Darts and minds: Why the pub sport is finally ready for global domination — and the tech that’s helping it hit the bullseye

For a sport that’s been a perennial Christmas TV favourite and a staple of UK pub culture since time immemorial, it might seem strange to find out that darts is the fastest growing sport in the UK.

But it’s true. Gambling spend is one of the key metrics when it comes to determining a sport’s growing popularity, and darts is enjoying a boom period in interest — the number of bets placed since 2018 has increased 37%, and stakes have grown 59%, according to Entain’s digital sportsbook.

Call it the ‘Luke Littler’ effect (with the Brit becoming world champion at just 17 years old). Call it the rise of the social media darts influencer. But the sport is shedding its ‘two pints of lager and a packet of crisps’ image of old to become a phenomenon beyond the darts faithful.

This growth is going global — events at New York’s Madison Square Gardens are a sell out, darts is breaking down its boozy image barrier in reserved Middle Eastern countries, and there’s an exponential wave of talent rising up through China. The stakes have never been higher too, with prize money for the World Darts Championship now topping out at £1 million for its winner.

Is the age of the beer-swilling, ciggy-smoking darts king over then?

"I think the stereotype of a darts player, how it was, I don't think is necessarily how it now is, and it is definitely not how it will be,” says Tom Brown, CEO of Nodor group, which includes darts equipment maker and tournament sponsor Winmau.

“You’ve got these juniors coming up into the sport and it’s very different. You know, Luke Littler is teetotal.

“The difference between winning and losing these days costs a lot of money. Back when the prize money was less, if you lost it was okay — if you won, it was not really that much money. But the difference between winning and losing at the moment can mean prize money from £50,0000 all the way up to £1,000,000.”

Mind, body and tech meets three dart average

With a more mindful, healthy generation of youngsters getting into the sport, so too are its stars reflecting that cultural shift — not just as a reflection of their peers, but to ensure top performance.

Darts stars now employ nutritionists and sports psychologists. “It’s very much about marginal gains,” says Tom.

“We see it in cycling with the aerodynamics on the bike or the lycra that they wear. Customisation of darts is also quite exciting. Players are trying out all sorts of darts configurations.

“At our facility down in Bridgend, we have something called the Flight Room — players will come in, they'll spend a day, they'll try different profiles, different point lengths, different grips, different flights and find what they like. That customisation is all about marginal gains, and that's really when we're talking about the bounce out on the boards.”

And the board itself will be one of the major changes to this week’s tournament performance. Winmau has entered into the longest-ever partnership with the PDC, darts’ governing body, to make its new BladeX the go-to championship board. It’s claiming it’s the world’s most advanced dart board ever.

“Blade X is an evolution based on more than 30 years of development, looking at every single aspect of the board, whether that's on the web, the scoring or the durability, with no stone unturned,” says Lee Huxtable, Winmau’s Chief Manufacturing Officer.

“It’s probably the most tested dartboard the world has ever seen,” says Lee, with 6 million darts thrown during testing by some of the world’s best players, and with “high scoring potential off the charts,” thanks to the board’s defence against bounce out.

"You don't want a dart on the floor, you don’t want deflections. So we're looking for the absolute maximum scoring potential on a dartboard. And I think that’s exactly what we’ve achieved.”

Compared to the crumbling boards of old, the BladeX is essentially ‘self-healing’, able to take deeper penetration from long-pointed darts over time without falling to pieces. And it’ll be available to at-home enthusiast players as well as venues and on the biggest stages in the sport.

“If you look at the darts on TV 10 years ago, the number of bounce outs is significantly reduced," says Tom. “And of course, I'm going to say it's because of our boards, but it is because of the boards.”

Past players and present performance

But what of the heroes of yesteryear — if Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor had access to a Winmau board, the advantages of a science-backed diet, the ‘marginal gains’ magic — would his kind stand a chance today?

“It’s a good question,” says Lee.

“The first thing they would be looking at is the dartboard. Back in the 70s, a dartboard was completely different — that would be the first argument [past players would make to their score averages]. However, I've got to say, with the younger players coming through with the amount of increased prize money, with the amount of practice times that these guys are putting in, I think the level has improved significantly.”

“The averages that these players are hitting now, call it 105 or 110 during a tournament — that's probably the same as it was 20 or 30 years ago,” counters Tom.

“But the number of people that were averaging 105, 110 — 30 years ago that was probably like two people. Now it's probably 20 people. Yes, there’s the equipment, but they're taking it a lot more seriously. They're practicing. Back in the day, most of the players that were on the tour also had day jobs, now they're just dedicated to darts, and that's their career.”

Academies are playing their part, with youth schemes growing in popularity across the globe, and Wi-Fi-connected boards — letting remote players practise competitively with peers many miles away — lowering the geographical barrier to high-level play.

Culture clash vs hitting the bullseye around the world

If the modern darts player is a high-tech, clean-living (and clean-for-the-sponsors) superstar, the atmosphere at a live darts game is very much still one of all-out hedonism. Though there are some global exceptions, that bacchanal spirit travels well.

“The Middle East that's probably the one anomaly actually,” says Tom.

“I think if you go to a tournament in the Netherlands, or a tournament in Germany, it’s all received like it is here. Even Madison Square Gardens is crazy — smaller, but it's as crazy as Ally Pally,”

“That kind of culture of the event is consistent everywhere around the world, probably with the exception of the Middle East, as there’s no alcoholic drink there and stuff like that, there are some fundamental differences. But the sport is in hyper growth in these other markets, Netherlands, in particular, Germany too.”

The true test will be taking over the huge sports-consuming USA. And homegrown talent is the key across the pond.

“The US is different because they don't have so many American players to follow,” says Tom.

“In the UK, it was 10 or 15 years ago that the PDC really started to invest heavily in juniors. And now those juniors are coming up to be professionals. That's what's happening now in the US.

"In the US, it's more expensive to go to a tournament. You have to fly somewhere because it's so big. You might live in New York, and the tournament's in Seattle, and you've got to go over there. So, I think there are some barriers, but within not too many years, we'll start to see exponential growth in the US too.”

With darts being thrown all over the world then, the next Luke Littler might come from the most unlikely of places, says Tom.

“One of the highlights of the World Championships for me was when the Kenyan player, David Munyua, beat a top 20 seed [Mike De Decker 3-2 in the first round],” he marvelled.

“I've never seen an atmosphere like that. The room went absolutely bananas. He definitely shouldn't have won in terms of seeding. But what was great is he's gone back to Kenya, and he actually did a walk around our factory, and our 2000 employees came out to greet him.

“He was like this hero, and has now inspired so many of the workers in our factory, let alone the rest of the people we don't talk to in Kenya, to now play darts. So I think what it takes is these kind of breakthrough moments, to kind of wake up a nation and say, ‘Wow!’”

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