Popularity of darts around the world

[Young_Ludovicus]

Darts used to be a classic Brittish sport, with the most players hailing from the British isles. Slowly other English speaking nations began playing darts, mostly British expats or countries from the commonwealth.

The first country to break this trend was the Netherlands. (Barney-effect) Because of the Netherlands, darts wasn’t purely the game of the Brittish anymore, and it received a validness in other nations. Though not everyone was fond of it at the time. Some Britts didn’t like on bit of it. They felt as if their game wasn’t only theirs anymore.

As of now darts has grown in Flanders (Dutch-speaking Belgium), Germany and the Nordic countries. But it mostly still is a Brittish game with most pro’s still hailing mainly from the Brittish isles.

The prime exception to this English-speaking/European community is Japan. Darts has arrived in Asia but there in another version. Soft tip darts instead of steel tip darts.

I’ve mad a list of the countries that matter in darts. I’ve made a top 17. Because I felt those 17 mattered. These countries could be relatively called darting countries. At least producing some good players. In some countries you have some semi-known players like Boris Koltsov from Russia, Cristo Reyers from Spain or Devon Petersen from South Africa. But these are more exceptions to the rule that their countries aren’t darting countries.



I’ve made a map to clarify it.



I think it is weird darts in the USA ranks only at 11th. I really would’ve thougth this by far would fit the Americans. Many scoring, no ties, lots of entertainment, loads of ways to get advertising in it with the breaks, promotion on t-shirts, cheerleader-like girls on stage. Loads of attention to the crowds. Every leg is interesting. I would’ve expected a following that would dwarve the likes of Bowling. Though despite this major lack of exposure. There are still some good players. Altough Canada is a lot better than the USA.

I’ve got more to say about Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa. But I think it’s better to stay with darts in the USA.

The potential for darts is big in East Asia, Southern Africa, Spain (and thus maybe a leap to Latin America). Only place I can’t imagine darts expanding is the Arabic World and the Turkish-speaking world.

What do you think about darts? Could it grow in popularity?
What do you think about these theory? Is the barney-effect nonsense?

For those that don’t know the Barney-effect. It means that nearby areas will have a slow growing popularity in the sport. When they produce a major world class player, the entire region could turn their allegiance. (other examples are India turning to Cricket instead of Field Hockey because of a major player) So if for example a Spanish player turned big. There’s a good chance Spain would become a credible darting country. And through that set up the popularity of the sport in other Spanish-speaking regions. The popularity of darts in the Netherlands had effect on Dutch-speaking Belgium, Germany and other Nordic countries.

 

[Petaro]

I see you rate Australia as number 6 in the darts world. It’s only contribution to our culture seems to be the riot of drunks at the “International” at Etihad Stadium, Melbourne Jan. 2015. Darts is a pub game. It is not considered a sport here as we don’t have the weather problems that made it viable in Britain.
Darts is a skillful game requiring good hand eye co-ordination. Given that, it needs to be set to music for its true beauty to be fulfilled.

 

[71326]

I miss playing darts, used to have a soft tip dartboard.

 

[didymus]

I see you rate Australia as number 6 in the darts world. It’s only contribution to our culture seems to be the riot of drunks at the “International” at Etihad Stadium, Melbourne Jan. 2015. Darts is a pub game. It is not considered a sport here as we don’t have the weather problems that made it viable in Britain.
Darts is a skillful game requiring good hand eye co-ordination. Given that, it needs to be set to music for its true beauty to be fulfilled.

I agree. I’ve never seen nor heard of darts being played outside of bars.

 

[jimcav]

Darts used to be a huge thing here in NYC.

But the bar/pub business has died in the outer boroughs like Brooklyn and Queens, places where there used to be a bar or two or even three on nearly every corner. And being that darts is a bar thing, as the bars died off due to no smoking, drinking and driving laws, and the social media revolution which keeps the GenX’s in their houses, darts has sort of dropped off with that. There used to be numerous dart leagues in every neighborhood and was a big deal for us baby boomers.

It’s a shame really, because darts was one of the ultimate social games that brought good friendship and clean competition.

We don’t get much if any televised darts, so I’m not sure about how we are internationally…

 

[Young_Ludovicus]

I see you rate Australia as number 6 in the darts world. It’s only contribution to our culture seems to be the riot of drunks at the “International” at Etihad Stadium, Melbourne Jan. 2015. Darts is a pub game. It is not considered a sport here as we don’t have the weather problems that made it viable in Britain.
Darts is a skillful game requiring good hand eye co-ordination. Given that, it needs to be set to music for its true beauty to be fulfilled.

You can’t judge a sport for one riot. I certainly don’t agree with calling it a pub game. I don’t know the situation in every country but in my country and several others it clearly is a sport as it gets recognised by the sporting federations. I don’t know the situation of it in Australia. Altough you still get discussions about some people not thinking it’s a sport…

But there are pretty big tournaments in Perth and Sydney. And there are also tournaments in other parts of the country like Melbourne.
Or in New Zealand with Auckland.

You can’t possibly say it isn’t viable in Australia, it is. The loads of good Australians out there are proof of that. Maybe you aren’t aware of it as you’re not that into the game.

But to say that darts isn’t viable in Australia is nonsense. Otherwise I wouldn’t have known people like Simon Withlock, Kyle Anderson, Beau Anderson, Laurence Ryder or Paul Nicholson.

I agree. I’ve never seen nor heard of darts being played outside of bars.

At the amateur level it’s very much a pub game. At the profesional level not so much.

Darts used to be a huge thing here in NYC.

But the bar/pub business has died in the outer boroughs like Brooklyn and Queens, places where there used to be a bar or two or even three on nearly every corner. And being that darts is a bar thing, as the bars died off due to no smoking, drinking and driving laws, and the social media revolution which keeps the GenX’s in their houses, darts has sort of dropped off with that. There used to be numerous dart leagues in every neighborhood and was a big deal for us baby boomers.

It’s a shame really, because darts was one of the ultimate social games that brought good friendship and clean competition.

We don’t get much if any televised darts, so I’m not sure about how we are internationally…

Didn’t know that darts used to be big. It never got really reflected in the world wide results really.

Darts didn’t take a turn for the worse in Europe with also having those laws.

The American players mainly play American tournaments. Often 2 American guys qualify for the World Championship but almost always fail pretty quickly. In the World Cup for couples, they are a bit more likely to progress.
I only know 3 American players really. Darren Young, Larry Butler and Scott Kirchner.

Canada is way better still though they have a former three times world champion. And because of it darts got a bigger momentum there.