Transforming darts from pub game to global phenomenon with Nodor

Speaker A: Hello and welcome to Inflection Point, the podcast that explores those crucial moments in a company's journey that change the trajectory of success. Through conversations with business founders and entrepreneurs, we'll look at what those moments are and how to recognize and harness them. I'm Tim Smallburn, and in my 20 years as a partner at Inflection, I've been lucky enough to witness many of those moments that sit behind every success story. In today's episode, we're stepping up to the Okie and throwing ourselves into the world of darts. Yes.

Speaker B: Double 12. That is the most amazing leg of darts you will ever see in your life. I can't spake. I can't spake.

Speaker A: Well, that's the sound of the PDC World Darts Championships at, uh, London's Alexandra Palace. If you have watched it on the telly, you'll be familiar with the outrageous fancy dress and raucous party atmosphere and. But look beyond that and you'll find the company we're talking about today sitting right at the centre of this hugely popular sport. Nodor Group designs and manufactures premium darts equipment, including the iconic Winmore dartboard, as well as countless accessories for top pros like Cool Hand Luke Humphries and mighty Michael Van Gerwen.

Speaker B: I see our family as stewards of this great business, but to take it to the next level, you need a new system, a new structure.

Speaker C: What the team had done over the years was put the brands in a fantastic position where they were hugely well regarded, but also set the business up to scale.

Speaker A: I'm joined by Vince Bluck, founder and non executive director of Nodor, the family business built on innovation, craftsmanship and a genuine love of the sport. Also in the studio is Tom Pemberton, who led Inflection's buyout investment in the company in 2025. Vince, Tom, welcome to you both and thanks for joining us.

Speaker C: Thank you.

Speaker A: Vince, first of all, do you just want to tell us a little bit about what the company does? What is it today?

Speaker B: Morning, Tim. And, uh, thank you for having me here this morning. With two of the main brands in the darts industry, Winmore and Redragon, and the phenomenal growth that the darts industry has seen over the last five or ten years or so. The business has grown to the level where we're one of the biggest groups not just within the darts industry, but within the sport and goods manufacturing sector. Uh, we currently employ some 2,000 people worldwide. We're the official equipment supplier to the iconic professional darts corporation. So our boards are seen, uh, at all of the Sky Sports televised events seen by millions of fans worldwide. And we currently sponsor a plethora of uh, the top professionals including um, as you mentioned, Mighty Michael Van Gooen, Cool Hand Luke Humphreys, the Iceman Gerwyn Price and the Ferret Johnny Clayton. My family's involvement started in the mid-1970s. My father was a uh, process engineer at uh, Ford's axle and transmission plant in Swansea. He was invited to stand in for somebody uh, at a darts event one night. Never played the game at all, uh, and had a great evening uh, so thought well actually let me, let's sort of look at what's involved and maybe I'll sort of take this game up as a sort of a pastime. He noticed a set of, a set of tungsten darts was retailing back in the mid-1970s for about £30 a set which was effectively the typical take home salary for, per week uh, for a working class blue collar worker which was the key dart target market. So as an engineer he looked at how he could take tungsten heavy metal and produce it in a way that was um, available m to the widespread darting public just in a little furnace that he'd made at home.

Speaker A: At home. Yeah, he created a furnace at home.

Speaker B: He built this uh, in his garage. You know the thermostat on this furnace used to kick in and at night you'd see the streetlights sort of dim a couple of notches. Started machining this tungsten alloy um, into darts at a cost that was way, way lower than anybody else in the industry was able to produce at. So he said well I really think this could go somewhere but do I really take the plunge and leave my job in Fords? So he put together this single page flyer. My mother used to go to the local library and book out uh, the 40 regional yellow pages that covered all of the UK and she'd hand write tens of thousands of, handwrite tens of thousands of envelopes from the yellow pages. From the yellow Pages sending this single page flyer to the darts team at every pub and club throughout the uk. And it went berserk. Yeah, just overnight it took off. Uh, um, all of the orders used to come in via a PO box. These were sort of four or five postal sacks full of cash, you know, five pound notes, ten pound notes, postal orders. And that was the start of Red Dragon.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's a combination of uh, entrepreneurialism and just frankly hard work, isn't it? And that created the dance.

