Cornhole Craze Brings Big Business To El Dorado County

EL DORADO COUNTY (CBS13) — Cornhole craze: It's not just a game, it's a lifestyle. It's becoming so popular that one local couple is making a living from it.

What started out as a hobby for Rebecca Schwartz and her husband, Joe, now has the couple as one of the industry leaders in California.

"We used to beg people to let us have a shot to bring this into their breweries and now we actually can't keep up with all the requests to go out and bring boards," Rebecca explained.

OV Cornhole (OVC) started making boards in 2008. They build them from scratch, making their own designs all in-house.

The El Dorado company is one of three businesses to open a cornhole retail space in the state and is the only one in Northern California.

"Sometimes it's really hard to know online what you're getting. Being able to touch and feel things is a big deal," Rebecca said. "The demand, especially when COVID hit, the demand on the manufacturing side went up quite a bit. I think people were home and they had more time to do things."

The popularity is spiking sales for OVC, which went from making a couple of hundred boards to a thousand a year.

So, what's the draw? Cornhole is not new but is gaining national attention with tournaments spotlighted on channels like ESPN.

"You can be from a 5-year-old to an 80-year-old to play, so there is not a huge physical requirement," Rebecca said. "It's a social game."

The Schwartzes also founded the California Cornhole Association and host events to provide a network for cornhole players to take part in.

It's the connections made through cornhole Schwartz hopes only to continue to grow.

"I think it's the next best thing," she said. "I think it might already be but I think it's just going to keep getting bigger."