This week a revolutionary new dartboard arrives at the BDO World Professional Darts Championships at Lakeside in Surrey.

The "optimal" dartboard rearranges the traditional positions of the numbers 1 to 20 to make them as mathematically perfect as possible.

In a standard dartboard, low numbers are placed next to high ones, so as to penalize players who miss their targets. That's why the 20, for example, is next to the 1 and the 5.

Mathematicians have long come up with improved arrangements that maximize the differences between adjacent numbers, in order to penalize mistakes as much as possible.

Now David Percy, Professor of Mathematics at Salford University, has added to the debate by designing a dartboard that adds two more constraints:

1) The numbers go odd-even-odd-even all the way round the board

2) Similar clusters are spread around the board as evenly as possible.

David says the new dartboard will make most difference at the end of a game, when the rules are that a player must finish on a double.

Currently if a player is on an odd number, and therefore needs an odd number to leave himself with an even, he can chose from the southwest sector of the board where four odds are adjacent: 7, 19, 3, and 17

Even a bad player can expect to get an odd number. But if the odds and evens alternate it becomes much more difficult.

Also, the most common finishing double to aim for is double 16, since if you miss the double and get 16, you require double 8. (And if you miss the double and get 8 you require double 4, then double 2, and then double 1.)

On a traditional board 8 is right next to 16, which makes the game easier, since you are already aiming for that section of the board.

Martin Adams of England in action at the BDO World Professional Darts Championships. Photograph: Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images

The new board is also pleasing to the eye since all the evens are black and the odds all white.

It is unclear who first devised the classic number arrangement, which dates from at least the beginning of last century, although it's likely the numbers were chosen intuitively rather than using advanced maths. It's impressive that eight numbers are in the same positions as they are in the optimal version.

Dartboard manufacturer Winmau has produced prototypes of the optimal dartboard and will be road testing it with contestants at the world championship this week.

"It would be lovely if this challenging dartboard were to become the new gold standard," said David.

Ian Flack of Winmau added: "I think it will be too big a change for the sport, but the whole point of making the prototype is to see the reaction."

David's article from the current Mathematics Today can be downloaded here.