed – Michael van Gerwen – would draw out a number that corresponds to a player ranked 17-32 in the world, with the second seed drawing the next number and so on. That’s obviously pretty dangerous because you could end up with someone you don’t even like!

The other option intrigues me even more. In ranking order, the seeds choose their partner from anyone outside the world’s top 16. Can you imagine the excitement around that? It would fascinate fans as much as the tournament itself!

What if, for example, Michael Smith wanted the player that Peter Wright picked before him?! He’ll have to think of someone else.

There’s every chance that whoever is ranked 17th in the world doesn’t end up being picked – because players will make personal choices that aren’t to do with rankings.

MVG would definitely pick Vincent van der Voort because they are so close, Peter Wright would probably go for Mervyn King and Gerwyn Price would go Welsh with Jonny Clayton. But, who knows who James Wade would pick for example!

This whole process could be a 45-minute special on Sky Sports a week before the tournament and would make for fascinating viewing.

As for the format, it could be group stage or knockout – but whatever it is, we really need more pairs.

I don’t like cricket, I love it

When you go to bars and clubs in North America and ask them what format of darts game they’re playing, they’ll all say cricket! Every single one is playing cricket. They might play the odd game of what they call “01” which ranges from 301 to 1001 but predominantly the people in the States and Canada play cricket.

So, this is the key to unlocking darts in North America – we need a World Cricket Championship to return.

We did have one back in 2010 in Las Vegas when Phil Taylor won it, but it was never done again.

There was a great uptake of people playing cricket when we were in Vegas because they knew how to play it. The players knew their tactics when it came to this game and it could help them beat the Europeans – and for the most part they did.

The general idea is to lock your opponents out of the scoring sections of the board – which are 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and Bullseye – and you also have to score in those targets.

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It is very hard to explain – especially written down – but it is easy to learn, especially when you’re with someone who knows how to play. There are YouTube videos out there which attempt to explain it but I do think if it does become a televised Cricket tournament in the UK, there will have to be some kind of documentary the day before to explain the game and the complexities!

This is probably the reason why this has never got off the ground because the best things you watch on TV are all simple and Cricket is not simple until you get to know it. It's quite a complicated beast.

But here's the thing about the States and Canada – they all know how to play it. They find it easier to play Cricket than an “01” game for whatever reason, while it’s also huge in the Far East on soft tip boards.

If we had good tutorials and commentators who knew the format inside out, then this could be fun for all darts fans to watch around the world.

Would it catch on with all fans? I think there are two sets of darts fans at the moment. The ones who have been watching since the 1970s who tend to like the standard 501 format but also the younger fans who are becoming more aware of the soft tip scene and other varieties of games.

In terms of whether the players would be up for it, if you go to Pro Tour events and watch them warming up, quite often you’ll see them playing cricket.

This all started when the Dart Connect system was installed in all venues and allowed them to mix up how they practiced using the tablets on every board rather than the old school whiteboards.

The pros all know how to play it - as well as those around the world - so let’s put a tournament on! We’ve got to start somewhere so why not now?

The public crave something different and this could be it.

A world championship could even be played on the soft tip Dartslive 3 boards, which light up and give off sound effects depending on which segment and score you hit.

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I’ve been to Asia and played on these boards and it’s like walking into the Tron of darts! It’s amazing, and you don’t want to leave these venues when you get there! If you put one of these boards on the stage - without the traditional scoring referee – and had the best players from around the world up against the established names of the steel tip game, the public would be fascinated.

This would also crack two different markets with one stone – cricket and soft tip – and show all darts fans that there’s more to this great game than 501 in steel tip.

More Double starts

Primarily, I’d love to see more double-start darts on the calendar but I’m also keen for the PDC to introduce other formats.

The standard 501 best-of-11 legs format has been done to death and younger players coming through are so used to it that they tend to get found out when it extends to best of 19 or set play.

There’s not enough flexibility and in an entire season we get one double-start tournament – the World Grand Prix – and one pairs event – the World Cup. Surely there’s scope for more?

How about every European Tour event that has ‘Grand Prix’ in its title becomes a double-start event? It would certainly help the standard of this format improve by the time the World Grand Prix comes round.

Master Out

What I like about this next idea is that it challenges some of the purists of the game and it almost brings some other people from the world of darts together.

If you go into Asia and into Central Europe they play a lot of Master Out darts, where you can finish on a treble as well as a double. The only two ways you can’t finish on the board in this format is the 25 or a big single.

Having these rules in force would also encourage people to try and finish with a 180! Someone would love to hit a nine-darter with eight treble 20s, with a treble seven in there at some point!

You could potentially finish 159 by going two treble 20s and treble 13 and there would be many other numbers up for grabs that aren’t currently possible.

An event like this would be very easy to educate the public about because it’s only one tiny thing that’s different to the norm. A bit like how the World Grand Prix is ‘just’ starting on a double – it’s in essence a small change but everyone thinks it’s massively different and unique.

Although being able to finish on a treble as well as a double is just a change of target, it does bring in a whole new range of checkouts, which in turn makes players think differently about what scores they’d want to leave and therefore use the board with more variety.

I think this will appeal to some of the guys who played Master Out in Central Europe like Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler but it would also play into the hands of MVG because of the amount he uses treble 19 – and the same could be said for Darius Labanauskas and Madars Razma.

This idea would only be used for one tournament a year – potentially on the European Tour – and from there people could argue its merits and downfalls before deciding if it has a long-term future on the calendar. But for me it’s very simple and could be executed easily.

Some people may grumble and say you’ve got to finish on a double otherwise it’s not proper darts. But the dart board is one of the most flexible pieces of sporting equipment you can find and you can break it down into thousands of different variables.

It’ll also make the officials job a bit more difficult of course! All of a sudden they’d have to be on their toes to say “Gerwyn, you require 159!”

One last thing about this idea – you could take it one step further and make it Master In Master Out – whereby you have to start a leg on a double or a treble as well as finishing that way.

In Germany they stage a lot of soft tip darts festivals with Master In Master Out rules, so we’ve got to realise there are more types of games out there to try.

There’s other variations like only a double in but then Master Out but if you have too many different types of tournament it does affect the overall consistency of the tour.

Major moves

I want more major tournaments held outside of England.

Now I am also a fan of tradition so I’m not calling for the World Championship to leave Ally Pally or the World Matchplay to leave Blackpool while the UK Open obviously has to stay in Britain – but we could see some movement elsewhere.

The Players Championship Finals are held at the same venue as the UK Open in Minehead due to a promotional deal but should any specific location have two majors?

I would like to see the World Grand Prix return to Ireland but if that’s not possible then it should be given to a different country other than England.