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An electronic dartboard is worth buying if you want built-in scoring, more game modes than 501 and Cricket, and a board that more than two people can play without anyone doing math out loud. The Viper 800 is the best all-around electronic dartboard for most game rooms at around $137, the Franklin Sports FS1500 is the cheapest real way to try electronic scoring at under $45, and a plain bristle board is still the smarter buy if you only ever play 501 and don’t care about auto-scoring at all.
At a Glance
- Best Overall: Viper 800 — ~$136.99, 57 built-in games, up to 16 players
- Best Budget Pick: Franklin Sports FS1500 — ~$44.99, 65 built-in games
- Best for Solo Practice: Winmau Ton Machine — ~$73.00, built-in AI opponent
- Best for Mixed-Skill Households: Arachnid Cricket Pro 800 — ~$249.99, handicap mode
In This Guide
- What “Electronic Dartboard” Actually Means
- Is the Upgrade From a Bristle Board Worth It?
- The 6 Electronic Dartboards We Compared
- Price, Games, Players, and Warranty at a Glance
- Must-Have vs. Nice-to-Have Features
- Replacement Tips and What They Cost Over Time
- How We Researched
- FAQ
What “Electronic Dartboard” Actually Means
Every board in this guide is a soft-tip electronic dartboard: a plastic target face with hundreds of tiny holes wired to sensors, thrown at with soft plastic-tipped darts instead of steel points. When a dart lands, the board registers which segment it hit and updates the score automatically on a built-in display (or, for one pick here, on a connected phone app). That’s the whole trade you’re making — you give up the feel and repairability of a real sisal (bristle) target in exchange for not having to add up your own scores, and for game modes a bristle board simply can’t run on its own.
Steel-tip darts should never be thrown at an electronic board — the metal points can damage the segment sensors and the tighter segment spacing on electronic boards is designed around a slightly smaller soft tip. If anyone in the house already plays steel-tip league darts, that’s a vote for keeping a separate bristle board around rather than replacing it outright.
Is the Upgrade From a Bristle Board Worth It?
A real, currently-sold bristle option like the Viper Shot King — an 18″ tournament-size sisal board that takes either steel-tip or soft-tip darts — showed up priced anywhere from about $28 to $56 across different retailers during our research, with most full-price listings clustering closer to $40–55 and occasional sale prices dipping toward $30. That price swing alone is a reason to shop around before assuming either format is the “cheap” one.
The upgrade tends to pay off for households with more than two players, kids or beginners who’d otherwise need help keeping score, or anyone who wants to play Cricket, Shanghai, or other checkout-heavy games without doing mental math after every throw. It tends not to pay off if the only game played is straight 501 among people who already know how to keep score, or if steel-tip darts and a “real” sisal feel matter more than convenience. Darts isn’t a shrinking hobby, either — according to SkyQuest Technology Consulting, the global darts market was valued at $6.16 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $8.95 billion by 2033, and per the American Darts Organization’s own history page, U.S. league membership still averages roughly 250 clubs and 50,000 members nationally today, down from a 1980s peak but far from gone.
The 6 Electronic Dartboards We Compared
These six are real, currently-sold soft-tip electronic dartboards spanning a starter price to a stat-tracking cabinet, pulled from our broader hobbies & entertainment coverage. If you’re stocking a whole game room rather than just a wall, pairs well with our picks for cooperative board games, a home karaoke machine, or — for a quieter night — one of our beginner telescopes.
Franklin Sports FS1500 Electronic Dartboard — Best Budget Pick (~$44.99)
The Franklin Sports FS1500 is the cheapest way to get real electronic scoring, with 65 built-in game variations, voice and sound effects, and a large electronic readout. It ships with 6 soft-tip darts plus 6 bonus replacement tips and runs on 3 AAA batteries (not included).
- Standout: lowest price of any name-brand electronic board here, by a wide margin
- Dealbreaker: the 13.5″ target is smaller than the regulation 15.5″ size, and Franklin doesn’t publish a max player count — this reads as a simpler, single-family-room board rather than a serious multiplayer one
- Warranty: 90-day limited warranty on materials and workmanship
Winmau Ton Machine Soft Tip Dartboard — Best for Solo Practice (~$73.00)
Winmau is better known for professional steel-tip boards, and the Ton Machine is its crossover into electronic scoring — 90+ pre-programmed games including Cricket and 501, plus a built-in AI opponent mode for practicing alone. It comes with 2 sets of darts, 10 sets of spare tips, and an oche throwing line.
