Winmau Champions Choice Dual Core Review

My review of the Winmau Blade Dual Core Champions Choice

Be careful, this isn't a board like the others, and it's the single most important thing to understand before buying: the Champions Choice is a training board, not a match board. Winmau describes it plainly as its ultimate training dartboard, designed to push the best players to their limits. In concrete terms, its scoring zones (doubles, trebles, 25 and bullseye) are 50% smaller than on a standard board.

What that changes is everything: on a Champions Choice, the treble 20 is half its usual size. You train on a board deliberately harsher than the one you play matches on. The idea is simple and brutally effective: if you can group your darts on zones twice as small, they'll feel enormous the day you go back to a normal board. It's a progression tool, not a living-room board.

I want to be clear about this, because it's often poorly explained: this board is not tournament-approved, and that's completely normal since its segments deliberately don't meet regulation dimensions. If you're looking for a board to play matches in a club or a tournament, this isn't the one (look instead at the Blade 6 Triple Core or the Blade 360). If, on the other hand, you're looking to sharpen your raw accuracy, it makes complete sense.

My test of the Winmau Blade Dual Core Champions Choice on the oche

On the oche, the shock is immediate. Aiming at a treble twice as narrow as usual is destabilizing in the first sessions: you miss what you used to hit easily, and you have to accept that temporary drop in performance, that's the whole point of the exercise. The board forgives almost nothing, which is exactly what you're asking of it.

On the build side, you find Winmau's Blade Dual Core craftsmanship: the spider is thin and the sisal surface handles repeated impacts well. Since I'm constantly aiming at the same micro-zones during training, the surface takes heavy strain in the same spot, and it holds up well across my sessions. The Rota-Lock mounting lets you rotate the board easily to spread out wear, which is far from a luxury given the intensive, localized use you subject it to.

Durability of the Winmau Blade Dual Core Champions Choice

Durability is a real strength here. Winmau's Dual Core construction and the density of the sisal let the surface absorb very repeated impacts in the same place, which is precisely the wear pattern of a training board. A player hammering the reduced treble 20 for hours puts enormous strain on that zone.

The Rota-Lock system plays a key role in longevity: being able to rotate the board without taking it down lets you spread wear around the full circumference rather than always digging the same holes. As with any sisal board, this regular rotation is the best way to extend its lifespan, and it's especially recommended on a training model where wear is concentrated.

Installation and mounting the board

Mounting relies on the Rota-Lock system, a Winmau standard, which lets you fix and rotate the board without complex tools. Installation remains accessible even for a non-DIY player: a few minutes are enough to unbox it, mount it on the wall, and align it at regulation height (1.73m to the center of the bull).

With a diameter of about 45cm, the Champions Choice mounts on any standard wall bracket or cabinet, exactly like a classic board. The difference is only in the segment layout, not in the physical format: bullseye height and throwing distance stay the same as when training on a normal board.

Price and value for money

The Champions Choice sits around £70 on the official Winmau site, roughly €80 (to be adjusted depending on retailers and exchange rate). It's a premium-board price, which may surprise you for a training use, but it's justified by the Dual Core construction and the Rota-Lock mounting inherited from Winmau's high-end range.

Value for money depends entirely on your goal. For a player genuinely looking to improve their accuracy who'll use this board alongside a match board, the investment makes sense. For someone wanting a single versatile board to both play and progress, it's the wrong choice: a standard tournament-approved board would be better.

Verdict: should you buy the Winmau Blade Dual Core Champions Choice?

Yes, but only if you know why you're buying it. It's an excellent accuracy-training tool, with segments reduced by 50% that force a disciplined throw, durable Dual Core construction and practical Rota-Lock mounting. For an experienced player or competitor wanting to sharpen their precision alongside their match board, it's a worthwhile investment.

That said, it's neither a beginner's board nor a competition board. It isn't tournament-approved, its segments aren't regulation, and playing on it daily without a training goal would be frustrating. Buy it as a specific progression tool, not as your main board.