Electronic Dartboards: Safe Fun That Lasts
Darts have a long history of being a fun to play game among family and friends, particularly friends. From use in a home game room to popularity as a pub game and even a professionally competitive sport, darts have spread all over the world and have a history going back over 100 years.
In modern play, the most popular playing surfaces are electronic dartboards, especially for casual, pub, and at-home players of the game. But this was certainly not always the case.
The history of the game of darts is not officially documented. However, some of the most popular theories include people using the bottom of wine barrels or even cross cut sections of trees as a board. In fact, many people believe that the game itself (the actual throwing of darts, or short arrows, at these early dartboards) was begun by soldiers who had been drinking and began throwing darts for fun.
Regardless of how exactly it started, we do know that the game was first played sometime during the 1870s, and from there it has spread to many countries and is most popular in Europe and North America.
From old fashioned wood, dartboards then began to be made of cork and other materials that were solid, but soft enough for darts to stick. Now, millions of people have an electronic dartboard in their home. These hold up better than a soft wood or hard cork surface because, rather than the metal darts actually puncturing the surface, the surface is made of many plastic pins close together. The darts are also plastic-tipped and stick to the electronic dartboard by wedging between the close-packed pins of the board.
One of the best advantages of the modern, electronic version of the game (besides its long lifetime) is the automatic scoring. Sensors within the board instantly report the score of each player and can be programmed to re-set after each players’ turn, or to keep track of a whole game. They can play a number of different games, too, making the electronic dartboard an affordable, safe (no metal tips), and versatile game fun for players of all ages.