Winmau is the maker of the official PDC Blade dartboard and the Winmau World Masters — which is not an independent firm but a brand of the Nodor group (its old rival) since a 2002 takeover.

Winmau follows Nodor as the round’s absorbed-rival node — the maker of the sport’s official competition board, which turns out to belong to the very brand that opened the round. Its answer to a round about who owns darts is the consolidation one: the rival now owned by Nodor.

Its identity is the Blade board, owned by Nodor since 2002. The 1945 founding, the Blade and World Masters and the Nodor ownership are the story here. The official board, absorbed. The Blade board, owned by Nodor since 2002.

(Honest notes, so the founding, the ownership, the products and a hedge are framed accurately. Winmau sells bristle dartboards as its heroes — the Blade series; we report its language as the brand’s own. On founding: Winmau was founded in 1945 as “H.A. Kicks” by Harry Kicks, and renamed Winmau, meaning “win more,” after his wife Winifred Maud, and we note the company site says “since 1946.” On ownership: it is not independent, having been taken over by Nodor in 2002, so it is a Nodor-group brand, sharing the Bridgend group and the 2025 Project Flight buyout by an undisclosed investor. On products: the Blade boards, with the flagship Blade X the official PDC dartboard, and Winmau is the title sponsor of the Winmau World Masters, which began in 1974. On a hedge: we call the World Masters one of the longest-running, not definitively the oldest, and note manufacturing reported in Kenya. Its designs and the Winmau name are IP we describe but do not reproduce; there is no official brand hex; these tones are an unofficial interpretation.)

Winmau lives in a Winmau blue. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Winmau’s identity is official, Nodor-owned and competition-grade — a Winmau blue, an ink, a pale blue, a deep navy, and a paper. The palette leans Winmau blue and deep navy: a clean, competition register that stands in for the official board rather than a loud logo colour, though Winmau’s own look is black and red. It signals the Blade board, owned by Nodor since 2002 — official, Nodor-owned and competition-grade. The honest caveat: with no official brand hex, these values are a competition, unofficial interpretation, not first-party colours.

The lesson is a Winmau blue signals an official, competition identity. Winmau’s world is the tournament stage and the Blade board. For designers, it is a reminder that a clean blue and a pale blue can carry an official, competition brand — a competition tone held as an accent, not a product shot. Because a mid hue can fail as small text, keep type dark and let the colour live in the accents, palette and band. The takeaways: date the founding to 1945 and note the 1946 site claim; name the 2002 Nodor takeover and the shared group; credit the Blade X PDC board and the World Masters; and hedge the “oldest tournament” claim.

The register is a blade sans — official, Nodor-owned, competition-grade.

Winmau’s identity carries an official, Nodor-owned spirit — the competition board of a consolidated group. A blade sans captures the mood: clean, precise and serious, the register of an official dartboard. Set in a Winmau-blue palette, the blade sans feels dependable and exact — exactly the personality Winmau carries. It behaves like a made, precise thing rather than a loud logo, mirroring a wire-dot and a board-ring. (Winmau’s real products and the name are things we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact typeface is not ours to use.) Because it is not ours to use, the honest description is “a blade-sans brand,” shown here in a stand-in. The type behaves like the brand: official, Nodor-owned and competition-grade.

Winmau stands for the Blade board, owned by Nodor since 2002.

Winmau sits second in the round as its absorbed-rival node. A Winmau-blue palette, a blade sans and a 1945 founding make one thing — the Blade board, owned by Nodor since 2002 — the whole identity: official, Nodor-owned and competition-grade. The 1945 founding is the pitch, the Blade and World Masters are the substance, and the Nodor ownership is the frame. The point is the rival now owned by Nodor, in a round about who owns darts.

Put to work, the identity is the brand told straight, the takeover named and the products credited. A brand in this spirit would date the founding to 1945 and note the 1946 site claim, name the 2002 Nodor takeover and the shared group, credit the Blade X PDC board and the World Masters, and hedge the “oldest tournament” claim. A reader in this spirit would keep the facts right: Winmau makes the Blade boards; it was founded in 1945 by Harry Kicks; Nodor took it over in 2002; and Blade X is the official PDC board. Winmau sits after Nodor and before Unicorn. The honest editorial moves are to date the founding, to name the takeover, to credit the products, and to hedge the tournament claim.

For designers and brand-builders, Winmau carries the dartboard node: reveal that a leading rival is actually owned by the brand before it. The lessons: a category’s official-board maker can be an absorbed rival, here Winmau under Nodor; a founding is dated to 1945 as “H.A. Kicks” by Harry Kicks, renamed Winmau, “win more,” after his wife Winifred Maud, with the company site saying “since 1946”; an ownership is named, that Nodor took over Winmau in 2002, so it is a Nodor-group brand sharing the Bridgend group and the 2025 Project Flight buyout by an undisclosed investor; products are credited, the Blade boards with Blade X the official PDC dartboard, and the Winmau World Masters from 1974; and a claim is hedged, that the World Masters is one of the longest-running rather than definitively the oldest, with manufacturing reported in Kenya. It is also a reminder to stay precise: Winmau is the Nodor-owned official board of the darts aisle — with the palette here an unofficial interpretation. The hook is that ownership: Winmau is the Blade board, owned by Nodor since 2002, the maker of the official PDC Blade dartboard and the Winmau World Masters, not an independent firm but a brand of the Nodor group, its old rival, since a 2002 takeover. Read that way, Winmau is less a single board than the Blade board, owned by Nodor since 2002: official, Nodor-owned, competition-grade. The lesson for a brand is that revealing a leading rival is actually owned by the brand before it reinforces the honesty, and dating the founding keeps it earned. Winmau made the-Blade-board-owned-by-Nodor the identity — proof that an absorbed rival can anchor a node.

Keep Winmau’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.