A darts tournament uses one of four formats, or a mix: knockout (lose once and you are out), round robin (everyone plays everyone), groups then knockout, and double elimination (out after your second loss). Knockout is the fastest: n players need n − 1 matches. Round robin gives everyone the most darts but grows fast: n × (n − 1) / 2 matches. Groups and double elimination sit in between, which is why club and ranking events use them.
| Format | How you go out | Matches for n players | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knockout (single elimination) | first loss | n − 1 | many players, little time |
| Round robin | nobody goes out; best record wins | n × (n − 1) / 2 | 3 to 8 players, league nights |
| Groups, then knockout | not reaching the top places of your group, then first loss | group matches plus the knockout | 16 to 64 players who all want several matches |
| Double elimination | second loss | 2n − 2, or 2n − 1 if the final is played twice | club events where one bad match should not end your day |
The match counts are standard results for these formats (Wikipedia, "Single-elimination tournament", "Round-robin tournament", "Double-elimination tournament"). The tables below apply them to typical field sizes.
Which format fits 8, 16 or 32 players
Derived from the formulas above; a match is one pairing, however many legs you play in it. Groups are groups of 4 with the top 2 going through to a knockout.
| Players | Knockout | Round robin | Groups of 4, top 2 to knockout | Double elimination |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 3 | 6 | not needed | 6 or 7 |
| 6 | 5 (2 byes) | 15 | not needed | 10 or 11 |
| 8 | 7 | 28 | 2 groups: 12 + 3 = 15 | 14 or 15 |
| 12 | 11 (4 byes) | 66 | 3 groups: 18 + 5 (a knockout of 6 with 2 byes) = 23 | 22 or 23 |
| 16 | 15 | 120 | 4 groups: 24 + 7 = 31 | 30 or 31 |
| 32 | 31 | 496 | 8 groups: 48 + 15 = 63 | 62 or 63 |
How long a match takes depends on your format (best of 3 legs is much shorter than best of 7) and on your players, so plan the time with your own numbers: matches × your typical match length ÷ the number of boards you have.
Knockout (single elimination)
Players are paired, the winner goes on, the loser is out, until two players meet in the final. The format "works best" when the number of players is a power of two (4, 8, 16, 32); otherwise some players get a bye in round one (German Wikipedia, "K.-o.-System").
- Byes: next power of two minus the number of players. 12 players make a bracket of 16 with 4 byes; 20 players make 32 with 12 byes. The WDF's tournament rules ask organizers to "arrange preliminary matches so as to eliminate all 'byes' from the first round proper" (WDF 11.02): with 20 players, 8 players play 4 preliminary matches and the 4 winners join the other 12 in a round of 16.
- Seeding: standard seeding pairs the highest seed with the lowest, 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6 and 4 v 5 in an 8-seed draw, so the top two seeds can only meet in the final. Wikipedia names the World Darts Championship, with 32 seeds, as an example.
- Drawback: only first and second place are really decided. Half the field plays just one match.
Knockout sheet for 8 players (seeded):
| Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final |
|---|---|---|
| 1 v 8 | winner 1/8 v winner 4/5 | |
| 4 v 5 | winner of the top half v winner of the bottom half | |
| 3 v 6 | winner 3/6 v winner 2/7 | |
| 2 v 7 |
The PDC World Championship is a knockout of 128 players, all of whom start in round one; our World Championship format page has its rounds and sets.
Round robin (everyone plays everyone)
Each player meets every other player once. The winner is the player with the best record. It is the fairest format and the slowest: every added player adds a match against everyone already in.
- Order of play: with an even number of players, everyone plays in every round and you need n − 1 rounds. With an odd number, add a "dummy" player: whoever is drawn against the dummy has a bye that round (Wikipedia, "Round-robin tournament").
- Ranking: agree the tie-breaks before you start. The German federation ranks its round-robin groups by "gewonnene Spiele, Legdifferenz, gewonnene Legs, direkter Vergleich" (matches won, leg difference, legs won, head to head), then highest score in 9 darts (DDV Sport- und Wettkampfordnung §22).
Round robin schedule for 4, 5 and 6 players (made with the circle method; players numbered 1 to 6):
| Round | 4 players | 5 players (one bye each round) | 6 players |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 v 4, 2 v 3 | 2 v 5, 3 v 4, bye 1 | 1 v 6, 2 v 5, 3 v 4 |
| 2 | 1 v 3, 2 v 4 | 1 v 5, 2 v 3, bye 4 | 1 v 5, 4 v 6, 2 v 3 |
| 3 | 1 v 2, 3 v 4 | 1 v 4, 3 v 5, bye 2 | 1 v 4, 3 v 5, 2 v 6 |
| 4 | 1 v 3, 2 v 4, bye 5 | 1 v 3, 2 v 4, 5 v 6 | |
| 5 | 1 v 2, 4 v 5, bye 3 | 1 v 2, 3 v 6, 4 v 5 |
Copy this into a table with one row per player and columns for matches won, legs won and legs lost.
Groups, then a knockout
Split the field into round-robin groups, then send the top players of each group into a knockout. Everyone gets several matches, and the knockout still gives you a clear final.
