The Paddy Power PDC World Darts Championship has long been one of the hottest tickets in town.
But the emergence of teenage prodigy Luke Littler has sent interest in the tournament – and darts as a whole – into a different stratosphere. Difficult though it may be to believe, Littler was a complete unknown to all but the most avid of darts fans little over 12 months ago.
Now he has a global profile befitting one of the world’s top athletes thanks to his remarkable run to the final at Alexandra Palace, where the then-16-year-old lost out to Luke Humphries. While it was a heart-breaking night for the teen, the match marked a watershed moment for darts as a whole.
The likes of Eric Bristow, Bobby George and Jocky Wilson first put darts on the map in the 1970s and 80s. For many that was the sport’s first golden era, complete with infectious rivalries, terrestrial TV coverage and big, booming personalities. Until recently, it is perhaps the version of the game that the majority of the public were most familiar with.
Then came Phil Taylor, the all-conquering darting goliath who won 16 world championship crowns and swept aside all before him. In a glittering career that spanned over a quarter-of-a-century, no-one came close to The Power – and it’s doubtful anyone, even Littler – ever will.
More recently it has been left to Michael van Gerwen and Humphries to pick up the mantle. Their emergence has come at a time of changing attitudes towards the game, with players opting for healthier lifestyles to aid performance.
Gone are the beer-drinking, chain-smoking parodies made famous by Not The Nine O’Clock News. In their place are genuine athletes like healthy-eating Humphries – who lost four-and-a-half stone in weight before his marquee triumph 12 months ago – and the chiselled Gerwyn Price, a former professional rugby player-turned-darts world champion. There are also now several tee-totalers on the PDC Tour.
Part of that change in attitude is down to the money involved. Where once upon a time only a handful of the sport’s elite could treat darts as a full-time job, now it is seen as a genuine career option – and for good reason.
The World Darts Championship offers a mammoth £2.5million prize pot. The winner will receive a cool £500,000, while even first-round losers will get £7,500 for their troubles.
For context, the 1995 PDC world champion – Phil Taylor, who else – took home just £12,000. There’s also an established youth pathway, the JDC, with academies springing up like hotcakes across the UK and around the world.
Darts is big business, but there are perhaps two key figures above all else in the sport’s successful broadening into mainstream appeal. The first of those is Fallon Sherrock.
Sherrock rose to prominence in 2019 when she became the first woman to win a match on the Alexandra Palace stage, beating Ted Evetts 3-1. She subsequently went on to defeat Mensur Suljovic before bowing out to Chris Dobey in the last-32.
The Queen of the Palace, as she is now known, shattered the sport’s glass ceiling, and in doing so became a role model for young women darts players everywhere. With the recent emergence of Beau Greaves, the 20-year-old three-time women’s world champion, women’s darts looks to be in rude health for years to come.
Sherrock herself became headline news around the world for her own feats at Ally Pally, even earning recognition from tennis icon Billie Jean King. Last year she was made an MBE for services to darts. But if Sherrock was the hors d’oeuvres for darts to tap into a more mainstream audience, then Littler is the main course with all the trimmings.
Thanks to Littler, a stereotypical teenager who loves Xbox and kebabs, darts went from back pages to front pages and sports channels to chat shows, with the teenager right at the centre of it all. A peak audience of 3.71 million tuned in to watch Littler take on Humphries in the final 12 months ago, while 4.8m switched on overall – marking Sky’s highest figures for a darts event.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it broke the record set by Littler’s semi-final against Rob Cross, which earned a peak of 2.32m. Only Premier League football gets more viewers on Sky Sports, and with a much broader appeal.
Littler was subsequently invited onto Jonathan Ross, had an audience at Manchester United with Sir Alex Ferguson and partnered up with F1 star Lando Norris at the British Grand Prix. He also received messages from the likes of David Beckham and WWE champion Cody Rhodes, and earned multiple brand deals, solidifying both his and darts’ newfound status.
But his most notable achievement was sparking an interest in darts among the ordinary public that has hitherto been unseen in the 21st century. Recently, the 17-year-old was also named as Britain’s most searched athlete of the year by Google and is one of the hot favourites for the BBC ’s Sports Personality of the Year award.