- Standout: the AI opponent is genuinely useful if you’re the only person in the house who plays
- Dealbreaker: Winmau’s own product listing doesn’t spell out max player count, display type, or cabinet material — confirm those specifics with a retailer before buying if they matter to you
- Warranty: covered by Winmau’s standard returns policy; no extended term is published for this specific model (Winmau’s flagship steel-tip Blade X boards carry a much longer 5-year warranty, but that doesn’t carry over to the Ton Machine)
Viper VTooth 1000 EX Bluetooth Dartboard — Best App-Connected Pick (~$79.99–$96)
Instead of a built-in display, the VTooth 1000 EX scores through the free Viper Dart Linkup app over Bluetooth, with custom player profiles for up to 4 players and 16+ games that expand as the app updates. It’s cordless, running on 4 AA batteries, and includes 6 soft-tip starter darts.
- Standout: phone-based stat tracking and profile history is a genuinely different approach from every other board here
- Dealbreaker: availability has been inconsistent at some major retailers, and there’s no way to play or see a score without a charged phone nearby — check current stock before counting on this one
- Warranty: Viper/GLD states most of its electronic boards carry a 1-year limited warranty
Viper 800 Electronic Dartboard — Best Overall (~$136.99)
The Viper 800 is the most balanced pick here: a regulation 15.5″ target, 57 games with 400+ scoring options, support for up to 16 players, an extended display for specialty games, and an ultra-thin spider and catch ring meant to cut down on bounce-outs. It includes 6 soft-tip darts, 24 spare tips, a throw line, and an AC adapter.
- Standout: the widest realistic mix of price, player count, and game library of anything in this roundup
- Dealbreaker: no AI practice mode and no app connectivity — it’s a straightforward standalone board, not a smart one
- Warranty: 1-year limited warranty
Fat Cat Electronx Electronic Dartboard — Best for Stat Tracking (~$199.99)
The Electronx steps up to 34 games with 180+ scoring options for up to 8 players, a backlit LCD that tracks Points Per Dart (PPD) and Marks Per Round (MPR), and concave segment holes meant to reduce bounce-outs. A built-in cabinet stores 12 darts, and it ships with 6 soft-tip darts and an AC adapter.
- Standout: PPD/MPR tracking is the kind of stat serious players actually use to measure improvement over time
- Dealbreaker: we couldn’t find a published warranty term on the current product page — contact the manufacturer to confirm coverage before you buy
- Warranty: not published at time of writing; confirm directly before purchase
Arachnid Cricket Pro 800 Electronic Dartboard — Best for Mixed-Skill Households (~$249.99)
The Cricket Pro 800 is the premium pick: 40 games with 179 options including 7 cricket variants, support for up to 8 players (with a 4-player X/O cricket display), a scrolling LED screen, and NylonTough micro-thin segment dividers on a regulation 15.5″ target. A handicap mode and an optional 3-level sound “Heckler” commentary feature are built for households where skill levels vary widely.
- Standout: handicap mode is a real solution for households where one player is far better than the rest
- Dealbreaker: highest price here for a shorter warranty term than the Viper boards
- Warranty: 90-day limited warranty
Price, Games, Players, and Warranty at a Glance
This is the table most spec sheets don’t hand you: what you’re actually paying per built-in game mode, calculated as approximate price divided by the manufacturer’s own stated game-variation count. It’s a rough number, not a precision science — a $6 game mode isn’t six times worse than a $0.69 one — but it’s a useful gut check on where a board’s price is actually going.
| Model | Approx. Price | Game Modes | Max Players | Cost per Game Mode | Warranty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin Sports FS1500 | $44.99 | 65 | Not published | $0.69 | 90 days |
| Winmau Ton Machine | $73.00 | 90+ | Not published | ~$0.81 | Standard returns policy |
| Viper VTooth 1000 EX | $79.99–$96 | 16+ (app-expandable) | 4 | ~$5.00 | 1 year |
| Viper 800 | $136.99 | 57 | 16 | $2.40 | 1 year |
| Fat Cat Electronx | $199.99 | 34 | 8 | $5.88 | Not published |
| Arachnid Cricket Pro 800 | $249.99 | 40 | 8 | $6.25 | 90 days |
The pattern here is pretty clear: the two cheapest boards (Franklin and Winmau) also have the lowest cost per game mode by a wide margin, while the priciest boards are charging more for player capacity, display quality, and stat tracking rather than for a bigger game library. If a huge list of game modes is the only thing you care about, the Franklin and Winmau are the efficient choices; if you care about player count, display, or long-term stat tracking, that’s where the extra money on the pricier boards is actually going.