Speaker B: It was, it was Red Dragon. It was hard work, um, and a lot of luck, you know, finding my time, get it, getting the um, right product at the right time at the right price.

Speaker A: And we're talking 70s, 80s, this was

Speaker B: mid-70s, just as, just as the um, as the industry as it was starting to take off. Lots of TV coverage, lots of characters. As I say, you're Eric Bristos and.

Speaker A: Yeah, and Bullseye as well. Smashing, Super Bullseye.

Speaker B: Bullseye came along um, in the early 1980s. What a fantastic, fantastic uh, program that was. I think the viewing figures peaked actually in about 1987 or 1988. 17 million people used to tune in.

Speaker A: Just look what you could have won. It was a phenomenon. Yeah. And that presumably was a wonderful window for darts to make everybody aware of darts as a sport.

Speaker B: Just um, the level of interest was fantastic.

Speaker A: The company today was so Redragon, your dad's company was just part of, there were other companies founded which merged together to form the Nodor business.

Speaker B: So my father started Redragon in 1975. He was then approached by Nodaw in 1983. Um, said we've seen your little darts business grow over the last sort of four or five years. Maybe we should look at a merger. So my father's then sort of accountant, um, looked at the business and said John, he said don't touch, don't touch this business with a barge pole. He said they'll bring your little business down. He said they're on a three day week, uh, orders are done. They were really struggling and production techniques were dated. So he said well they're struggling but I recognize so much opportunity here. I think I can turn the production around. I can bring in a heap of new technical innovation. So the accountant said well make them an offer. And that's exactly what we did. And um, they took the decision to divest of the dartboard business. And so my father acquired it, took it from them um, in 1983.

Speaker A: What about the brand? The Winmore brand came from a slightly different route.

Speaker B: So the founder of Winmore, Harry kicks, started the Winmore company in 1946 with his D mob money. He was an ex sergeant major uh, in the Second World War. The Winmore name comes from the consolidation of the founders wife's first two names. Winifred Maud. That's well named. A lot of people pronounce it winmow. It's actually not, it's Winmore and it's from the consolidation of Winifred Maude.

Speaker A: Then how did Harry's business, Winmore come to be all under the same ownership?

Speaker B: We talked about coming Together and trying to work together and consolidate the two businesses for so many years but for one reason or another, egos, aspirations, nothing, nothing managed to work until 2001 and sadly the 911 disaster in um September 2001 when Windmill was actually owned by its US distributor company called Accudart and Qlight Tungsten. The Americans were going back into their shell a little bit after quite understandably after 911 and they said it's time for us to, to divest this business. And I could just immediately see the benefits and the synergy of bringing these two companies together. We could leverage their higher average selling price with our uh, more efficient and modern manufacturing techniques. It was a huge opportunity, a huge

Speaker A: turning point, an inflection point in the story.

Speaker B: Absolutely. And uh, so we acquired the business in December 2001.

Speaker A: The genesis goes back to your father, your mum was involved in the business and you've worked in the business all your life.

Speaker B: I've came straight. I was, I was going to work into. I studied economics at uh, at uh university. Was going to uh go into um into into accountancy but joined the business in, in 1993 and that was, that was probably at um one of the, the low points in the um in the, in the game actually the traditional pub business was, was, was tough. The TV coverage was dropping. The image of the game wasn't, wasn

Speaker A: went through a complete revolution. Once you got in you say it was in decline, it was struggling, the industry was struggling and yet it's been utterly transformed uh since then into a game played by absolutely millions and so popular. What was behind that transformation?

