A real sport? Course it is! Stamina, accuracy, a load of boozed up fans - count me in! 🎯

Sport is high level skill the average person can't replicate in a scored contest

You could say the same about bowling , archery , shooting... its a sport

Phil Taylor said before they may not be athletes but the amount of time they put into practicing is on par/or more than some athletes do.

Absolutely a sport that’s why it’s on sky Sports, clues in the title, boards target area have got larger over the years, as wires got thinner, darts equipment has also improved.

On the point of snooker, I don't know how anyone can think anyone can think snooker isn't physically exertive, take the longest Crucible final at 14 hours 50 mins (yes, in sessions). Of course snooker is a sport when it's so physically and mentally taxing

Have you seen Jason Delmonte World ten pin bowling champion from Australia

The literal definition of Sport is: An activity involving physical exertion and skill which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. By definition, Darts is absolutely a sport.

A Finn here how about winter sports? You didnt mention any skaters, skiing or skijump. If osullivan is on the list by how hard the sport is for the amateur, think yourself as a amateur doing sleding or anything in winter sports. Also if darts and snooker are qualified then should also be chess. Karparov and carlsen should be then mentioned at least. Imo skiing should mention atleast Kläbo, northug and Niskanen. Im dissapointed by american/uk bias and putting nfl player in. The other ones im ok because they are universally difficult sports and have had globally changing the sport. But bias was shitty. If you do these lists, just do homework beforehand and at least acknowledge that one guy sports are more difficult than in a team. In a team sports you may rely on your teammates. In other sports you train together to beat each other. (Also making friends but when shit get serious it is lonely mindset). One american tv show once did similar list and all top 10 american with 3 nfl players in it... In sportswomen, please mention Maarit Björgen/Therese Johaug. Also figure skating/other "hard as fuck" sports would be nice to hear/you could try them. In the end the disrespect Ben had against Phelps and swimming is criminal. Technique is everything in the water. Stick to football, dont do these cringe lists about all the sports that could never be comparable for the first place. I watched the whole thing in Spotify. The first time I hated the podcast...

Dart, bullet, arrow, javelin shotput... Do you see where I'm going here?

Extremely dedicated, if you've ever tried darts or snooker, then you know how impressive it is what they do, but in no way shape or form is darts or snooker a sport, or will ever be. I also do not classify likes of car racing and horse racing as sports, regardless of "motorsport" in the name, when the results are so heavy dependent on the machinery/animal, then it's too hard to objectively decipher the riders involvement. I would also say, as much as I love football, rugby, NFL etc, I'm not sure I would allow team sports in many of these conversations with solo sports as it's too hard to determine how well they would do without certain team mates.

Bodybuilding is the funniest one to argue about

Put it under parlor games like pool, cornhole, pinball, bowling, chess, etc... I would watch the parlor olympics with the best from around the world long before watching winter olympics. Lets get it going.

it can be both a past time or a sport, Elite players can play as a game, just as 5 a side is a hobby sport

The darts averages should be higher now as less bounce outs and the areas are bigger because of thinner wires

Archery is considered a sport and requires less physical activity than darts. (Which is the main argument against) Darts also requires a lot of physical traits that people do not consider including co-ordination and balance. In regards to equipment, darts has come on massively in terms of the technology used to manufacture, make and develop equipment. That's just the darts and not considering flights, shafts, points and boards. Happy to talk about this (which I do on my podcast) with anyone!

love my phil taylor gen5's, but its a skill based game.

Darts and snooker are definitely sports I’ve tried both and snooker is 1000% harder

Listened to the pod 1. Ali 2. Tiger 3. MJ 4. Pele 5. Phelps 6. Brady 7. Bolt 8. Djokovic 9. Gretzky 10. Alex Marshall 😂😂

golf then

There's a difference between sports and something that requires skill and training. Darts is as much of a sports as competitive video games, they each take an element of natural talent, practice and perseverance but they're not sports

Darts and snooker are as much of a sport as video games can be. Both don't have physical exercise, but all take insane levels of skill and deserve respect either way

Ronnie O’Sullivan is the Greatest British sportsman of all time,maybe even greatest sportsman off all time ,I don’t think the word genius does him justice either haha

Dartist here. Darts is a game of skill

Yes.

