Best Dart Boards: Bristle vs Electronic
A dartboard is the cheapest thing you can hang in a game room that people will actually use every time they are in it. It costs less than a decent cue, it needs about six feet of floor, and unlike every table in the room it can go up in an afternoon.
The buying decision is mostly one fork in the road, taken early: steel tip darts into a sisal board, or plastic tip darts into an electronic one. Get that right and the rest is detail. Get it wrong and you own the version of darts you did not want.
Steel tip on sisal, or electronic soft tip
This is the decision that determines everything else.
Steel tip on a bristle board. Real darts, the game played in pubs and on television. The board is tightly packed sisal fibre, which closes up behind the dart so the board heals itself instead of filling with holes. Scoring is on you, which is either a feature or a chore depending on your household. Steel tips go through drywall, so the wall behind the board needs thought.
Electronic, soft tip. Plastic-tipped darts into a segmented plastic face with sensors underneath. The machine scores, calls the game and plays against you, which is genuinely useful if nobody in the house does mental arithmetic for fun. Downsides: soft tips bounce out more, the segments wear and crack, the plastic sounds nothing like a real board, and heavier darts are off limits.
Magnetic or velcro boards. These are toys for very young children. Nobody gets better at darts on one.
For a game room shared with a pool table, where people are standing around with drinks, steel tip on sisal is still the right answer for most adults. It is quieter, it looks better, and it is the game you would actually be practising.
What makes a good bristle board
Bristle boards look nearly identical online and are not.
Sisal quality and density. The board should be made from tightly compressed Kenyan sisal, not from paper or coiled fibre. Density is what makes it self-healing. Cheap boards feel spongy, hold the dart poorly and start shedding fibre from the treble twenty within months.
A thin, staple-free spider. The spider is the wire dividing the segments. Old boards used thick round wire held down with staples, and darts that hit a staple bounce straight out. Modern boards use thin blade wire set into the surface, which both increases the scoring area and cuts bounce-outs dramatically. This is the biggest single difference between a $25 board and an $80 one.
A rotating number ring. The number ring should unclip and turn so you can move the board around. Everyone throws at the treble twenty, that segment wears first, and rotating the board every few weeks spreads the wear across the whole face. A board with a fixed ring wears out in one spot and then it is done.
A proper mounting system. A centre bolt with a locking bracket keeps the board flat and lets it rotate. Boards that mount on three screws through the edge tend to sit proud and spin out of true.
Cabinets, lighting and the wall behind
Cabinets. A cabinet set is the easiest way to buy. The doors close over the board so the room does not permanently look like a pub, the inner faces carry the scoreboards, and the cabinet catches a fair number of stray darts that would otherwise be in your drywall. Most sets include a set of darts, which are usually mediocre and entirely adequate to start with.
The wall. Steel tips miss, and drywall does not heal. A cabinet, a dartboard surround or simply a sheet of plywood or cork behind the board prevents a wall full of pinholes. This is not optional if you care about the room.
The floor. Dropped darts land point first on whatever is below. A throw mat protects hardwood and tile, and the good ones have the throw line marked on them, which saves measuring.
Lighting. Overhead room light throws your own shadow onto the board. A dedicated dartboard light, a purpose-made LED ring or a pair of angled lights either side, removes the shadow and makes a surprising difference to scoring. If the dartboard shares a room with a pool table, note that the pool table light is usually low and directional and will not help at all.
Hanging it at the right height
Regulation dimensions are standard worldwide and worth getting exactly right, because practising at the wrong distance builds a stroke you have to unlearn.
- Bullseye height: 5 feet 8 inches from the floor to the centre of the bull.
- Throw distance: 7 feet 9.25 inches from the face of the board to the throw line, measured horizontally.
- Diagonal check: from the bullseye to the throw line should measure 9 feet 7.5 inches. Measure this after hanging; it catches errors in the other two.
- Board: a regulation board is 18 inches across, with the twenty at the top.
Allow about 2 feet of clearance behind the throw line so players are not backed against furniture, and keep the throwing lane clear of the path people take to the pool table. A dart lane crossing the shooting line of a pool table is a genuinely bad room layout, and it is easier to fix before the board goes up than after.
Darts, and making a board last
Dart weight. Most players use 21 to 26 grams, and 23 or 24 grams is a sensible starting point. Heavier darts fly flatter and are more forgiving of a weak throw; lighter darts need more speed.
Barrel material. Brass is cheap and thick, which means the darts sit further apart in the board and crowd each other out of the treble. Tungsten is denser, so the same weight is a slimmer barrel and groups tighten. A basic tungsten set is the upgrade most new players feel first.
Flights and stems. Consumables. Buy spares, because they break constantly and a bent stem quietly ruins your throw.
Rotate the board. Every few weeks, unclip the number ring and turn it. This is the whole maintenance regime and it doubles or triples the life of the board.
Keep it dry. Sisal swells with moisture and rots. A damp basement wall is the fastest way to kill a good board, which is worth knowing if the game room is below ground.
Never soak it. Old advice about wetting a board applies to no board sold today and will destroy a modern one.
Spend on the board first, darts second, lighting third. A good board with cheap darts is a decent night; expensive darts thrown into a spongy board with a stapled spider are just an expensive way to collect bounce-outs.
Our picks
Links open the current selection and price on Amazon so you can compare real reviews before buying.
Bristle dartboard cabinet set
The complete setupSelf-healing sisal in a hardwood cabinet that closes over the board, with scoreboards inside the doors and a starter set of steel tip darts included.
Check price on AmazonTournament board, no cabinet
Serious throwersA thin staple-free blade wire spider and dense compressed fibre, which is what cuts bounce-outs and opens up the treble. Pair it with a surround.
Check price on AmazonTungsten dart set, 23 to 24 gram
Tighter groupsDenser than brass, so the same weight is a slimmer barrel and three darts fit the treble without knocking each other out. The upgrade beginners feel first.
Check price on AmazonThrow mat with marked oche
Floors and measuringProtects hardwood from dropped points and puts the throw line at the right distance without a tape measure. The cheapest part of the setup to get right.
Check price on AmazonFrequently asked questions
How high should a dartboard be hung?
The centre of the bullseye goes 5 feet 8 inches from the floor, and the throw line sits 7 feet 9.25 inches back measured horizontally from the face of the board. Check your work by measuring the diagonal from bullseye to throw line, which should be 9 feet 7.5 inches.
Are electronic dartboards better than bristle boards?
They are different games. Electronic boards score automatically and use safer plastic tips, which suits families with young children. Bristle boards with steel tips are quieter, last far longer, and are the game played competitively, which is why most adults end up with one.
What makes an expensive dartboard worth it?
Dense Kenyan sisal that heals itself, a thin staple-free wire spider that cuts bounce-outs and enlarges the scoring beds, and a rotating number ring so wear spreads instead of concentrating on the treble twenty. Those three things are most of the price difference.
How do I stop darts damaging the wall?
Mount the board in a cabinet or fit a dartboard surround, or simply hang a sheet of plywood or cork behind it. Steel tips miss regularly and drywall does not recover, so protect the wall before the board goes up rather than after.
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