How Dutch Open Darts welcomes 30,000 visitors and players with Avayo
Dutch Open Darts brings amateurs and professionals together in one large tournament. With around 30,000 visitors and players over four days, the organisation needed a reliable system for both participant registration and spectator ticketing.
The organiser
Largest open darts tournament in the world
Dutch Open Darts is the largest open darts tournament in the world. For four days, professional players and amateurs come together at De Bonte Wever in Assen to compete for the title. Every year, the event attracts tens of thousands of visitors and participants from the Netherlands and abroad.
The event is organized by the Dutch Darts Association. Paul Engelbertink is the association’s managing director and the tournament director of Dutch Open Darts. Together with his team, he makes sure every detail is carefully organized—from match schedules and player registration to visitor flows and entrance control.
With such large numbers of visitors spread across four days, Dutch Open Darts is not only a sporting tournament but also a large-scale event where organization, visibility, and reliability are essential.
Challenge
What is the challenge?
At Dutch Open Darts, everything comes together at the same time: players arriving for their matches and spectators entering with day tickets. This continues for four consecutive days.
The challenge is that there is only one entrance, creating one crucial point where everything needs to run smoothly. The organization needed to validate players using their player cards, while spectators entered with tickets purchased through De Bonte Wever’s Ticketshop.
The goal was to create one clear process that allowed everyone to move through the entrance quickly, while giving the team access to all event data in one central system.
"All tickets sold to spectators come through the Avayo system"
Paul Engelbertink - Director of the Dutch Darts Federation
The approach of Paul
Smooth entry.
1. Participant registration with unique QR codes
Players register in advance through the organization’s own registration system. They then receive their personal player card.
The QR codes on these player cards are generated by Avayo and form the basis of the entrance control process during the event. This allows the organization to confirm that every player is correctly registered and can enter quickly.
2. Ticket shop for day visitors
Visitors who want to attend the event purchase their tickets through De Bonte Wever’s Ticketshop, which is powered by Avayo.
Visitors can easily arrange entrance for one or multiple days. Every ticket sold is automatically registered in the system.
3. Two streams combined in one scan solution
The strength of the solution lies in combining both visitor flows.
Avayo brings together the QR codes used by players and the tickets purchased by spectators in one ticket scanning solution. This means it does not matter whether someone arriving at the entrance is a player or a spectator.
With a single scan, the system immediately determines whether the person has valid entrance credentials. All codes are scanned using Avayo’s professional ticket scanners.
4. Complete overview in Avayo Admin
After the event, Paul has full insight into all relevant data.
All scans, visitor numbers, and event data come together in Avayo Admin. There are no separate lists or disconnected reports—just one clear overview of the entire event.
How the visitor flow works at Dutch Open Darts
1 ticket shop on own website → 2a receive ticket / 2b player card → 3 entrance → 4 welcome!
Paul's experience with Avayo
"I would definitely recommend Avayo to other organisations — I would say try it, and then you won't want anything else."
Paul Engelbertink - Director of the Dutch Darts Federation
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