Must-Have vs. Nice-to-Have Features
Not every feature on a spec sheet matters equally once the board is actually on your wall.
Must-have
- A regulation 15.5″ target if anyone in the house plays seriously — several boards here (Franklin) use a smaller face
- Reliable segment sensing with minimal bounce-outs, which thinner spider/divider designs (Viper’s ultra-thin spider, Fat Cat’s and Arachnid’s concave holes) are built to reduce
- Enough soft-tip darts and spare tips in the box to start playing the same day
Nice-to-have
- A huge game library — most households settle into 501 and Cricket within a week regardless of how many modes are loaded
- Sound “personality” or commentary features, which are fun at first and easy to mute later
- App connectivity, which is genuinely useful for stat nerds but adds a dependency (a charged phone) that a standalone display doesn’t have
The honest dealbreakers, in order of how often they’d actually matter: the Franklin’s undersized target for anyone who plays elsewhere on a regulation board, the Viper VTooth’s dependence on a phone and its spotty retailer stock, and the missing published warranty terms on the Fat Cat Electronx, which is worth a quick email to the manufacturer before you buy at that price point.
Replacement Tips and What They Cost Over Time
One cost that never shows up in a spec-sheet comparison: soft tips wear down and snap, especially in a household that plays a few times a week. Every board here ships with a set of spares — 6 extra tips with the Franklin, 24 with the Viper 800, 10 full sets with the Winmau — but a family that plays regularly should expect to buy a refill pack eventually. Generic and brand-name soft-tip refill packs from Viper, Winmau, and similar dart brands typically run in the $5–$10 range for 100 tips, so even heavy use adds up to somewhere around $10–$20 a year, not a meaningful factor in which board to buy but worth budgeting for once instead of being surprised by it later.
Mounting is the other overlooked cost. Regulation dart throw distance is 7 feet 9¼ inches from a board hung with its bullseye 5 feet 8 inches off the floor, and every board here needs roughly 3 feet of clearance on either side for stray throws — worth measuring your actual wall before ordering the board with the biggest player count, since a 16-player board doesn’t help if only two people can stand close enough to throw.
How We Researched
We built this roundup from each manufacturer’s own current product pages and spec sheets, cross-checked against active retailer listings (including Walmart, Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and specialty dart retailers) to confirm these boards are actually in production and currently sold, and against patterns in verified owner reviews and darts-hobbyist forum consensus on reliability and scoring accuracy. We did not physically test these boards ourselves, and we don’t claim to. See our editorial standards for how we vet every pick on this site. Prices are approximate, current as of publication, and change frequently — confirm the latest price with the retailer before buying.
FAQ
What’s the real difference between an electronic and a bristle dartboard?
An electronic dartboard uses soft plastic-tipped darts and sensors to score automatically, while a bristle (sisal) board uses steel-tip or soft-tip darts with manual scoring. Electronic boards add convenience and game variety; bristle boards are generally considered more durable long-term and are required for steel-tip league play.
How many players can an electronic dartboard support?
It varies by model — from 4 players on the app-based Viper VTooth 1000 EX up to 16 on the Viper 800. If you regularly host larger groups, check the max player count before buying, since it’s one of the biggest practical differences between boards at similar prices.
Do electronic dartboards need batteries or a wall outlet?
Most of the boards in this guide run on an AC adapter (Viper 800, Fat Cat Electronx, Arachnid Cricket Pro 800), while the Franklin FS1500 runs on 3 AAA batteries and the cordless Viper VTooth 1000 EX runs on 4 AA batteries. Check the power source before you buy if you’re mounting the board somewhere without a nearby outlet.
Are electronic dartboards safe for kids?
Soft-tip darts are generally considered more forgiving than steel-tip darts for households with kids, but darts still have a pointed tip and should be used with adult supervision and the manufacturer’s age recommendations and mounting instructions in mind, not treated as a toy.
What’s actually covered under an electronic dartboard’s warranty?
Terms vary widely: Franklin and Arachnid publish a 90-day limited warranty against material or workmanship defects, Viper’s electronic boards are generally covered for 1 year per GLD Products, and neither Winmau’s Ton Machine nor the Fat Cat Electronx has a published warranty term for this specific model — worth confirming directly with the manufacturer before buying at the higher end of this range.
How much wall space and clearance does an electronic dartboard need?
Regulation setup is 7 feet 9¼ inches of throwing distance with the bullseye mounted 5 feet 8 inches off the floor, plus roughly 3 feet of clearance on either side of the board for stray throws. Measure your actual wall before buying a board with a high max player count — extra players don’t help if there’s only room for one or two people to stand at throwing distance at a time.