I think darts and snooker should be in the olympics

Darts is a sport because it requires physical skill to perform the actions involved. Chess, for example, is not a sport, because the skill is in knowing where to place the pieces, not in the action of placing them.

I’d love to see all these people that say it’s not a sport throw a dart🤣. Half of them haven’t and only say it ain’t a sport because it looks easy.

9 darter, every dart as to be perfect,if you did a 147 perfectly you wouldn’t have to play hard pot, as it all about cue control. The better you are at snooker the easier it looks, Joe Davis hit the first 147 20 years before the first recorded 9 darter, darts is pure hand eye coordination, snooker is a technical sport every professional player as had coaching and most from a young age, you try and learn to play stun run through on your own it’s very difficult but with a good coach teaching you the correct technique it much easier,

Discus, shot put and javelling are all held at the Olympics, they are all classified as a sport. It's all about accuracy and technique, what makes darts any different from that?

Sean Murphy. 147, 9 darter, hole in one. Greatest sportsman ever 👀

the definition of a sport: "an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment." Physical exertion being the key part in this context. It doesn't mean that it doesn't take skill, dedication, hard work and talent to get good at games like snooker and darts. But they are by definition not sports.

they're not 'athletic' sports...but still sports. IMO cheers

🆘 Shooting 59 in golf has got to be harder than making a 147 in snooker… more shots over a way longer variety of length, different length and loft of clubs, outside elements e.g. wind, lie and bounce which you have to factor in. Also the fact that there has been a total of 196 snooker players on the tour to make a 147 and they are just 11 golfers to shoot 59… Both are incredible achievements but it’s not even a debate 🤣

No all over weight, drink, smoke etc. It's an alco game. It's why it's played in pubs and not sports halls

If people have to ask if an activity is a sport, it's probably not one. It's ok to just be a game or an activity.

Can’t say with a bit of luck you can hit a 9 darter 😂😂😂

There’s a simple rule: if you have to change your shoes then it’s a sport otherwise it’s just a game

Of course it is - how isn’t it?

what a silly question... anything that requires skill and involves competition is a sport.

This episode is easily the worst one they have done and that is saying something 😂, Some of the shouts are just borderline idiotic

You can have a points scoring in Scrabble, that dosen't make it a sport

Personally I don’t see either of them as sports, you’re not competing against each other you’re competing against the darts bored or snooker table.

you pay tax on a sport but not on a pass time

Darts is a game, alongside snooker and esports. This does not make the competitors athletes. While they do require very fine tuned psychomotor skills and the competitors are extremely skilled there is no way someone who is above or below their healthy weight range can be called an athlete.

The fact they think you can hit a 9 darter with luck is shocking you cannot luckily get a 9 darter

There are loads of sports where you don’t need to be athletic. There are plenty of older, unathletic golfers who play at the top level. Darts is definitely a sport.

It's not a physical sport, it's a "precision sport" think of it like Bowls, curling, Bowling, even Golf to an extent, they're skill based, not physical based

If you can play it in your work shoes, it's not a sport. I love darts as well

Darts for sure a sport

If chess is a sport then everything is a sport

Exactly extreme skills... goalkeepers are just athletes who can't run

Golf???

Of course it is a sport, could argue are goalkeepers the same level of athlete as an an outfielder.. then people wanna talk about a goal keepers mental, takes a hell of lot more mental strength to be a top level darts player than it does to warm a bench

Any game that is skill based and not physically challenging is not a sport. It’s a game. Just like snooker

Its not a sport but who cares? Its fantastic entertainment

Heaps of sports that you don't need to be in shape there still sports so darts is to

They're indoor sports, the same bracket as say, ping-pong.