This is how the German federation (DDV) runs one version of its Saturday ranking events: groups of 3 to 6 players, best of 5 legs, "es kommen die ersten 2 je Gruppe weiter ins KO-Feld" (the top 2 of each group go into the knockout), then best of 7 legs. The group winners are crossed with the runners-up of another group: winner of group 1 against the runner-up of the last group, and so on, so two players from the same group cannot meet again straight away (DDV §22(1)b).
A simple plan for 16 players: 4 groups of 4 (6 matches per group), the top 2 of each group into quarter-finals, winner of group A against runner-up of group D, winner of B against runner-up of C, and so on.
Double elimination (double knockout)
You are out after your second loss. The bracket splits into a winners' bracket and a losers' bracket: whoever loses for the first time drops into the losers' bracket and keeps playing there. The winners of both brackets meet in the final (Wikipedia, "Double-elimination tournament").
- The final: the player from the losers' bracket already has one loss, so the final is often set up as a possible two matches: the losers' bracket winner has to win twice, the winners' bracket winner only once. That is where the "2n − 1" comes from.
- Matches: 2n − 2, or 2n − 1 with that second final. 16 players need 30 or 31 matches, twice a knockout.
- In German club darts: the DDV plays double elimination in one version of its Saturday ranking events, with at least best of 5 legs in the winners' bracket and best of 3 in the losers' bracket. In the board final "muss der Gewinner der Verliererrunde gegen den Gewinner der Gewinnerrunde zweimal ... gewinnen" (the losers' side winner has to beat the winners' side winner twice) (DDV §22(1)a). For its double-knockout draws the DDV places the byes at fixed positions (§52): with a 16-player sheet, the first bye goes to position 16, the second to position 8, and so on.
Because players on the losers' side play more matches (Wikipedia gives the example of a 16-player event: 4 matches to reach the final from the winners' bracket, up to 7 from the losers' bracket), double elimination takes longer than it looks. Allow for that when you plan boards and time.
How the PDC uses these formats
The professional tour mixes the same building blocks. From the PDC's own event previews:
| Event | Format | Match length |
|---|---|---|
| World Championship | knockout, 128 players | sets, best of 5 sets in round one up to best of 13 in the final (2025/26) |
| World Matchplay | knockout, 32 players | legs, best of 19 up to best of 35; "each game must be won by two clear legs" (2026) |
| Grand Slam of Darts | "eight groups of four in the initial round-robin phase", top two of each group into the knockout | best of 9 legs in the groups, up to best of 31 (2025) |
| Premier League | 8 players; every league night is a knockout of 8 (quarter-finals, semi-finals, final) | best of 11 legs (2026) |
The Premier League is a neat model for a club season: each night the winner gets 5 points, the runner-up 3 and the two losing semi-finalists 2, and that table decides which four players reach Finals Night (PDC, April 29, 2026).
Match format inside the tournament
The tournament format decides who plays whom; the match format decides how each match is won. For X01 events the default is 501, straight in, double out (501 rules). Matches are best of an odd number of legs or sets (WDF 2.10, 2.11), and a common club choice is shorter matches early and longer ones in the final, as the DDV does with best of 5 legs in its groups and best of 9 in its final. The official rules are summarized in our darts rules guide.
Score every match with Darts Counter
Darts Counter does not draw brackets or group tables, so keep the tournament sheet on paper or a whiteboard. What the app does is score each match:
- X01 from 301 to 901, with Double Out, Master Out or Straight Out and Double In, Master In or Straight In. A fresh install starts on Straight Out, so switch to Double Out for standard 501.
- Sets and legs as "first to": for best of 5 legs, set Legs to 3.
- Cricket and Cut-Throat Cricket if your event plays Cricket.
- Any number of players in one game. With "Play out all positions" switched on, everyone plays on after the winner finishes, which gives you a full ranking for a small group in a single game.
Averages are kept for every leg, so after the event every player can see how they threw.
Keep reading
- Darts rules: the official rules the matches are played under
- Find and join a darts league: league nights, formats and national bodies
- World Championship format: a 128-player knockout played in sets
- PDC vs WDF: who runs which tournaments
Sources
Written by FLAME Apps, maker of Darts Counter since 2015. Checked 2026-09-25. The match counts per field size and the schedules are our own calculations from the formulas in the sources.
- PDC news, read through the PDC news service: World Championship 2025/26 preview, December 10, 2025; World Matchplay 2026 preview, July 17, 2026; Grand Slam of Darts 2025 preview, November 7, 2025; Premier League Night Thirteen preview, April 29, 2026
- Wikipedia, Single-elimination tournament (revision of September 14, 2026): seeding, 1 v 8 to 4 v 5, byes
- Wikipedia, Double-elimination tournament (revision of August 30, 2026): brackets, 2n − 2 or 2n − 1 games, the "bracket reset" final
- Wikipedia, Round-robin tournament (revision of September 18, 2026): n/2 × (n − 1) games, byes with an odd number of players
- Wikipedia (German), K.-o.-System (revision of August 3, 2026): powers of two, Freilos, n − 1 matches
- WDF Playing and Tournament Rules, 20th revised edition, rules 2.10, 2.11 and 11.02
- DDV Sport- und Wettkampfordnung (German, page header "Stand: 17. September 2025"), §22 and §52
