Luke Littler and darts rivals could win £150k in historic first-of-its-kind prize as new rule brought in
The likes of Luke Littler and Luke Humphries could become almost £150,000 richer for the sake of ten darts.
Players stand to win big at the Saudi Arabia Darts Masters, which takes place on the 19th and 20th of January, with a money-spinning new rule brought in for the tournament.
Those in action will win a whopping $100k (£74,500) should they land a nine-darter at the competition.
And that prize money will double should they then manage to hit the bullseye with the tenth dart.
The total for hitting the ‘Golden Bullseye’ is the biggest prize pot for a nine-darter in history.
Littler and Humphries will be joined by PDC World Championship runner up Gian van Veen, while Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price, Stephen Bunting and Nathan Aspinall will also compete in the Middle East later this month.
On the prize money, former World Championship semi-finalist Mark Webster said on ITV4: “If a player hits a nine-darter they will get $100,000. Not bad, is it?
“Then one single dart at the bullseye, if they can hit that with their next dart, they will receive an extra $100,000.
“So ten perfect darts is $200,000. If they did that in the first leg, it would be job done.”
It’s decent work if you can get it, especially as the winner of the Saudi Arabia Darts Masters will win just £30k from a total prize fund of £100k.
What is a nine-darter?
A nine-darter is the perfect finish in a darts leg, where a player scores 501 in the absolute minimum of nine darts, and is comparable to a maximum 147 break in snooker.
A competitor traditionally ends on a double or a bullseye and is the highest single-game achievement possible.
Players must start with back-to-back triple 20s, following by a high pressure checkout, usually involving a triple 20, a triple 19 and a double 12.
Nine-darter probability
PDC stats analyst Christopher Kempf has looked into the numbers to determine the probability of a nine-darter.
“The probability of a nine-darter is the easiest to calculate because every nine-dart leg is, essentially, the same,” Kempf said.
“Each player is positioned the same distance from the board when throwing, the boards are, with insignificant manufacturing variations, exactly the same, opponents can do nothing to interfere and most perfect legs are completed in the same way: a player attempts to hit seven consecutive treble 20s, a treble 19 and a double 12.
“Even if a player does attempt a 144 finish, his aim is always to finish in nine darts, because an eight-darter is not possible in 501 and there is no advantage to completing a ten-darter.
“Thus, because we know that players have contested 69,888 legs across 60 Players Championship events and achieved perfection 48 times, we can say that the odds of a nine-darter being completed in any particular leg are 1,456 to 1, or 2,912 to 1 per player attempt.
“Since the average PDC Tour Card Holder contests about 850 legs on tour per year, that player might expect to have a perfect leg once every 3.5 years.”
‘They get a £1m in snooker’
Gerwyn Price was asked about the prize money on offer for hitting a nine-darter, and then to double that money if you hit a bullseye with the 10th dart, but cheekily suggested there should be more on offer.
“It would be great. Once you hit the nine-darter, you get an opportunity to win another $100,000 on top, so yeah it would be great,” Price said.
The Welshman then compared the winnings to snooker, jokingly adding: “I’m sure they get a £1m in snooker so I think they need to up it a bit.”
The World Series of Darts circuit visits Copenhagen, New York, Auckland, Wollongong and Amsterdam later this year.
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