Speaker B: Two main factors. One is accessibility. Dance has always been a low cost game to get into. But one of the key growth factors that really transformed the game was uh the establishment of the Professional Dance Corporation. Uh the professionalism and expertise and in, in their own words as, as Barry and Eddie Hearn would, would say from, from Matchroom they sprinkled some serious magic, some Matchroom magic dust into the, into the dance business. Barry Hearn is uh, has often said When I first went to a dance tournament I could smell the money really. I could smell the money. The instinct was there and um, what what what Matchroom and the Professional Dance Corporation have done in taking it away from that sort of hub um type atmosphere, moving it into big arenas, working with the players, creating the real characters of the game and generating prize funds that um, dart players could literally only dream of. And because of the accessibility of the game people said well how difficult can it be? I'll have a Go at that.

Speaker A: I'll give it a go. I can make a million pounds. Yeah. I mean, uh, mention of the word smell the money must prompt me to turn to the venture capitalist in the room. Tom, what led you to be interested in the world of darts?

Speaker C: It's interesting. I think Vince has touched on a lot of the areas. I mean, as investors, what we're always looking for is high growth markets that we think we can access. And there's usually a number of dynamics that sit behind that. Obviously strong consumer interest, lots of money coming into the sport. And Vince talked about the sponsorship and the TV money. But for us, when we get really excited about categories is where there is a growing international opportunity and where we as, ah, investors think that we can help businesses scale internationally. And we'd seen darts growing massively over the last probably five years, a bit longer than that. You know, the professionalism coming through the pdc, they're just a really well run organization. They're very thoughtful about growth. And when I say thoughtful, you know, they're considerate about how aggressively they grow the sport as well, which you want to see because, you know, there is oversaturation challenges that you have with some sports and some, um, content, particularly in this day and age. So there was an element of that within the category as well. But when we spoke to people and it's one of those sports that once you get into it, you're hooked. And, uh, the level of loyalty and community that you see within the sport of darts is really strong and really differentiated. So we saw all those dynamics at play for us as investors. That's all great. Then you've got to find the opportunity and the businesses to back. And that was the fortunate situation that we got when we met Vince and Fiona Block, who were running, uh, Nodor at the time a couple of years ago.

Speaker A: I mean, you can sense, sitting here with Vince, you can sense the passion and that combination of passion as well as the entrepreneurialism. It led to a fantastic business opportunity taking all the passion and emotion out of it. You saw a business opportunity?

Speaker C: Yeah. And Vince talked about it before. This business and the brands that are part of the node or group, they were all built on a fundamental focus on precision engineering and differentiation from a product perspective, which as a consumer investor is the first thing you look for in an opportunity. And so it had that great platform and the brands have that great platform. They are the best known brands in the sport of darts, which is a fantastic category to be in. And I think with the Nodor business, what Vince and Fiona and the team had done over the years was put the brands in a fantastic position where they were hugely well regarded, uh, across the sport, but also set the business up to scale really strongly and benefit from all the tailwinds that we're seeing in darts. There's strong international opportunity available, multi channel approach, so great relationships with a large number of the B2B providers and really well regarded in that channel, but also opportunity across digital, across Amazon, um, and then from an international perspective, extremely strong in the uk, growing really well in Europe but largely untapped in the U.S. uh, and also Asia which was seeing huge growth and huge viewership and huge demand for um, in the world of Dart. So a fantastic business and a really, really great platform then for us as investors to come along and help support in the next wave.

Speaker A: Vince, what led you to do a deal with Inflection? You and Fiona were owning the business, obviously extremely successful. What was the thinking behind doing a deal?

