Winmau has unveiled the PDC's new dartboard, the Blade 7, with the company's chief manufacturing officer telling ESPN exclusively how it's used 20 years and 10 million darts to try to make this one the most consistent yet.
Four boards have been released in the range with the stage edition seen for the first time when the Grand Slam of Darts gets under way in Wolverhampton on Saturday.
The championship edition board will be used across the Players Championship circuit in 2027.
Many of the sport's top players have helped with testing in recent months and sources have told ESPN that Blade 7 boards were swapped in for a handful of Pro Tour matches this year as a means of further scrutinising how they hold up in professional competition.
The new versions replace the previous Blade X and Blade 360 boards which received some criticism for what was perceived to be a higher-than-usual bounce-out rate.
Two-time world champion Gary Anderson described the boards as "absolutely rank" following Scotland's 8-0 demolition of Norway at the World Cup of Darts in July, with Winmau subsequently defending the Blade X in a statement issued to Oche180.
It said that in comparison to the boards previously used by players, "the independent performance data we received from the PDC official statistics partner regarding rejected darts has shown a meaningful reduction."
Winmau chief manufacturing officer Lee Huxtable told ESPN a bounce-out can come as a result of varying factors including the player's throw, the darts they use, and the environment.
"When a dartboard goes up on TV, you don't know whether there's going to be someone throwing a 12-gram dart or a 32-gram dart. You don't know what points they're going to be using," he says. "Different environments -- it could be in Europe where the dartboard is stored outside, those type of things. So you've really got to try and tick every box and just look at what areas can be improved.
He adds: "Blade 6 triple core, Blade X is actually getting less bounce-outs, but I think the [perception]. Like on the weekend for instance, there was a single dart bounce-out on the bull. Same day, Ryan Joyce hit a 150-out with three bullseyes. MVG [Michael van Gerwen] had a 125-out with a bull, 25, bull.
"But these things do happen. If there's one on the weekend, I can assure you, if there's an issue, I'm pulling that board. Literally I'm pulling that board because I want to know exactly what's happened."
- Grand Slam of Darts 2026: Schedule, prize money, groups, dates, more
Decades of testing, 10 million darts, and a Luke Littler tweak
Darts equipment manufacturer Winmau has been supplying the PDC with dartboards after taking over from Unicorn in 2022, with an extension to the agreement being announced in January.
As well as two decades of technical development, Nodor has utilised AI quality control measures with the aim of perfecting the new board, but sometimes there can sometimes be no better alternative to a more analog testing process.
"We employ people and their job is to throw darts and they're really good," Huxtable explains. "If I say, 'you're practicing this treble area or the bullseye area,' these guys, and there's like four dartboards set up, we think probably we'd throw about 10 million darts a year. I think each person can do maybe 40,000 in a week.
"They'll take six darts in their hand, they'll throw six darts, they'll tally. If there's a bounce-out, they'll tally. If there's a bounce above the radial, it's recorded.
"Bear in mind for testing against competitors boards as well. I know where our boards perform compared to all of our competitors. So we've obviously got that baseline to measure against. So every time a dartboard is tested, the results of that are recorded, sent back. We're analysing. If there's a little drop in the performance. We know."
There can also be tweaks made to boards during their time in front of the cameras.
One such change came after the UK Open in March when Luke Littler saw a dart bounce out of the bullseye when he attempted to complete a 155 checkout in a crucial leg against Josh Rock. The 19-year-old recovered to win the semifinal and went on to triumph over James Wade in the final.
Jimmy van Schie also had a dart spring out of the bullseye during the competition.
Following the incidents, Winmau rotated the three prongs that hold the bullseye wire in the board to reduce the chance of a dart catching the metal when landing in future tournaments.
"We're talking about two darts out of thousands thrown during that tournament. But those are the ones that make the headlines, let's be honest," Huxtable says.
"But then for me to get it back and have someone like Wayne Mardle and we were prodding around and going 'it's fine, it's fine. It's not a hard spot.' And then it's like, right, OK, maybe it's coming at this angle and this is what happened. OK, fine. Let's sort it."
What is a dartboard made out of?
The dartboards that you seen at home, in pubs and on stage are all primarily made out of sisal fibres which come from the Agave sisalana, a succulent plant native to Mexico. It is also cultivated in countries such as South Africa and Kenya, which is where Nodor has had a factory since 1999.
After being harvested from the leaves of the plant, the sisal fibres are processed and formed into small bundles known as 'biscuits', which are then attached onto a woodchip backboard and carbon fibre layer under high pressure.
The sisal gives dartboards the 'self-healing' property it needs to withstand the impact of millions of darts and the density of the fibres is key for consistency and durability.
"The game has changed so much," Huxtable says. "I think if you look at the averages over the last maybe 15 years, they've just gone up. So averages might have been mid-90s 20 years ago and now you might see the odd 100 average. You might see a 120 average now.
"So basically there's a lot more darts getting a lot more closer grouping, but you've also seen different points being used... So considering all of those changes, we've had to play around with the density.
"We've pretty much had sign-off of most of our pro players to begin with. So we've had test boards, we've had professionals in getting their opinions, trying different points, trying different setups. What is the optimum density for you to take a board out of the box, put it up on stage and have a high scoring? So there's been a lot of input into the density... It's not just a case of choose a new board, go and use it. This test that has been going on for six months."