In the darts world, there aren’t many who don’t know what GoDartsPro.com is. With 57,000 members, it’s one of the largest training tools for darts in the world. The program’s founder, Anders Östman, lives in Gothenburg, Sweden.

“It started catastrophically”
The year 2017 began catastrophically for Anders Östman when a close friend passed away on New Year’s Eve. A few weeks after the emotional funeral, a trip was planned for him and his wife to celebrate their wedding anniversary, but Anders spent 14 out of 15 days bedridden with a 40-degree fever. On the flight home, he ingested something bad and got salmonella, resulting in another two weeks of illness. Being self-employed and missing work for so long caused him significant stress.

– ”I reached a point where I hadn’t slept in three weeks, and I realized I had to do something to avoid burning out. I had just quit as the drummer in a band, which had previously been my outlet for dealing with tough situations. To find something that inspired me, I sat in the basement with paper and pen, and the first thing I wrote down was darts,” the founder tells us.

Anders set up a dartboard in his basement, and after just a few evenings, his sleep returned, and he started to feel positive about life again. Once he got into the rhythm, he tried finding an app or website to help track scores but had little luck, as there wasn’t much available. As a developer, he created a website with a few games for his use to track his scores. Anders explains that this gave him a boost, and he kept developing the site, eventually creating a finished product that could be sold online and is now globally known as ”GoDartsPro.com.”

– ”I had recently bought a new GoPro camera, which is why I called it GoDartsPro.”

Trouble from England
After GoDartsPro had been active for three months, Anders received an email from WINMAU’s head coach, Mikko Laiho, who was upset that Anders had used one of his games, called 420, on GoDartsPro. However, once Anders explained who he was, Mikko Laiho’s tone changed.

– ”He thought it was a big British company that had stolen his ideas, but when I explained it was just me working on it and that I was from Sweden, he became very interested,” Anders explained.

Mikko Laiho and Anders started a collaboration and launched a company in England. Mikko had worked throughout Europe developing darts and had created several games published on GoDartsPro. Sadly, Mikko passed away in the spring of 2019.

– ”It came as a shock, and I was left alone again. Mikko’s daughter allowed me to carry on his legacy, and that’s what I’ve been trying to do.”

Since then, Anders has continued working closely with both WINMAU and the JDC organization, which works with junior darts worldwide.

The pandemic was a big boost
Anders worked on GoDartsPro only in the evenings and on weekends for a long time. But during the pandemic, he faced health problems and had to scale back his daily work as an IT consultant and photographer. However, he continued working on GoDartsPro from home.

– ”The COVID-19 pandemic was a huge boost for GoDartsPro. From having 5,000 members at the beginning of 2020, there were 15,000 just a few weeks later. Even though the pandemic was terrible, I have a lot to thank for the situation when everyone suddenly needed to train from home.”

Today, GoDartsPro has around 57,000 members, and since 2022, it has become Anders Östman’s full-time job.

Questions for Anders Östman, founder of GoDartsPro.com

What do you think it means for Swedish darts that you’ve established such a significant brand in the sport?
– ”I hope it has a big impact. It wasn’t until the pandemic that Swedish players started registering. There was also a guy from Stockholm, Klas Östervall, who wrote to me in English at that time to connect. He had no idea I was Swedish, but he’s the one who got me into the Swedish Darts Federation, which uses GoDartsPro for elite and development coaching.”

Where do you get your inspiration from?
– ”A lot of it comes from Mikko Laiho. He lived, breathed, and dreamed darts all day long, so I have much of his ideas left. Even players like Kim Huybrechts have reached out, saying they had similar ideas but didn’t have the technical skills, so he sent me a document filled with games he developed and plays during training. I also constantly think about how I can create new games when I’m practicing.”

Which professionals use GoDartsPro.com?
– ”Kim Huybrechts, as mentioned, has been a paying member for a long time. Alan Soutar is also active on the site and even live-streamed his world record in the JDC challenge, which is still unbeaten. The record is 2309 and can be seen here. Other players like Luke Littler, Josh Rock, John O Shea, Jules van Dongen, Fallon Sherrock have played on the site, and Ricardo Pietrezcko participates in the Enduro challenge.”

Which game are you most proud of?
– ”Of the games I’ve created, PowerSwitch and the PowerSwitch bundle are what I’m most proud of. ’Bundle’ means the game consists of two parts, one based on Mikko Laiho’s philosophy that if you throw three good darts, you feel pressure for the next three.”

”I’m also very proud of the virtual coach, which I started developing after Mikko’s passing. It collects all data from your previous games, combined with the information you entered when you registered, to compare you with all other members and explain what you need to work on. Right now, AI is very popular, and this comes close to that. This was something Mikko and I had long planned, and I’m proud to have finished it.”

If I’m new to the site, what do you recommend I do?
– ”I recommend going to the support page, where you can read about how the site works and how you can play according to your level. There are games tailored for beginners to help you grow as a player faster, rather than playing difficult games that you may not be able to handle.”

What’s the next step for GoDartsPro?
– ”I’m constantly in meetings with my partners, discussing how we can ride the current wave and get more people to play darts. And once they do, we want them to not just throw darts randomly but to have clear goals. It’s an exciting journey I’m looking forward to.”