Speaker B: Our family run business structure was fantastic and really, really helped us get to where, where we got to. But that passion and sheer graft and hard work probably plateaued at about the uh, uh, probably about the 50, 50 or 70 million pounds turnover level up to that point. My wife Fiona, my brother Alex and myself, we, we would touch every single point of the business and that was great up to, as I say, that 50, 70 million pound turnover level. But I was becoming increasingly um, concerned that that structure wasn't conducive to the huge opportunities that were still out there and we would be doing this great business a disservice if we didn't look at how we maximized those opportunities. Uh, and so we actually touched um, base, ah, with an old pal of mine who was senior partner at a local finance company, ah, in Wales. And um, Frank, Frank said why don't you consider private equity, Have a coffee with some of the guys I know. So we met with Tom and Richard, uh, and Jack from Inflection and we were seriously impressed and excited about how a partnership with uh, the Inflection team could really help us fast track that growth and the opportunities that were available to us.

Speaker A: More than just the money.

Speaker B: It wasn't really about the money as um, sort of, I see our family more as stewards of this great business. But to take it to the next level you need a new system, a new structure and that's exactly what the Inflection team can bring to the table.

Speaker A: You've already highlighted a number of sort of major turning points in the history of the company. But the actual deal itself was a major turning point as well, inviting in outside help.

Speaker B: Absolutely. And one of the exciting things that I think led us to partnering with Inflection was their value acceleration team. You don't know what you don't know. And by working with a hugely successful group with a portfolio of 55 or so, um, really strong, growing businesses, you can draw on all of that sort of experience and expertise that we simply didn't have access to before. So by leveraging all of that expertise, the business is in a hugely different position now. And we're now set up, as we say, we're on the road to 250 million.

Speaker A: And Tom, presumably you could see that from the outside. You could see the opportunity that was there for us to have our own impact on the business.

Speaker C: Absolutely. And when we met Vince and Fiona, the Nodor business was in phenomenal shape. It was growing and continues to grow extremely well, but had been set up, the platform was there, but to Vince's point, and the way we always think about the investment that we make, we're trying to support and provide as much input, but also help the business be ambitious around the growth story. And so that, first and foremost, that comes down to getting the right people in the organization. And Nodaw has a fantastic team and a brilliant culture. And the last thing you want to do is. So we've been very thoughtful about who we bring into the business and we've now got a brilliant C suite. We've hired a large number of senior executives, including a new CEO and cfo, and they're, uh, really making great strides with the business. But the opportunity is huge. It's a massive growing market. It's international. We've got the best brands, the best product out there, the best relationships with all the key people in the industry. And so supporting the business, getting the right people in and then helping with the growth story, particularly from an international perspective, is what we do and what we love. And the opportunity here continues and we're hugely excited about it.

Speaker A: And, um, I imagine one of the tricks is to bring in that fresh blood but retain that passion, that passion for the sport, that culture within the business.

Speaker B: Uh, that's hugely exciting statement, uh, Tim. And to be fair to Tom, they've always been hugely respectful of that sort of tradition and, uh, culture within the business. And two of the key appointments that, uh, inflection, um, have helped us make, our new chairman, Greg Neuenhaus, and, uh, our new CEO, Tom Brown. These are two of the most inspirational business leaders that I've ever had the pleasure to work with. We could not have recruited people of that sort of calibre without inflections, um, guidance.

Speaker A: And just tell us about the marketing. One of the interesting aspects of this company, it's got a fantastic brand trying to accelerate that marketing in the digital age.

Speaker C: Yeah. And look, that's a big area of focus for us as consumer investors. Obviously we've done a lot in terms of expanding businesses through the D2C channel. We know the social media landscape having invested in a social media marketing agency over the years. And I think that the great thing about darts is there is a hugely loyal community. They engage at events, they engage obviously, you know, watching on, on TV and watching it live. But also a lot of that is done online and there's a lot of chat forums and social media, um, communication and then also a lot of online playing of darts which we see as huge opportunity and there's a whole uh, consumer technology community opportunity um, with this investment that we see. But yeah, I think the D2C and digital aspect of darts is only really just getting started and we see that as hugely scalable. And the great thing is it's a global sport and social media channels and digital channels don't have borders. So you can really scale these businesses quite significantly if you get the strategy right. And that's a big focus for us.

