Number of goals, time allowed for stoppage, penalty shoot outs – it’s all maths and football would be nowhere without it.
Check out the numbers used in darts
Darts is another excellent example. ‘Scoring down’ from 501 requires addition, subtraction and multiplication skills – all demonstrated at the recent PDC World Championship, which saw Luke Littler crowned the winner for the second year running.
If this sounds daunting, take inspiration from Luke, who admits he was “terrible” at maths, but got better with practice. Read more about Luke’s numeracy experience here.
The UK will play host to super sporting events in 2026
This year is going to be a bumper year for sport in the UK with some prestigious international events taking place on British soil. Sports stars from across the globe will gather in Glasgow this summer for the Commonwealth Games.
Basketball, athletics, swimming, artistic gymnastics, netball – all sports require an understanding of numbers for scoring, timing and much more. Whenever you watch sport you are immersing yourself in the numeracy involved even if you don’t realise it.
Gold medal-winning Paralympian Danny Crates spoke to National Numeracy about how numbers are essential to athletics.
Danny told us: “I had a 12-year international athletics career, and what I’m remembered for is a one minute, 57 second race – the Athens final.
“But built around that one minute, 57 seconds was 12 years, was tens of thousands of hours in training, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of races, won and lost.”
You can read the full interview here.
If you’re one of the many people in the UK who dreads confronting numbers however, you’re certainly not alone. Fortunately, help is available.
Improve your number confidence with the National Numeracy Challenge
Getting on better with numbers is not only useful for understanding sport, but essential for everyday life – managing money, helping children with homework and carrying out tasks at work all require numeracy.
The free National Numeracy Challenge is full of everyday maths questions and has resources to help show where you could improve your numeracy skills.
Jo and Stuart used to dread scoring when playing darts, but improved their numeracy using the National Numeracy Challenge. Read their inspiring stories and more here.
Why not make improved numeracy a New Year resolution for 2026? Practising little and often could really help give your number confidence a boost.
Image shows Luke Littler taking part in the Professional Darts Corporation’s Bullseye Maths programme at the O2 on National Numeracy Day in 2024.
Photography credit: Kieran Cleeves/PDC
