Know your gear

8 good reasons to stock darts

Aug/ Sept 2009

Darts might not be the most athletic sport, yet it has been rumoured that it could become one of the sporting codes contested in the next Olympics. But, regardless of wether you consider it to be a sport or just a game, darts is fun. And from a business perspective the game of arrows has proved to be a real money-spinner. There are therefore many good reasons for stocking darts. For example:

“One of the good reasons to stock darts is that it takes up very little space in the store. It therefore offers high value goods in a very small space,” says Nigel Prout of Opal Sports, distributor of Unicorn Darts. It is easy to merchandise and maintain a well-stocked darts department even in a small store, adds Kevin de Wet of De Wet Sports.
“When someone buys darts they replace the shaft and the flights after some time and you therefore get sales all the time,” Prout continues. When people buy darts you know they are going to return to your store all the time — and hopefully they will be encouraged to buy other items as well.”

Prout says darts is also a great form of entertainment for the whole family in which anybody can partake in, no matter how young or old, fit or unfit, they are. “Take the Springbok rugby team — they have all played darts, but darts players have not all played rugby.”

Andrew Wentzel of WET Sports Importers, suppliers of Datadarts, does however caution that it is not recommended that children play darts unsupervised. “Kids can hurt themselves, so yes, darts is a family game, but under supervision.”

Darts is a non-seasonal sport. Darts products are very popular during the holiday time when other sports products are not in such high demand, remarks Kevin De Wet of De Wet Sports, distributor of Elkadarts.
Darts is like fresh meat from a business point of view, says Wentzel. “It is a regular seller and you can make a decent margin with darts products.”

The sport is expanding, with more and more people becoming interested in playing darts — as is evidenced by the number of new clubs that are being started. Some of the clubs in places like the Western Cape, for example, follow the system in England where players have professional competitions where they play for money, says Wentzel.

Charles Lospers, who twice won thousands of Rands in the televised PDC SA Open Championships and thereby qualified to play in the Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championships in England, is especially active in these competitions.

“The fact that you can go and play darts and win money adds further attraction to the game,” says Wentzel, one of the sporsors. “Even if you only win R1 000, it’s not bad for a game of darts, which used to be only played for recreation.”

LGB Distributors, suppliers of Harrows, also sponsor some league teams and clubs. “We do joint sponsorships with league players,” says Colin Farrer.

Darts is set to grow even more now that it has become a TV spectator sport. De Wet attributes the tremendous growth in interest in darts to the television exposure that it gets of late ,which has made many international dart players household names.

The annual PDC SA Open held at Emperor’s Palace, sponsored by Unicorn, attracts some of the world’s top players to SA.

“TV coverage of international tournaments on DSTV has helped a great deal to grow interest. There are new clubs starting regularly.”

You also have to be good at maths to play darts, therefore besides the entertainment value, the sport is also very educational, concludes Prout. Indeed a far cry from the days when darts was considered to be a pub game and adult entertainment!