Have you seen the odds for an amateur to hit a 9 darter

Is snooker, table tennis etc real sport

I consider darts to be a board game like Operation.

Is a tomato a fruit?

A sport is something where a skill has to be combined with a measure of faster/higher/stronger to win. Darts and snooker are purely skill games, never sports in my opinion.

It’s a pub game that got out of hand

My definition is based on a question. Can it be played while drinking a beer and/or smoking a cigarette? If the answer is yes, then it’s not a sport, it’s just a game. Darts, snooker/pool, golf etc. - yes you can drink & smoke while playing, they are games not sports. Motorcycle racing, rugby, swimming - no, you can’t drink or smoke, so they are sports. Easy. Skill levels have nothing to do with it. Any game played at the highest level (including tiddlywinks) requires a great deal of skill & training - still doesn’t make it a sport.

No. That’s all. ✌🏼

The simple fact you say Phil Tayol is the best eve and Littler 17year old is the only one who can cater him... shows how much ye know trend followers. Like saying the only person who can score as many as Messi is Bellingham

Cycling?

Ronnie is not a maybe! He’s a definite

Darts players move more than goalkeepers

Daaaaarts

Daaaaaats

its a sport otherwise they wouldn’t get paid and there wouldn’t be competitions

If fucking golf is classed as a sport, Darts 100%

If gaming can now be classed as an ‘esport’ then darts and snooker defiantly are

They’re sports. The same way something like competitive FIFA or COD is a sport. Like Ben says, they’re extreme skill-based games.

If darts is a sport so is snakes and ladders.

How can snooker be more of a sport than darts what is Ben on about? Also whether darts is sport or a game you can’t call something a “hobby” when it’s literally people’s lives

Theres 0 excersize involved, not a sport for me, good pass time though

Its a sport. Same way chess is. And gaming now. Read the definition. If me and my mate compete flicking beans in a bin thats sport..

Its a game not a sport i reckon

To some yes. To others no. By definition, I don’t know. Never bothered to look.

There are no tactics involved. You’re playing the board. Not the other player. Same as golf.

The more external things required, the less pure it is as a sport. Running, wrestling, and swimming are pure sports, as they require very little other than the natural environment and the participants' bodies. Each additional external item required to participate in the activity makes it that much less of a pure sport. Still a sport, but conditionally less pure. Also, if you can operate at the peak of your activity while not being in peak/good physical condition, that is a pastime (looking at you: darts, pool, baseball, etc.). At least that is what the lads and I came up with while drinking heavily and smoking too much of the devil's cabbage back in our undergraduate days!

Why can nobody pronounce Haaland's name!!! It's not H'ar'land it's H'aw'land!!!

Darts and Snooker aren’t sports - they aren’t athletic! They are games in my opinion, yes they require skill but so does chess. You can score points in rock, paper, scissors 🙄

Darts suffers because it's origins are in a pub and those best at it, traditionally, looked very unfit

For me, sports would include an athletic endeavour, Darts and Snooker are games.

Darts is still physical. These guys are sometimes playing something like several dozen legs in a night. Try standing in front of a board throwing darts for a couple of hours and tell me it's doesn't require physical endurance.

Then all e sports are just regular sports then? Doesn’t make sense

this was a terrible top 10. Said you were doing a seperate British list and continue to have a British Bias. Cricket is the second most popular sport worldwide.

Its a game not a sport.

Darts snooker and golf are not sports. There is zero athletic ability involved. There games that require skill sure but athletic ability requirement is what makes a sport a sport

Snooker more than darts

If darts is a sport then LoL deserves to be in the Olympics LMAO

How can GOLF be a sport of Snooker and Darts aren't? They hit a ball standing still only 70 times over the course of a day 😂

No anyway

Of course they're sports. You get up in front of 5.000 people and throw a dart properly.

Its not a sport. Its a game. No disrespect to the players but its not a sport.

You don't have the be physical to play golf