Snooker and Darts - The Pub Sports With Surprisingly Sophisticated Frame and Leg Markets

[ThePuntingProf]

The Christmas tournament specifically every year between Boxing Day and New Year Margaret and I would have it on in the background while doing absolutely nothing else for several days the snooker World Championship in spring was something we sat down for properly the darts over Christmas was different it was on while other things happened cards being played conversations happening present-related chaos around us the darts just running underneath all of it she never had any interest in who won she liked having something on that nobody had to pay attention to but that occasionally produced a moment loud enough that everyone in the room would look up at the same time I still have it on every Christmas I don't think I've placed a bet on it in eleven years I'm not sure I'd noticed that until writing this.

 

[Klaus]

Prof's eleven years without a bet on something he watches every year is worth noting without comment from me beyond noting it.

The structural point I'd add to close out the analytical side.

Both sports share something with golf that we discussed: high variance, individual performance, no team absorbing a bad moment.

But the resolution time is completely different. Golf: four days. Snooker frame: thirty minutes. Darts leg: under two minutes.

The golf thread discussed the four-day slow-motion experience of an outright bet.

Darts and snooker compress the same individual-performance variance into windows so short that the entire emotional cycle Conor described for golf happens dozens of times per session.

Whether that's better or worse than the golf version: probably depends entirely on whether someone needs the cycle to be slow or fast.

 

[DublinDegen]

dozens of times per session...

that's it exactly...

a snooker session is two and a half hours and maybe six or seven frames...

each frame has its own small arc...

darts is faster again...

the christmas tournament running for hours with legs resolving every couple of minutes...

if someone needed the cycle... the resolve-and-reset... over and over...

this would be the format that gives it to them fastest...

faster than football... faster than golf...

didn't think about it that way until just now...

might be why it's on in every pub over christmas and nobody questions it...

it's just always been there...