Speaker A: Uh, and you wouldn't have thought it, but there is also a technology opportunity here because the hard bit about playing dance is learning how to subtract from 501. But there's new technology.

Speaker B: One of the last barriers to entry is doing the maths. And uh, it's, you know, it can be a turn off. And so we've been working on uh, auto scoring systems for years to try and overcome that sort of last um, barrier to entry of the game. And just after the inflection deal we actually acquired a German company called Auto Darts who have literally just recorded their 2 billionth darts being um, thrown and automatically scored. Their technology is phenomenal. Uh, and that is so exciting where this whole industry is going to go. If we were to set up this automatic scoring system, uh, in our office and bring Michael van Gerwen into the office and say, Mike, throw a thousand darts, um, at this board we could map exactly where those 1,000 darts landed. And if they were literally a millimeter below dead center of the treble 20, we could track that, analyze exactly where those thousand darts landed, uh, and say Mike, they're landing slightly low. If you wear an extra pair of socks when you're next on stage, you'll lift your release point up by that millimeter and we'll add maybe, uh, a couple of percentage points onto your three dart average. It's that powerful. And think flight club in the comfort of your own home. That is where this technology will get to. Ah. And the community aspect of being able to play competitors online, track your stats and your scores and improve, give you tips to improve your game. Um, that's the future of the game.

Speaker C: The other thing that we think is, is amazing and will continue to grow the sport is the number of younger people coming into the sport. So, you know, there's, as we talked about before, it's, it's an extremely accessible sport. And so there's kids coming in, you know, 10, 11, seeing the success of Luke Litler, the amount of sponsorship money that's coming through and getting really excited about trying to come into the sport. So the number of young players that are throwing really good numbers and Vince will be able to talk to this better than me, means that we have a lot of confidence that the future of the sport will continue and we'll actually have a large number of very successful, highly engaged people either playing and becoming professionals or just interested in the sport, attending events, watching TV, purchasing dartboards, etc.

Speaker A: And the future is more and more international. We're looking to take it. You mentioned the United States. Presumably the exit may well be for the next generation, may well be an American generation.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. You see the stats and darts is gaining great momentum across multiple parts of the world. The Middle east is huge. Europe continues to be a, um, massive market of growth. The UK obviously, but the US is really untapped. And you know, there's an event now in New York which gets great attendance. But for us, I think the US opportunity, if we can get it right, will be hugely exciting. And for the next, uh, investors in darts, I think they potentially could come

Speaker B: from the U.S. so that's interesting, Tom. Um, the event that you're referring to in New York, Madison Square Gardens, I think we're going back in June for the fourth year. The venue was sold out literally in hours. Uh, something like 5,000 seats sold out in. So, uh, Barry Hearn has recently announced that I think next year they're going to take over the full, um, MSG Arena. 18,000 spectators and darts fans in New York City. That's going to be amazing.

Speaker A: Wow. I hope they all put on fancy dress and bring the proper darts atmosphere. It's an amazing story. Lots of characters in the creation of the whole darts industry as large as the life of the players. If looking back, was there any sort of one moment you'd look at, just sort of reflect on that captures the essence of it all.

Speaker B: I think for me the passion that you experience every time you go into one of these major PDC events where you've got potentially 5 or 10,000 uh, fans, millions of people watching it around the world, the atmosphere is electric and uh, every time you just, you just think this is so inspiring and this industry is in such good shape.

Speaker A: Fantastic. What a lovely note to finish on. It's been a fascinating story. Thanks for sharing it with us. That's it for this episode. My thanks to Vince and Tom for joining me. Remember to subscribe to Inflection Point wherever you get your podcast so you don't miss an episode and you can listen back to our previous installments as well. Thanks for listening.