Bringing the hype into living rooms

my Dartpfeil offers personalized equipment for the trend sport from the island

Oooonehundredandeigthy! When darts cult voice Russ Bray announces the highest possible score in his inimitable manner, the "Ally Pally", as London's "Alexandre Palace" is traditionally known, knows no bounds. The time-honored hall shakes and the spectators are greeted by an atmosphere somewhere between carnival and Oktoberfest. There's no doubt about it: darts is one of, if not the, trend sport of recent years. The World Championship, which takes place annually between December and January in the British capital, has long since caused a sensation internationally. The images of exuberantly celebrating and dancing fans in the Ally Pally have given the "pub sport" a veritable hype, which has also become a crowd puller and ratings guarantor on television in Germany.

Timm Bange also soaked up the atmosphere at the Ally Pally live in 2015/16 and turned it into the basis for an unusual business idea. Together with partners, he founded myDart dartthe world's first dart configurator, which makes it possible to design and order personalized darts. In the meantime, it has become a successful online store for every conceivable personalized dart accessory, operating primarily in the DACH region. In the fynax podcast "Thanks for Shopping" the co-founder of myDartpfeil explains his business model to fynax managers Saravanan Sundaram and Nadja Müller.

Like the cult sport itself, the "tool", the dart, is more than it appears to be at first glance. According to Bange, a dart is made up of at least four basic components - from the tip to the "barrel" to the "flight", the wing. All of these components can be customized at myDartpfeil. In total, this results in a range of over 5 million different combinations for beginners, amateur athletes and budding Ally Pally superstars.

While the coronavirus pandemic has hit outdoor sports hard, especially in the amateur and leisure sector, the lockdowns have made indoor sports even more popular. "For many family fathers, the quarantine was an incentive to get a dartboard and make the enforced time out more exciting," reports Bange. Normally, the darts equipment business is very seasonal. The peak period for myDartpfeil is usually in winter, especially during the World Darts Championships, which begin shortly after Christmas. Accordingly, spring and summer tend to be the time for outdoor activities. However, the pandemic meant that myDartpfeil enjoyed a strong spring last year.

The UK is also of considerable importance to myDartpfeil's business in terms of production. The basic products for myDartpfeil are supplied from the "motherland of sport". The young company's team, which now consists of 14 people, then takes customization into its own hands. As a result of Brexit, the company now has to pay VAT on large deliveries, which puts a strain on liquidity, as Bange admits: "Brexit has made everything more complicated." The usual delivery times also initially suffered from the now famous truck jams in Dover. However, the situation has now returned to normal and myDartpfeil can look to the post-pandemic period with confidence.

One thing is certain: when the masses return to the legendary Ally Pally at the turn of the year 2021/22 to pursue their passion for the cult sport, they will find their personalized equipment at myDartpfeil before, during and after. New talent from Germany is therefore guaranteed.

The whole episode of "Thanks for Shopping" is available here free of charge and in full length.