Dartboard Height and Distance: Official Setup Guide | Oche

Two numbers decide whether your board plays like the ones on television: the hanging height and the throwing distance. Set them to the regulation figures and every practice dart you throw at home transfers directly to a match board anywhere in the world.

The two official measurements

The figures are fixed by the World Darts Federation and used across the PDC and steel-tip play worldwide:

• Bullseye height: 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) from the floor to the centre of the bull.
• Oche distance (steel-tip): 2.37 m (7 ft 9¼ in) horizontally from the board face.
• Oche distance (soft-tip): 2.44 m (8 ft) for electronic boards.

The height never changes; the distance is the one figure that depends on whether you throw steel-tip or soft-tip. Our height and distance guide breaks both down in detail.

Why measure the oche horizontally

The 2.37 m is a horizontal floor measurement taken from the point directly beneath the board face — not a diagonal and not measured from the wall. Mark the spot on the floor below the board, then run the tape forward 2.37 m and lay your throwing line there.

The diagonal cross-check

There’s a neat way to confirm you got both numbers right. Measure from the centre of the bull to the back of the oche — it should read 2.93 m (9 ft 7½ in) for a steel-tip setup. If the diagonal is correct, your height and distance are both correct, because the three measurements form a fixed right triangle. A wrong diagonal means one of the two is off.

Steel-tip vs soft-tip distance

The only measurement that changes between formats is the throw line. Steel-tip sits at 2.37 m; soft-tip moves back to 2.44 m — roughly 7 cm further. The bull stays at 1.73 m for both. If you’re deciding between the two, our steel-tip vs soft-tip guide covers the full picture.

Get it right once, then practise

Once your board is hung at 1.73 m and your oche is marked at 2.37 m, the setup is done for good. From there it’s about reps. The Oche X01 scorer tracks your three-dart average and checkout percentage every session, so the time you spend at a correctly-measured board actually shows up as progress.