To find a darts league, start with the body that runs darts where you live: most national federations list their affiliated leagues or regional associations, and in the US both the steel tip and the soft tip bodies have a directory. Then ask at the pubs and clubs near you that have boards, because many leagues are run locally. A typical league is teams from different venues meeting once a week for a match night of singles and team games, mostly 501 and Cricket.
| Where you live | Steel tip (bristle board) | Soft tip (electronic) |
|---|---|---|
| United States | American Darts Organization: "Current Affiliations", a list of member leagues and associations by state | National Dart Association: "Find A League", search by zip code or state |
| Canada | National Darts Federation of Canada, with provincial affiliations | not researched |
| Scotland | Scottish Darts Association, with county darts | not researched |
| Wales | Welsh Darts Organisation, with inter-county play | not researched |
| Australia | Darts Australia; each state and territory has its own association | not researched |
| Germany | Deutscher Dart-Verband (DDV) and its 15 state associations | Deutscher Sportautomatenbund (DSAB) and regional leagues |
| Austria, Switzerland | Österreichischer Darts Verband; Swiss Darts Association | not researched |
| Anywhere else | your country's member body on the WDF members page |
All checked on the bodies' own websites on September 25, 2026. England's member body is listed by the WDF at englanddarts.co.uk, but the site did not load for us. Who these bodies are, and how they relate to the PDC, is on our PDC vs WDF page.
Step by step: joining a league
- Pick steel or soft tip. Steel tip leagues play on bristle boards and keep score by hand or with an app; soft tip leagues play on electronic machines that score for you. The rules differ, for example the throw distance: 2.37 m for steel tip, 8 ft (96 in) under NDA soft tip rules (see our darts rules).
- Find the league. Use the directory of your national body (table above) or ask the venue: in the US soft tip world, leagues are organised by the NDA's "charterholders", the operators who place and service the machines (NDA).
- Ask about the format before the first night: which games, how many legs, singles or team games, and which checkout rule. Many leagues play 501 double out; soft tip leagues often play open in, open out (NDA).
- Ask about divisions. Leagues often split players by level. The NDA gives soft tip players a skill rating once they have played "a minimum of 24 league games in a league season". The German soft tip body DSAB plays 301 single out in its lowest class and 501 double out from its A class up (DSAB league rules 1.1).
- Join a team or ask to be put on one. Most leagues are team competitions between venues.
How a league night works
Each league writes its own rules, so treat this as the common pattern, not a rule book.
- Teams from two venues meet at one of them. The match is made up of individual games, singles and often pairs or team games, and every game won counts for the team.
- 501 is the standard game. "When two teams play, the starting score is sometimes increased to 701 or even 1001; the rules remain the same" (Wikipedia, "Darts"). That is what "701 league" or "1001 league" usually refers to.
- Cricket is common, especially in US leagues.
- Handicaps: some soft tip leagues give weaker players a head start. The NDA calls one method "spot darts": "Better players throw fewer darts at the beginning of the game."
- Stats: US soft tip leagues report points per dart (PPD) for '01 games and marks per round (MPR) for Cricket (NDA). Terms like these are in our darts glossary.
How tournaments and cup competitions are drawn, from knockouts to round robins, is in darts tournament formats.
Track your league nights with Darts Counter
Darts Counter is a scoring app, not a league manager: it does not handle fixtures, tables or team results. What it does for a league player:
- Score your practice and your matches in X01 from 301 to 901 and in Cricket, with Double Out, Master Out or Straight Out. A fresh install starts on Straight Out, so switch to Double Out for standard 501. It has no 1001 start.
- Keep your own league stats. Statistics are kept per player, so create one profile for league nights and one for practice, and compare your average, darts per leg, highest checkout and 60+, 100+ and 140+ visits. Why the two numbers often differ is on our mental game page.
- Players, not teams. The app scores players individually. For a team game from 701, some players create one player called "Team A" and enter the team's visits there, which gives you the team's score but not each player's average.
Keep reading
- Darts rules: the rules league matches are played under
- Darts tournament formats: knockout, round robin and groups
- PDC vs WDF: who is who in darts
- The mental game in darts: why league night feels different
Sources
Written by FLAME Apps, maker of Darts Counter since 2015. All sources fetched 2026-09-25.
- American Darts Organization, Current Affiliations: member leagues and associations by state
- National Dart Association, Find A League and NDA Rules: charterholders, open in and open out, skill rating after 24 league games, spot darts, PPD and MPR
- WDF, Members: national member bodies and their websites
- Deutscher Dart-Verband, Landesverbände (German): 15 state associations
- Websites of the National Darts Federation of Canada (ndfc.ca), the Scottish Darts Association (sdadarts.com), the Welsh Darts Organisation (welshdarts.org) and Darts Australia (dartsaustralia.com.au, "Structure")
- Wikipedia, Darts (revision of September 25, 2026): 701 and 1001 for team games
- DSAB-Liga-Regeln 2016 (German), rule 1.1: league classes
