Building a shop, venue and membership platform for Pharaoh Darts

The context

Pharaoh Darts grew out of The Darts Den, and by the time we started working with Simon and Jake in the summer of 2026 the business was heading in two directions at once. They were preparing to launch their own range of Pharaoh points and tools, and they were fitting out a much larger venue with around 20 bookable lanes, memberships, events and tournaments.

Their existing website wasn't set up for either. It relied on a collection of plugins and older arrangements, and routine jobs took far longer than they should have. Something as simple as running a sale meant changing prices one product at a time and then updating the banners separately. Updates felt risky because they had broken things before, so changes were often put off or left to someone else.

The catalogue made it harder still. Darts points come in different lengths, colours and grip options, and those combinations quickly turn into a lot of product variations. Their old setup became harder to manage as that number grew, which is a real problem when your whole launch is built around a range of points.

The new venue brought its own set of needs. Customers would need to join as members, book lanes and check in, and the staff running the floor would need a clear view of what was happening across every lane.

What we did

We started by reviewing the old site, their competitors and what people were searching for, then spent time with Simon and Jake, including at the new venue while it was still being fitted out, working out what each side of the business needed.

A website for the venue and a shop for the points

The work split into two routes. pharaohdarts.co.uk introduces the brand and the venue and leads people into booking and membership, while the points shop is where customers browse and buy the range.

The shop handles the catalogue, variations, stock and checkout, and it all sits on a backend Simon and Jake can edit themselves. Adding a product, changing a price or updating stock is now something they can do on their own, without waiting on a developer or worrying that an update will break something.

Pharaoh already had strong footage and photography, and part of our job was putting it in the right places. Their promo film runs as the homepage hero, shorter product videos sit on the relevant product pages, and professional product photography carries the shop.

An app for members and staff

For the venue we built a booking and membership app. It's a mobile-first web app, so members can save it to their phone's home screen without going through an app store.

Members can join and pay online, carry a digital membership card with a QR code, and book a lane from their phone. When they arrive, staff scan the card to check them in. Behind the counter, a live dashboard shows all 20 lanes at once, with who is on each one, how long their session has left and which lanes are free, alongside a lane diary and tools for managing members.

The app also covers what happens on the oche. Players keep score on their own phones, guests can join a game by scanning a QR code, and staff can set up and run tournaments. That gives the venue a reason for people to keep coming back for leagues and competitions, not just one-off bookings.

We also look after hosting, maintenance and support for the first year, and we're working through testing with Simon and Jake so everything runs as planned when the doors open.

The outcome

Both new sites are built and running, and Simon and Jake are already managing their own products and content through the new backend. The move away from the old website is planned for November, with the venue due to open in December.

When the venue opens, members will be able to join, book, check in and play through the same platform, and the shop and venue will be run from tools built around how Pharaoh actually works.