The link between darts and beer runs deeper than you'd think. The sport grew up in English pubs, and in the 1980s pro players really did drink on stage while they played, until it was banned in 1989. This is the history of darts and drinking: how it started, why it was banned, what it looks like now, and what playing darts with a beer is like at AI DARTS.
Darts was always a pub sport
Steel tip darts has its roots in English pubs. After the First World War, breweries started running darts leagues between their own pubs. The early big individual tournament sponsored by the News of the World in 1927 was co-organised by, among others, a brewery. The players were pub regulars, the venue was the pub, and a pint in hand while you threw was the most natural thing in the world.
There's also a famous story: in 1908 a pub was taken to court for illegal gambling over darts, and the landlord hit three 20s in a row in front of the court to prove it was a game of skill. The details are hard to verify; we cover it in our darts fun facts.
The 1980s: pros really drank and smoked on stage
The first World Darts Championship in 1978 was sponsored by the cigarette brand Embassy. In TV footage from that era, players walking on with a beer on the table and a cigarette between their fingers didn't look strange at all.
The name that always comes up is Scotland's Jocky Wilson (world champion in 1982 and 1989). According to reports, he said himself that he'd start with beer before a match and follow it with "seven or eight vodkas" to steady his nerves. Fellow legend Eric Bristow also said that later in his career Wilson could get through a whole bottle of spirits in a match. These are the accounts of the people involved and the press, not official records.
In 1980 the British comedy show Not the Nine O'Clock News ran a sketch mocking exactly this, and it's often said to have made darts a laughing stock.
When was drinking on stage banned, and why
The answer is 1988 to 1989. According to records compiled on Wikipedia, the British Darts Organisation (BDO) banned smoking on stage in 1988, then banned drinking during play from the 1989 World Championship. Water only on stage.
The reason was simple: the image was so bad that TV and sponsors walked away. In early 1988 there were more than a dozen televised darts events in Britain; by 1989 only the World Championship was left. The BDO wanted to clean up the image and win the cameras back, but by most accounts the ban didn't stop the slide. A few years later the top players broke away to form the PDC, and darts officially split in two.
Today PDC pros still have nothing but water on stage. In a 2023 interview PDC chief executive Matt Porter said players must follow a code of conduct, and anyone not fit to compete faces serious penalties.
Now: the drinking moved to the crowd
The players stopped, so the fans took over. Since 2008 the PDC World Championship has been held at Alexandra Palace (Ally Pally) in London, and every year between Christmas and New Year it's famous as one giant party: fans dressed as Elvis, nuns and superheroes, singing all night with pints held high. The Boston Globe called it London's loudest winter party.
Darts and beer never broke up; the beer just moved from the stage to the stands. If you want to watch a match with friends, read our guide to a darts bar watch party.
Darts and beer at AI DARTS
At AI DARTS you get to be the player and the fan at the same time. Beer is Taiwan Beer, Budweiser or Heineken, NT$100 a bottle. Every Thursday at Darts Night it's buy 3 get 1, and what you don't finish can be stored on your membership. Beer follows the food and drinks schedule, roughly Tuesday to Friday plus every other Saturday in the evening; go by the on-site or LINE announcement.
The machines run 24 hours, with no minimum spend, and you can bring your own drinks (during counter hours, more than 3 bottles of alcohol per person is a NT$50 cleaning fee). See the full menu here.
Players in the 1980s drank while they threw. Now only you can. Want to see what a few beers do to your accuracy? Try it on the machine and find out. And if you've been drinking, don't drive.