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 It was recently drawn to my attention that there were
multitudes of dart players of whom I was unaware, a significant number being from my home province, Manitoba. I was given the opportunity of
interviewing a couple of these folks, and because of my prior lack of knowledge of the sport, I was really flying on a prayer!
I interviewed Gerald and Liz Hogan who are very much involved in electronic darts in
Winnipeg, and for those of you who have as little knowledge as I do, I hope you will find this as interesting as I did.
Hello Gerald and Liz, I hope you will bear with me for my ignorance about
your sport. Hopefully, at the end of this session, I will have a greater
understanding of the sport that you participate in. I would first like to learn a little about you two. What do you do for a living?
We are Amusement Operators/Route, Pool and Dart Leagues.
I imagine you have a family. How many children do you both have?
We have four, two male and two female and all of whom are now adults.
Do any of your children play darts?
The whole family plays and enjoys this sport.
Have you ever had contact with any of the hard tip dart players?
Certainly, a lot of them are also darting in our soft tip leagues.
How many years have you been involved with Electronic Darts?
Six years.
How much involvement is there in electronic darts in Winnipeg and Manitoba?
There are over 500 darters throughout Manitoba who dart with us and
approximately 200-250 in our leagues in Winnipeg.
Is there a lot of involvement in electronic darts in other areas of Canada?
There is quite a bit of activity in Saskatchewan and Quebec.
Are there many of the hard tip players who play the electronic darts?
Approximately 10% of our leagues play both type of darts.
Where are the games played?
Most of our leagues are located in bars and lounges.
What would be classified as the largest event for electronic dart players?
Darts N Stuff sponsors the Manitoba Open in March of every year offering four
team trips to Las Vegas to attend Team Dart which is a $400,000 plus tournament held at the end of April.
How much time do players spend practicing during the regular season, and
where would they practice?
60% practice at least an hour each week, usually before and after league matches.
What are the similarities between the electronic game and the hard tip game?
It’s the same game, only electronic game keeps the score for you and we
use a handicap system which makes the game more fair. By that I mean we compete against players of similar skill level.
Could a good electronic player become a good hard tip player, and vice versa?
Yes, shooting is the same. There are different concepts of the game such as handicapping.
Assuming that you know a little about the hard tip game, which do you
believe offers the biggest challenge?
Each one is equally challenging.
I know one question that will immediately jump into people’s minds, and that
is how costly is it to play electronic darts, knowing that you have to keep putting money into the machine?
In the Novice League, 12 games of 301 cost $3.00 per night (machine plug)
with an additional $2.00 a night league dues to cover the cost of trophies, wind-up, and play-offs. All teams from my league system are put in levels
with the top team winning a trip to attend Team Dart in Las Vegas. Therefore, the total cost per evening for this league is $5.00. Some Intermediate and
Advanced leagues play an 18 game format with a cost of $4.50 (machine plug) and pay an additional $3.50 and run an in-hours play-off with the top team
going to Team Dart in Las Vegas. The total evening cost for this group would be $8.00.
I have been given to understand that it is not necessary to “double out” in the
soft-tip game. Is this correct?
Most of our leagues do not use the game format of doubling in and out, but
our dartboards to have that option. A screen will come up (on the Arachnid
Galaxy boards) and the player may select straight in or to double in and out. We also have the game of cricket, Bermuda triangle, which is much the
same as cricket except that you start at the number 12 to 20 and then bullseye. Tic tac toe, high score and speed games. So you can tell there is
a lot of variety.
Is it true that as long as the dart hits the board the score will count but the
dart does not have to stay in the board?
You are correct. As long as the dart actually hits the face of the board, it will
count that number. The dart doesn’t have to stick into the board. You can get a “hat trick” using three darts and having none of them remain in the
board. Also, in soft-tip, if you have 1 or 2 darts in the bullseye, you really
only need to hit one of those darts, with your third dart, to register another 50
points. So, I guess the greatest part of the game is that the darts don’t have
to stick in the board to count points, which is like a bonus, especially to the beginner players who can hit the board but are still working on the aiming part.
Because of my limited knowledge of your sport, is there anything that I have
missed that you feel might be of interest to our readers?
Electronic Soft-tip is more of a social game and also more fair as we put
teams in levels according to their total Points Per Dart Averages (PPDA). After league play each week, we post or fax out weekly statistics which
shows everyone their average – points per dart – personally and their team standings. People really enjoy seeing how they played on paper and see
how they ranked against everyone else.
Thank you very much Gerald and Liz for the time that you have given to me.
I have certainly learned a lot about electronic darts and I hope the readers find this information interesting and maybe give electronic soft-tip darts a try.
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