By Rob Harris
London: In pubs across Britain they gathered, cheering a hero who couldn’t legally buy a drink if he was with them.
But in a nation where top-flight footballers earn £400,000 ($800,000) a week, drive sports cars and live in multimillion-pound mansions, a teenage kebab-loving darts champion who sleeps in until midday at his parents’ place before eating a ham and cheese omelette has never seemed more relatable.
Luke Littler is the youngest ever winner of the World Darts Championship.Credit: Getty Images
“The kid has battered everyone at a pub sport, and he’s not even allowed into the pub,” said one wag in a north London boozer.
But Luke “The Nuke” Littler differs from all other 17-year-olds: he’s a sporting genius in his chosen field. Not only does no boy of his age play darts as well as Littler, no boy of his age ever has.
Dubbed the “Warrington Wonder”, he is Britain’s new sporting phenomenon. A genuine superstar.
Littler rocked the Alexandra Palace venue in London to become the youngest-ever winner of the World Darts Championship with a 7-3 victory over Dutchman Michael van Gerwen, who at 35 was twice his opponent’s age. The herograms flooded in. There was a text from Manchester United great David Beckham, while Wayne Rooney’s sons lined up for an autograph. Even Prime Minister Keir Starmer weighed in.
Fans cheer during the final between Littler and Michael van Gerwen of the Netherlands. Credit: AP
“Mesmerising performance,” wrote Starmer after watching Littler lift the trophy. “Congratulations. An inspirational performance under such pressure to lift the trophy. You should be really proud of what you’ve achieved tonight, not just for yourself, but for the sport of darts as a whole.”
Once considered a pub pastime ingrained in British culture, professional darts has evolved into a global spectacle, captivating audiences with its electrifying atmosphere, larger-than-life personalities and intense competition. For this year’s tournament, there were 6 million ticket-purchase attempts alone for the 90,000 seats available, while subscription TV channel Sky has enjoyed record viewing figures.
Littler enjoys a kebab in December 2023.Credit: Darts Behind The Oche/X
Forget Oasis, resale tickets on Friday morning for those desperate to get there were priced from $2000. Even though the event was sold out, queues outside in the cold began accumulating an hour before the doors opened – nearly two hours before a dart was thrown.
“Littler has captivated people because he’s relatable,” Sky Sports darts presenter Emma Paton told The Athletic. “He’s taken the sport to different places … darts has never had this exposure before. It’s not even because of what he’s done in the sport, which has been ridiculous by the way, but it’s the impact he’s had on it.”
Littler burst onto the scene this time last year, only to go down in the final, which was watched by 3.71 million viewers at its peak – the largest non-football audience for a single event in the broadcaster’s history.
Viewers were up almost 200 per cent for some tournaments for his matches during the year; that record is expected to be eclipsed when Friday night’s figures are released.
Littler before the final of the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace in London.Credit: AP
“Wow … wow, I can’t believe it,” Littler said post-match, welling up. “Everyone dreams of lifting this trophy, and to actually do it is incredible. I want to get more than 10 titles this year, but if I end 2025 with nothing, I’ve picked the big one up.”
At a press conference on Saturday, Littler said his immediate ambitions were modest: he couldn’t wait to go home “and get in my own bed”. He also revealed the one purchase he would like to make with his winnings: a Mercedes-Benz A-Class.
“Last year I was looking at driving, and I loved the Ford Focus, but now I’ve gone up in the world just a little,” he said. The car will need L-plates, as he hasn’t managed to squeeze in driving lessons around all the darts practice. “I’ve always loved a Mercedes A-Class,” Littler said. “Just a small car.”
A year has passed since Littler’s emergence, and the glow of the spotlight is still falling upon him as closely as it was when he astonished the world at 16.
In December, Google announced he was the most searched-for athlete in the UK last year, ahead of the likes of soccer stars Jude Bellingham and Lamine Yamal; in the “general” category, he was trending higher than Starmer.
He now boasts 1.7 million followers and counting on Instagram and has won £1,513,500 in prizemoney. Before Christmas, he was runner-up in the publicly voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, finishing behind Olympic gold medallist Keely Hodgkinson, who won the 800 metres on the track at Paris.
Littler celebrates victory over van Gerwen.Credit: Getty Images
His rise to record-breaking success has come from a lifetime of practice – he threw his first magnetic darts at the tender age of 18 months.
Littler told The Guardian last year: “I told everyone I was actually in nappies when I started playing. I’m not sure they believed me.”
His parents then uploaded footage to YouTube, proving how young he was when he started in the sport. By the time Littler was eight, he was up against the adults.
Last month, it was revealed the family-oriented Littler moved his parents – dad Anthony, a former taxi driver, and mum Lisa, a sales assistant at a candle shop – and family from their modest £180,000 home to a £6000-a-month pad in his Cheshire home town’s Millionaire’s Row.
Portly and sporting impressive facial hair, Littler could easily pass for being aged in his mid-20s and enter any establishment without ID.
There’s just one problem. He’s now world-famous for being 17.
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