Hang the board so the center of the bullseye is exactly 5’8″ (1.73m) off the floor. For steel tip, measure 7’9¼″ (2.37m) along the floor from the face of the board to the back of the throwing line (the oche); for soft tip, it’s 8’ (2.44m). Light it evenly from the front so the wires don’t cast shadows, protect the wall around the board, and double-check your measurements with the diagonal trick below. Get those numbers right and every other tip is just polish.
A dartboard hung even an inch off can quietly sabotage everyone who throws at it. Muscle memory is built on a fixed target, so if your board sits too high or your throwing line is too short, players practicing at home will be off the moment they step up to a regulation board at the bar — and they won’t know why. The good news: setting up a board correctly takes about twenty minutes, a tape measure, and the handful of numbers below.
We build tournament and league software for bars and amusement operators, which means we get a lot of questions from venues hanging their first board (or fixing one that was hung by guesswork years ago). This is the setup we’d walk a new venue through — the same regulation spec used by the major darts bodies, plus the practical details that the spec sheets leave out.
The two numbers that matter most
Almost every dartboard setup comes down to two measurements: how high the board sits, and how far back the throwing line is. Get these two right and you have a regulation setup.
Height: 5’8″ to the center of the bullseye
The center of the bullseye should be 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 meters)from the floor. This is the single most important number, and it’s the same worldwide — for steel tip and soft tip, for casual play and for sanctioned tournaments. Note that you measure to the bullseye, not to the top or bottom of the board, and you measure from the finished floor the players will actually stand on.
The height was originally set around the eye level of an average adult, which is why it feels natural for most players. Resist the urge to “adjust it” for a tall or short crowd — the standard is the standard, and the whole point is that the target is identical everywhere anyone plays.
Distance: 7’9¼″ for steel tip, 8’ for soft tip
The throwing distance is measured along the floor from the face of the dartboard to the back of the throwing line. The two standards differ depending on the type of darts:
| Board type | Bullseye height | Throwing distance (oche) |
|---|---|---|
| Steel tip (bristle) | 5’8″ (1.73m) | 7’9¼″ (2.37m) |
| Soft tip (electronic) | 5’8″ (1.73m) | 8’ (2.44m) |
The height never changes; only the distance does. Soft tip boards sit slightly farther back — three quarters of an inch shy of a full extra couple of inches over steel tip — because the lighter plastic darts and the board geometry play a little differently. If your venue runs both kinds of board, hang them at the same height and just set each throwing line to its own number. If you’re not sure which type you have: bristle boards take metal-pointed darts, electronic boards have plastic holes and plastic-tipped darts. We break down the trade-offs in our guide to darts scoring and rules if you’re still deciding what to put on the wall.
Dartboards have depth, and so do the cabinets they often hang in. The 7’9¼″ (or 8’) is measured from the front face of the board to the line — not from the wall behind it. Measuring from the wall is the most common way a setup ends up an inch or two too long.
The diagonal check: confirm both numbers at once
Here’s a trick the pros use, and it’s the best way to catch a mistake before you commit. Once the board is hung and the line is marked, run your tape measure from the center of the bullseye diagonally down to the back of the throwing line. On a correct steel-tip setup, that diagonal should read 9’7½″ (2.93m).
Why this works: the height and the floor distance form two sides of a right triangle, and the diagonal is the hypotenuse. If your height is right and your floor distance is right, the diagonal lands on 9’7½″ automatically. If it’s off, one of your two measurements is wrong — and you just caught it before anyone threw a dart. It’s also the more reliable measurement when your floor isn’t perfectly level, which in an old bar it rarely is.
Marking the oche
The throwing line itself is called the oche(pronounced “ockey”). Players must throw with their feet behind it — they can lean over it, but no part of the foot can cross or touch the front edge. A few ways to mark it, from most to least serious:
- A raised oche bar.A low strip of wood or a purpose made oche raises the line so a player physically can’t creep past it. This is the gold standard for league and tournament play and removes any argument about foot faults.
- A strip of tape or a painted line. Perfectly fine for a casual bar setup. Use a contrasting color and make it thick enough to see from the throwing position. Mark the line at the back edge so the measured distance is to where the feet actually go.
- A throw mat.A rubber mat with the regulation distances pre-printed is the easiest option for a venue — it sets the height-to-line distance for you and protects the floor. Just confirm the mat’s marked distance matches your board type before trusting it.
Lighting: the detail most setups get wrong
A board can be hung to the millimeter and still be miserable to play on if it’s lit badly. The enemy is shadow: the raised wire spider on the board casts shadows across the scoring beds, and a single overhead light directly above the board makes those shadows worse, hiding the thin doubles and trebles right when a player needs to see them.
The fix is to light the board from the front and slightly above, from both sides, so the light wraps around the wires instead of throwing them across the face. Purpose-built dartboard lighting surrounds (a ring or a pair of LED arms that clamp around the board) do this automatically and are the cleanest solution for a venue. If you’re improvising, two angled lights — one upper-left, one upper-right — beat one bright light dead overhead every time.
Protect the wall (and the floor)
Steel tip darts miss. They will, repeatedly, hit the wall around the board and the floor short of it. A few cheap precautions save your venue a lot of patching and a lot of bent dart points:
- A backboard or dartboard surround. A cabinet, a sheet of cork, or a foam ring catches the stray darts that would otherwise pock the wall. Surrounds also look the part and frame the board nicely.
- Floor protection in front of the board. Dropped darts and bounce-outs land point-first. A throw mat or even a section of carpet protects both the floor and the dart tips.
- Rotate the board periodically.Most bristle boards can be unmounted and turned so the heavily-used 20 segment moves to a fresh part of the board. This roughly doubles the board’s life — a small thing that matters when a busy bar board sees thousands of darts a month.
A quick word on accessibility
If your venue wants to welcome wheelchair players, the standard approach is to keep the same board height and use a shorter, marked throwing distance rather than altering the board. Sanctioned wheelchair darts keeps the 5’8″ bullseye height and adjusts only the oche. Hanging a second, lower board is generally discouraged because it breaks the “same target everywhere” principle that makes the sport fair — a marked alternate line is the cleaner solution.
The setup checklist
- Bullseye at 5’8″ (1.73m) from the floor — measured to the center of the bull.
- Oche at 7’9¼″ (2.37m) for steel tip or 8’ (2.44m) for soft tip, measured from the face of the board.
- Diagonal of 9’7½″ (2.93m) from bullseye to the back of the line, to confirm both measurements (steel tip).
- Board hung level with the 20 segment straight up and the wires flat against the face.
- Lit from the front and both sides to kill shadows.
- Wall and floor protected with a surround and a mat.
Once the board’s up
A properly hung board is the foundation for everything else — a casual throw after work, a weeknight league, a weekend tournament. If you’re hanging a board because you want to start running events on it, the setup is the easy part; keeping a league or tournament organized is where most venues get stuck. We wrote step-by-step playbooks for both: how to run a bar dart tournament and how to start a dart league at your bar.
When you’re ready to run the brackets, scoring, standings, and player texts without a stack of whiteboards, that’s exactly what ThrowDown is built to do — one flat plan, every feature included. Try the live demo with no signup, or start a free trial and get your first night on it. Questions about your setup? Reach out — we’re happy to help.