Anyone driving by Scott Estle’s old red barn in Bennington would never guess that inside, the nationally ranked darts champion might be competing in an online match with an opponent from across the globe.
“That is one of the really cool things about darts,” Estle said in his attic practice space. “You can play darts online and you can go up against these incredible players from anywhere. ”
Estle, who is ranked 24th in the Championship Darts Corporation North American professional tour, recently decided he won’t be traveling to the national championship in Indianapolis.
“A lot of my darts friends are headed to Indianapolis right now, but I had to make that hard decision not to go this year. We just have too much going on around here at the moment,” he said.
Estle, who works full time as a graphic and web designer, and his wife, veterinarian Dr. Jennifer Estle, have two teenage daughters, horses and other farm animals. Estle helps run the business side of his wife’s veterinary practice, which is in the middle of a major construction project.
“Hopefully, things will calm down at some point,” Estle said.
Estle said his love of the game dates back to his childhood in the Seacoast where he learned to play in his uncle’s basement.
“I met a guy I coached soccer with, and I went and played with him, and he kind of couldn’t believe how good I was, so he brought me to my first darts tournament when I was 13 years old,” Estle said. “I kind of got a little addicted to it. I would be on the phone, throwing darts; it was just always there.”
Estle played darts on and off during his younger years, returning to the sport more seriously in 2014 when his family moved to Bennington to be close to his wife’s family. During COVID, Estle built the practice space and office in the barn attic to be able to work from home.
The practice space includes a standard steel-tipped dartboard, with a wooden rail on the floor indicating where a competitor must stand, as well as an electronic soft-tip dart board which can be automatically linked to an online leaderboard. The soft-tip board has thousands of tiny holes for the darts, which have plastic tips.
Estle said people often ask him how they can get started in darts.
“You can play in league, which is how most people start, throwing in a bar with friends,” he said. “You can do singles leagues, you can do tournaments, you can do all kinds of different things around the state and around the country. There are a ton of different channels.”
Estle said New England has the highest concentration of steel-tip darts players in the country, while the Midwest has more soft-tip players.
“The Minuteman Darts League in Massachusetts, which I played for, is one of the oldest in the country, and at one point they were the largest league in the world. You can play in your area, and then if you win, travel to other areas and play for state titles,” he said. “The funny thing is, most people have no idea that this stuff is going on.”
Estle has won three state titles with his team in the Minuteman League and four soft-tip state titles in New Hampshire. He says most people are not aware of how the actual game of darts is played–that it is “not just about hitting the bull’s eye.”
“The core game, 501, involves a lot of math and it involves a lot of strategy,” he said.
Estle, who played hockey, golf, and baseball from high school through his twenties, said he loves darts because he can still be part of competitive sports without risking injury. He said darts has “a lot of parallels with golf.”
“Some of the mental parts of the game are very similar—it’s about the subconscious, it’s about not forcing it,” he said. “Darts has helped my golf game and my golf game has helped my darts. You have to let the tools do what the tools are supposed to do. There are a lot of people out there over-swinging with a golf club, trying to make it do something it is never going to do, or trying to throw a dart too hard.”
Estle was a founder of the New England Darts Players Tour, which he says is one step below the Championship Darts Corporation professional tour. While darts is still predominantly a male sport, Estle said there is a growing number of women who play.
“We’re proud that our league has always been co-ed, which is a little unusual,” he said. “It is definitely growing, and there are more and more women players.”
Estle said darts has become increasingly popular all over the world in the past few years.
“The Darts Players New England Tours are the natural next step for people who are coming out of the leagues, as people get better and better. The talent level is getting much better due to all these singles leagues, all the regional tours, and the Championship Darts Corporation tour. We are seeing a lot more Canadians and Americans travel over to Europe and compete; Europe is kind of the Mecca for darts competition,” he said. “Now my wife is looking at darts competitions all over the world and saying, ‘Hmm, let’s go to Iceland and you can compete!’ Anywhere you go in the world, you can meet other darts players.”
Estle is part of a Facebook group, launched during COVID, which matches partners for online competition. He was also involved in the creation of Darts Connect, a tablet-based app started by a dart-playing friend from the Minuteman League which connects the world of competitive darts players online.
“I can compete, I can watch other people compete, I can track my friends,” Estle said. “I can get a notification that my friend is up and about to play. You can watch live matches and it updates within seconds. It’s so fast they actually have to delay it when things are being shown on TV because people bet on the TV matches.”
Estle said it’s mind-boggling to think that people are also betting on him.
“I just love the sport,” he said. “I never think about making a living at it. I just love to play.”
For more information about the Dart Player New England League, visit facebook.com/DPNEdarts/.