In the days and weeks that followed Littler’s semi-final win over Cross and subsequent defeat to Humphries, darts was at the centre of the sporting world. His emergence has also saw a boom in online darts influencers on platforms such as TikTok, with the game’s short format lending itself to clip-able bites that can be shared widely in seconds.
Interest in this year’s tournament at the famed Alexandra Palace has gone through the roof as a result. Getting a ticket for the darts at Christmas has long been akin to finding one of Willy Wonka’s golden tickets, with sessions majorly oversubscribed.
But this year, thanks to Littler, it has proved more difficult than ever. Barry Hearn, the former chairman of the PDC and the man to whom the sport owes an enormous debt of gratitude, encapsulated the interest last month.
“For the world championship this year, 90,000 tickets sold out in 15 minutes,” he told talkSPORT. “I asked my people in head office, ‘tell me, how many could I have sold? They said, somewhere over 300,000. Now that puts a different emphasis on it.”
Inevitably, that raises questions about the world championship’s long-term viability at the Alexandra Palace. Given the Premier League – the sport’s 17-week roadshow which takes place after January – sells out 10,000-seater arenas across Europe and the UK week in, week out, the demand is certainly there.
That demand comes from an ever-widening pool of fans, with crowds increasingly more diverse and not just from the UK. In 2023, over 25% of tickets sold at Ally Pally went to German fans, showcasing the sport’s appeal across the continent.
However, like most years, the majority of tickets at Ally Pally will go to ordinary punters looking for an exciting evening out. Some will be darts fans, others might be on a Christmas do with friends or first-timers simply eager to see what all the fuss is about.
A combination of all three will sample Pitchside Hospitality’s 501 lounge, which takes watching the darts to an altogether new experience. Pitchside Hospitality, which began working with the PDC last year, are a hospitality provider that creates sporting and event day experiences at venues across the UK including the Oval and Wembley.
They operate across a number of other sports as well as darts, not least horse racing, rugby union, tennis and F1. Pitchside have a variety of different packages, ranging from silver to platinum, aiming to provide darts fans with a night that is about more than just a ticket.
Their offering includes include a three-course meal designed by one of two Michelin star chefs, a bespoke session preview with darts legends and a silent auction with eye-catching lots. Prizes include signed memorabilia from the likes of Littler, Taylor Swift, restaurant packages, spa breaks and tickets to see artists like Oasis, reflecting the diverse nature of a darts crowd in 2024.
It is a world away from the world championship’s early days at Jollees in the 1980s, or even the much-loved but cramped Circus Tavern. While the sport retains all of the raw qualities that made it so popular in the first place, including the raucous Alexandra Palace crowd that makes a night out at the darts so appealing in the first place, it is now reaching a different audience thanks to Littler and its increasingly broad appeal.
Neil Bailey, CEO of Pitchside Hospitality, told Mirror Sport: “We’re committed to providing an extraordinary experience that reflects the growing appeal and interest in the darts. Our hospitality packages elevate the experience beyond the game itself. Our ambition is to blend the excitement of darts with a refined atmosphere—offering Michelin-starred dining, fine wines, and expertly crafted cocktails in a setting that enhances the energy of the event.
“Darts is evolving, and so is the fan experience. There’s a clear demand for high-end, immersive offerings where fans can enjoy the thrill of the sport while indulging in the kind of luxury typically reserved for other major events. We’re seeing this shift across all sports as fans increasingly want their event days to be more than just the ticket—they want an experience.”
Plenty of celebrity guests have taken the chance to enjoy that experience over the years, too. On night one of the 2025 world championship, comedian Jack Whitehall went incognito to Ally Pally, dressed as Ali G.
Premier League footballers are also known to have their Christmas parties at Ally Pally, with Tottenham Hotspur star James Maddison one of the game’s most high-profile fans. Prince Harry, Niall Horan and Peter Crouch and have all sampled the palace’s delights in the past, while Stephen Fry even had a stint on commentary alongside the legendary Sid Waddell.
Darts has always been a sport without any airs and graces, open to all who are willing to embrace it both on and off of the oche. Elevated to mainstream status thanks to a succession of stars, running from Bristow to Taylor and now Littler, it is riding the crest of a wave.
As the 2025 PDC World Championship continues on – one booming 180 at a time – it would be foolish for anyone to suggest it has finished growing just yet.
