The feature game
How to play Deadly Doubles
Deadly Doubles is a doubles-lap darts game for singles or pairs, played on any standard bristle dartboard. You race your double around the board on your colour's path while your rival races theirs — and the bonus dart lets you help your partner or shove your rival backwards.
Setting up
Bull for it
Both sides throw one dart at the bull. Closest to the bull picks which double they start on — and which double the other side starts on. The two sides must start on different colours: one red, one green.
Singles or pairs
Play one-on-one or two-a-side. In pairs, team-mates throw alternate visits and the bonus bull hands the partner three fresh darts.
Playing the lap
Follow your colour
Red doubles travel clockwise around the board, green doubles travel anticlockwise. You get three darts per visit to hit the double you're standing on — each hit moves you one space along your path.
Earn the bonus dart
Land your double with darts to spare and the rest of the visit is live. Hit the bullseye and your partner gets three fresh darts. Or hit the treble of the number your rival is currently on and you send them backwards two spaces.
Misses and wires
A dart outside the doubles ring — singles, trebles, or off the board entirely — counts as a miss. Three misses and your visit is over.
Get home to win
One full lap is ten doubles, bringing you back to the double you started on. Hit that starting double again and it's game shot — first side home wins.
Red path — clockwise
Green path — anticlockwise
Rules for the other games
Deadly Doubles is the feature game, but the app scores the classics too. Here is how each one is played — and the scoreboard, caller and stats handle the counting for you.
501 darts rules
Both sides start on 501 and race down to exactly zero. Three darts a visit, singles score face value, the outer ring doubles it, the inner treble ring triples it, the outer bull is 25 and the bullseye 50. You must finish on a double or the bullseye, and going below zero or landing on one busts the visit — your score returns to what it was when you stepped up. Standard match play is straight in and double out; league play often adds double in, where nothing counts until you hit a double. Matches are played as legs, and sets are made up of legs.
301 darts rules
Same countdown as 501 over a shorter distance, which is why it is the usual format for a quick game or a decider. Because there is less room to recover, 301 is very often played double in and double out — you need a double to open your scoring and a double to finish. Bust rules are identical: drop below zero or land on one and the visit is scrubbed.
Cricket darts rules
Only 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and the bull are live. A single is one mark, a double two marks and a treble three. Three marks closes a number for you; once it is closed and your opponent has not closed it, every further hit scores that number's value as points (a treble 20 is 60). When both sides have closed a number it is dead and scores nothing. The game ends when a player has closed every number and is level on points or ahead — closing everything while behind on points is not a win.
Shanghai rules
Played over rounds one to twenty, or a shorter set range. In each round you throw three darts at that round's number only and score single, double or treble face value; anything else scores nothing. A Shanghai — single, double and treble of the same number in one visit — wins the game outright on the spot. Otherwise the highest total after the final round takes it, which makes it a sharp accuracy drill as well as a party game.
Bob's 27 rules
The classic doubles drill. You start on 27 points and throw three darts at double 1, then double 2, and so on up to double 20 and finally the bullseye. Each double you hit adds twice the number to your score; a visit with no hits subtracts twice the number. Go to zero or below and you are out, so early misses on the low doubles hurt hardest. Surviving all twenty-one targets is the aim, and your score is the number to beat next session.
Score training drills
Timed and target-based practice for scoring power and finishing: treble hunting on 20, 19 and 18, checkout routes from common finishes, and doubles laps. Each drill records hits, misses and averages, and your profile charts them over time so you can see whether the practice is actually working.
Want it kept for you on screen? See the live darts scoreboard or the online darts scorer.
Try it free
Your first game of Deadly Doubles is free — no download, no board tech, just your darts and a phone.