The Best Dart Boards
The ancient game of darts is a great way to refine your motor skills while enjoying a healthy competition with friends or family. Today, the ubiquitous dartboard face can be found within bars and game rooms worldwide, offering a fun way to whittle away the hours while training your accuracy. And if you want to refine your skills at home, there are tons of excellent options. To bring you the very best dartboards we could find, we searched for durably built boards that could withstand regular games, gripping board surfaces to reduce bounce-outs, and options with darts included to make sure the fun starts right away. The Viper Shot King is a quintessential board that brings the best of traditional durability and action. The sisal fiber body and 18-inch diameter of this board are matched with official tournament specifications, so you'll be ready to translate your training sessions to competition settings. If you're looking for a portable option for outings with family and friends, check out the magnetic roll-up board from CX L SUM. Read on below to get the scoop on the rest of our favorites.
GLD Viper Shot King
The old reliable
Viper boards are certified classics in the world of darts, and the Shot King lets you bring home a piece of this history for a bargain. This board is bursting with the wisdom of traditional dartboard design. A sisal fiber construction creates a deep and secure purchase for incoming missiles, and this porous material will flex and heal over time to ensure it’s always ready for another round. Circular spider wire boundaries help to prevent deflections and bounce-outs by guiding your dart tips into the board’s material.
Pros:
- The wire number ring is detachable, allowing you to rotate the board to better facilitate healing on common hit spots.
- A staple-free bullseye ring means fewer bounce-outs and a greater likelihood of scoring when shooting for the big 50.
- You won’t have to buy additional darts, since the included ones are excellent. We found that they had a balanced weight that felt good in the hand when throwing.
Cons:
- Natural sisal fiber is susceptible to dampness, so you need to be careful to keep it dry.
CUKU Magnetic Dart Board
Budding darts players might need a little training before they feel comfortable with the real thing. This magnetic set from CUKU offers any young deadeye the chance to refine their skills without experiencing the safety risks associated with professional darts. A compact 13-inch design makes this perfect for game rooms. Plus, with a dozen colorful magnetic projectiles included, it’s a great way to get a party started.
Pros:
- This board brings a two-in-one accuracy challenge: flip the front-facing dartboard layout to reveal a classic archery target board.
- The plastic construction makes this board resilient to outdoor conditions.
- We love how lightweight it is since it can be set up quickly and brought along on trips. It weighs just a bit over two pounds, so it can be easily hung without the need for deep screws or nails.
Cons:
- The magnetic darts can sometimes rebound from the board if thrown from a distance.
EastPoint Belmont Dartboard And Cabinet
Set it up and let it rip
Count yourself amongst the pros with this premium sports dartboard from Eastpoint. An 18-inch sisal fiber dartboard mirrors the official tournament design, helping you train for the real deal from the comfort of your own home. Better yet, six professional steel-tipped darts come included, so you’ll be ready to put your board to the test straight out of the box. The sleek cabinet comes with two chalk scoreboards facilitating games of up to four players.
Pros:
- We were pleasantly surprised by the ease of the installation. All the hardware is included for mounting it to a wall, and it goes up without a hitch.
- The dart holsters on the inside of each cabinet door make for an organized dart storage solution, keeping their sharp tips safe when not in use.
- Enclosing cabinet doors will protect the sensitive sisal board from moisture and dust if mounting this dartboard outside.
Cons:
- We found that thicker wiring on this board could result in more bounce-outs than other boards.
Arachnid Pro Tournament Electronic Dartboard
Digital tally
Leave no room for human error with this tournament standard electronic dartboard, which lets you focus solely on your game. NylonTough board segments with micro-thin segment dividers reduce bounce-outs and bring the feel and durability of a traditional-fiber surface. These sensors have an unmatched accuracy to ensure your score is counted with vigilance while playing one of 132 variations of 24 preprogrammed classic game modes.
Pros:
- We appreciate the voice prompting feature, which makes sure you don’t have to worry about remembering who’s up next to throw.
- The automatic player handicap scoring means you can easily pitch experts against beginners with a precalculated advantage.
- Six soft tip darts will have you ready to play as soon as the board is hung. Free from sharp metal tips, this also could be a safer option for beginners.
Cons:
- These darts are a little more fragile than solid metal options.
CX L SUM Roll-up Magnetic Dartboard
This roll-up board lets you take the fun of darts with you wherever you go, with a light and compact 15-inch design that’s easy to store and transport. The magnetic tips do away with the safety fears of steel darts and could also save surrounding walls from a peppering of holes. If you’re looking to test your accuracy outside of a darts competition, flipping this board will reveal a bullseye target game that will help to keep your aim sharp.
Pros:
- With 12 magnetic darts coming in four bold colors, this set boasts more darts than most other options and is a great choice for games between family or a group of friends.
- If you’re put off by the idea of drilling or nailing into a wall to hang your dartboard, this lightweight option can be easily suspended without a sturdy loadbearing fixture.
- This set comes with a guidebook detailing the basic rules of darts, making it a great gift for beginners.
Cons:
- You’ll need to source some of your own hardware for mounting as it’s not all provided in this set.
Frequently Asked Questions
How large is a tournament dartboard?
If you’re looking to sharpen your skills in preparation for competition, you’ll want to be sure that your board provides a suitable training environment for the task at hand. While consumer dartboards can come in a range of sizes, tournament boards are standardized at 18 inches in diameter.
How high should I hang my dartboard from the ground?
If you’re new to the game, you might be left scratching your head when judging the ideal position for your dartboard. Intuition will tell us that it makes sense to suspend the dartboard at eye level, so it’s roughly in line with the throwing height of our darts. This will of course vary from person to person, so if in doubt you can use the standard tournament height that measures 5′ 8″ from the bullseye to the ground.
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