Sam Zammuto, president and sales manager of Arachnid 360, takes aim at a dartboard. (Photo by Lynn Conner/For Chronicle Media)

For product elevation, evolution and innovation, Arachnid 360 in Loves Park has hit a bullseye every time.

The dart machine manufacturer recently celebrated its 50th anniversary and predicts a high-scoring future.

“I’ve been selling fun for nearly 50 years,” said Sam Zammuto, Arachnid 360’s longtime president and sales manager. “Although the early days of the company weren’t as much fun because prototype dart machines didn’t score correctly.”

Around 1977, Paul Beall and Mike Tillery bought the company from its founder, Rudy Allison and marketed dart machines to bars throughout the United States and internationally.

“By 1982, there was a matrix behind the dartboard holes, which allowed accurate scoring of all three darts in a player’s turn,” Zammuto said.

“Since the mid-1980s, dart machine owners have come to Rockford for training seminars at Arachnid 360, so they can learn how to establish leagues and compete in the Bullshooter tournaments, which the company started in 1986,” he added. “Over the years, Arachnid 360 elevated the game of darts, evolving it into a sport.”

It’s not hard to find an Arachnid machine.

“Arachnid 360 dart machines are in over 30,000 venues (bars, restaurants and pubs) around the world, offering opportunities for casual, league, remote and tournament play,” said Bill Redig,
vice president of operations.

The Bullshooter World Tour Finals, held annually over Memorial Day weekend, is the culmination of 10 regional Bullshooter tournaments and the 14-country European Bullshooter gathering. There are 23 main events at the Bullshooter World Tour Finals with prizes totaling $150,000.

By 2014, the company had been renamed Arachnid 360, and Beall’s three sons had become the owners. In early 2024, Arachnid 360 was acquired by TouchTunes Music Co., a digital jukebox creator.

Arachnid 360 claims a 91 percent share of the dart machine market and Zammuto estimates that the company has sold more than 184,000 dart machines since 1982, when records were first kept.

The statistics, along with Arachnid 360’s longevity, were factors in TouchTunes Music’s acquisition.

“The two businesses go well together,” said Dan Hamric, executive vice president of TouchTunes. “Dart players love listening to music while they’re playing, and TouchTunes jukeboxes are a great tool in delivering entertainment.”

Touchtunes jukeboxes can be found in more than 65,000 bars, restaurants and other social venues
across North America and Europe.

“We have 3 million active jukebox and TouchTunes app users each month. We would like to turn jukebox users on to playing darts with our music app on dartboards and offering digital payment options,” said Paris Karoutsos, interim vice president of darts.

“We see growth opportunities across the globe for Arachnid 360, and we are committed to supporting that growth with technological innovation and investment,” Hamric said.

TouchTunes and Arachnid 360 established National Darts Day on June 29 to commemorate Arachnid 360’s 50th anniversary. The date is significant because it celebrates the 180th day of the year and 180 is the highest score possible in a single round of darts when a player lands all three darts in the triple 20 section of a dartboard.

“National Dart Day is a nationwide event,” Zammuto said. “In Illinois, we (had) an event in Libertyville with some pro players and other promotions.”

During Arachnid 360’s half-century of business, the company’s dart machines have evolved.

“The first prototype dart game had hand-drilled dart holes and most of the components were made out of wood,” Zammuto said.”

“The scoring matrix in 1982 and the ability to play eight different games on one machine was the first big step in the evolution of electronic darts,” Zammuto said. “Cricket was added to the dart games in 1986 and we developed a braille dart machine that included a floor mat, raised lettering and vocal scoring capabilities.”

“In 1986, we also added video monitors to the dart machines because we were competing with arcade video games like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Space Invaders,” Zammuto said. “Once the dart machines had video-scoring screens, we sold over 10,000 games per year.”

In the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, Arachnid sold dart machines in wood grain cabinets to hotels.

“We always sent a can of Pledge furniture polish with these products so they would look good in the hotel’s lobby,” Zammuto said.

Coin-operated dart machines that tracked game scores and a player’s statistics, along with the Spider series of home dart machines, were two additional innovations produced by Arachnid in the 1990s.

In 2001, Arachnid dart machines underwent a makeover, with injection-molded plastic cabinets replacing wooden ones.

“The machines went from weighing 295 pounds to 150 pounds,” Zammuto said. “They were cheaper to ship and much easier to move around for tournament play.”

The Galaxy series commercial-use and the Spider series home-use dart machines are among Arachnid 360’s most popular products today. While features vary by model, many machines come with a 24-inch monitor and a push-button flip that allows players to choose between a 15-inch or 13- inch target.

“There’s really no comparison between today’s dart machines and their predecessors,” Zammuto said. “Innovations in digital electronics on our Galaxy series now make it possible for live remote play through an enhanced player camera.”

Both Arachnid 360 and TouchTunes Music forecast a future that aims at further evolution,
elevation and innovation of their products, a business move that’s right on target.