‘Darts is going to the moon’: The plan to capitalise on Luke Littler

Plans are already afoot to take Luke Littler to New York’s Madison Square Garden later this year. The Professional Darts Corporation will also support events through Asia, Africa, Australasia and Europe and so, when newly-crowned world champion Luke Humphries weighed up the next aim, there was only one answer.

“This sport is going to the moon,” he said, noting how those great bastions of British sport – cricket, rugby and football – were now being rivalled for popularity.

If that sounds unlikely, consider the evidence. Wednesday’s final was the most watched live sporting event outside of football in the entire history of Sky Sports. This is a network that has screened the Ashes, the Ryder Cup, the Six Nations, Formula One and the US Masters golf. Footballers, politicians and celebrities are also all weighing in, with the prime minister Rishi Sunak rushing to type out a congratulatory message and culture secretary Lucy Frazer grabbing herself a photo opportunity alongside Littler.

It was the week that darts briefly stopped the nation and all raises several questions: was this a temporary aberration before the traditional sports sideline it to the periphery or are we witnessing a seismic shifting of the plates? And what next for the entertainment/sporting phenomenon that is the PDC (Professional Darts Corporation)?

The answer actually depends on whether you have been paying attention over the 30 years since they staged their inaugural World Championships inside a complex called the Circus Tavern, by the side of an A road in Purfleet.

In the first final, sponsored by Skol lager, Dennis ‘The Menace’ Priestley beat Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor to the £16,000 first prize. Yes, £16,000 compared to the £500,000 that has been on offer long before Littler became the most famous 16-year-old in the country.

The point, then, is this: the idea of elite darts now quietly knowing its place and retreating to the back room of a pub is nonsense. That horse bolted long ago. This is a sport now with deep roots in the form of alcohol-free academies for children, a vast tournament structure across the globe, and a professional circuit at the very top in which players can become millionaires. The bigger headache for Barry Hearn, whose Matchroom company owns the PDC, is finding ways to satisfy demand and get more people into an Alexandra Palace arena where a once ambitious 3,200 capacity now feels restrictive.

Crowds in excess of 10,000 in Germany and Holland, where darts is also vastly popular, as well as places like Manchester’s AO Arena and the O2 in London are already commonplace in the weekly Premier League series. The current deal with Alexandra Palace expires next year and the possibility of using an even bigger function room inside a venue that has become synonymous with darts has been mooted. So too have further increases on the current 96-player 16-day schedule.

‘Littler means darts can get bigger’

Hearn regards Littler’s emergence as “cream on the cake” and is already fizzing with ideas about new markets, new broadcasters, and of course more money, albeit in the knowledge that some people “still look down their noses” at what has been created.

“Just as you think, ‘we’re doing really well, we’re establishing ourselves as a major global sport, it couldn’t go better’ suddenly Luke Littler has appeared and you realise ‘Bloody hell, it can go better’,” says Hearn.

No one is of course better at talking up their product than Hearn but his track record is also formidable. He predicts that further growing darts will amount to a “mixture of everything” and instinctively understands the need to create something of a regular soap opera in order to attract viewers beyond the big annual showpiece.

In that, this year’s Premier League, which is a weekly 17-week competition running from early February until the end of May, has never represented a better opportunity. Agreement on a three-part behind-the-scenes documentary called simply Darts will also be critical to building familiarity in the minds of more casual fans. Creating an alluring year-round narrative was the catalyst for what Hearn helped oversee with snooker in the 1980s, a time he still affectionately calls “Dallas with balls”.

One key difference to snooker is that Hearn seems to have a rather happier group of leading players who, spearheaded by Littler and Humphries, are desperate to promote their sport off the oche as well as on it.

Leeds United fan Humphries is already planning a trophy parade around Elland Road. And, although he protests that he is “not a boring person” following some pointed online opinion, seems perfectly happy in Littler’s shadow. “Luke’s grown it bigger than anyone could have imagined,” Humphries says. “He is a celebrity now. I might be world champion, but he’s obviously got a massive following more than I have. That’s the great thing about darts: there are so many different personalities.”

As for Littler himself, who seemed genuinely touched by the sight of so many children watching the final from the St Helens Darts Academy, there was a simple wish. “I hope I have captured loads of young people’s minds just to get on the board and try it out,” he said. “It is a good sport and, once you get into it, you’ll always love it.”

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