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29 November 2024
One year ago, he was barely a household name in his own home. Now he is a sporting phenomenon.
After emerging from obscurity aged 16 to reach the World Championship final, the life of Luke Littler and the sport he loves has been transformed. Viewing figures, ticket sales and social media interest have rocketed. Darts has hit the bullseye.
This Christmas more than 100,000 children are expected to be opening Littler-branded magnetic dartboards as presents.
His impact has helped double the number of junior academies, prompted plans to expand the World Championship and generated interest in darts from Saudi Arabian backers.
Just months after taking his GCSE exams and ranked 164th in the world, Littler beat former champions Raymond van Barneveld and Rob Cross en route to the PDC World Championship final in January, before his run ended with a 7-4 loss to Luke Humphries.
With his nickname ‘The Nuke’ on his purple and yellow shirt and the Alexandra Palace crowd belting out his walk-on song, Pitbull’s tune Greenlight, he became an instant hit. Electric on the stage, calm off it. The down-to-earth teenager celebrated with a kebab and computer games.
“We’ve been watching his progress since he was about seven. He was on our radar, but we never anticipated what would happen. The next thing we know ‘Littlermania’ is spreading everywhere,” PDC president Barry Hearn told BBC Sport.
A peak TV audience of 3.7 million people watched the final – easily Sky’s biggest figure for a non-football sporting event.
The teenager from Warrington in Cheshire was too young to legally drive or drink alcohol, but earned £200,000 for finishing second – part of £1m prize money in his first year as a professional – and an invitation to the elite Premier League competition.
He turned 17 later in January but was he too young for the demanding event over 17 Thursday nights in 17 locations? He ended up winning the whole thing, and hit a nine-dart finish against Humphries in the final.
From Bahrain to Wolverhampton, Littler claimed 10 titles in 2024 and is now eyeing the World Championship, which starts on 15 December.
As he progressed at the Ally Pally, the Manchester United fan was sent a good luck message by the club’s former midfielder and ex-England captain David Beckham.
In 12 months, Littler’s Instagram followers have risen from 4,000 to 1.3m. Commercial backers include a clothing range, cereal firm and train company and he is set to appear in a reboot of the TV darts show Bullseye.
On the back of his success, Littler darts, boards, cabinets, shirts are being snapped up in big numbers.
“This Christmas the junior magnetic dartboard is selling out, we’re talking over 100,000. They’re 20 quid and a great introduction for young children,” said Garry Plummer, the boss of sponsors Target Darts, who first signed a deal with Littler’s family when he was aged 12.
“All the toy shops want it, they all want him – 17, clean, doesn’t drink, wonderful.”
The number of academies for children under the age of 16 has doubled in the last year, says Junior Darts Corporation chairman Steve Brown.
There are 115 dedicated groups offering youngsters equipment, tournaments and a place to develop, with bases including Australia, Bulgaria, Greece, Norway, USA and Mongolia.
“We’ve seen so many inquiries from around the world, it’s been such a boom. It took us 14 years to get 1,600 members and within 12 months we have over 3,000, and waiting lists,” said Brown.
“When I played darts as a child, I was quite embarrassed to tell my friends what my hobby was. All these kids playing darts now are pretty popular at school. It’s a bit rock ‘n roll and recognised as a cool thing to do.”
Plans are being hatched to extend the World Championship by four days and increase the number of players from 96 to 128.
That will boost the number of tickets available by 25,000 to 115,000 but Hearn reckons he could sell three times as many.
He says Saudi Arabia wants to host a tournament, which is likely to happen if no-alcohol regulations are relaxed.
“They will change their rules in the next 12 months probably for certain areas having alcohol, and we’ll take darts there and have a party in Saudi,” he said.
“When I got involved in darts, the total prize money was something like £300,000 for the year. This year it will go to £20m. I expect in five years’ time, we’ll be playing for £40m.”
Former electrician Cross charged to the 2018 world title in his first full season, while Adrian Lewis and Michael van Gerwen were multiple victors in their 20s and 16-time champion Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor is widely considered the greatest of all time.
Littler is currently fourth in the world rankings, although that is based on a two-year Order of Merit.
There have been suggestions from others the spotlight on the teenager means world number one Humphries, 29, has been denied the coverage he deserves, but no darts player has made a mark at such a young age as Littler.
“Luke Humphries is another fabulous player who is going to be around for years. Sport is a very brutal world. It is about winning and claiming the high ground. There will be envy around,” Hearn said.
“Luke Littler is the next Tiger Woods for darts so they better get used to it, and the only way to compete is to get better.”
World number 38 Martin Lukeman was awestruck as he described facing a peak Littler after being crushed 16-3 in the Grand Slam final, with the teenager winning 15 consecutive legs.
“I can’t compete with that, it was like Godly. He was relentless, he is so good it’s ridiculous,” he said.
Lukeman can still see the benefits he brings, adding: “What he’s done for the sport is brilliant. If it wasn’t for him, our wages wouldn’t be going up. There’s more sponsors, more money coming in, all good.”
Hearn feels future competition may come from players even younger than Littler.
“I watched a 10-year-old a few months ago who averaged 104.89 and checked out a 4-3 win with a 136 finish. They smell the money, the fame and put the hard work in,” he said.
How much better Littler can get is guesswork, although Plummer believes he wants to reach new heights.
“He never says ‘how good was I?’ But I think he wants to break records and beat Phil Taylor’s 16 World Championships and 16 World Matchplay titles,” he said. “He’s young enough to do it.”
