With Luke Litter's explosion as a springboard, darts may well be poised for a big jump. Photo: Getty Images/Tom Dulat < p>Could this be darts' biggest year yet? Widespread craze for Luke Littler saw the World Cup at Alexandra Palace reach record levels of television viewing, with a total audience of 4.8 million for his final against Luke Humphreys and a peak figure of 3.7 million on Sky Sports.
< p>Eddie Hearn noted that this was more than Sky received for the Ash or the Ryder Cup. A meat-and-potatoes Premier League football match might make a couple of million on Sky, while actual high-profile matches (which aren't as frequent as Sky would like) might be four. Obviously, teenage sensations like Littler don't happen at every tournament, but the numbers are sensational and undeniable. The weight of the winnings, if you will. And people want to watch it like never before.Luke Littler with his brilliant name, a name that sounds like a Dickens quote, and a simple “he can't only be 16, can he?” The human interest in all of this has no doubt been a major factor, but the combination of sporting brilliance, tension and the special angle of crowd participation and banter makes the World Cup a winter event not to be missed.
The World Darts Championship has become a place of pilgrimage for some. Photo: AP Photo/Kin Cheung
Eddie's father, Barry, an undisputed genius in his field, long ago realized that the appeal of darts lay in the entertainment element: the party sport. He collected the prize money, turned it from an old guys' pub into something young guys want to go and watch on TV. For discerning all-round sports fans, the PDC World Darts Championship now takes its place on the calendar alongside Wimbledon, Cheltenham, Crucible snooker and the Masters golf tournaments. What hasn't happened yet is year-round interest in the sport from casual fans.
Perhaps now is the time. They head to the Premier League early next month where four top-rated players and four more wildcard players, one of whom is Littler, will battle it out on Thursday night. It takes place in cities ranging from Cardiff to Berlin, Nottingham, Belfast and Rotterdam ahead of the final in London in May. Some tickets are already sold out and all will be well attended.
It will be very interesting to see how Littler deals with his newfound fame and the pressures of the touring lifestyle. He may look like a veteran of the world's toughest paper round, but he is still a child and will hopefully receive plenty of support and supervision.
It will no doubt be a major storyline in the three-part darts documentary series Sky has just announced; it is made by the same company that made “The True Story of Wagatha” for Disney+ and Pamela, “Love Story” (about Ms. Anderson). The document's origins suggest attention to a juicy story, which may well broaden its appeal beyond sports fans. I'm imagining something like Drive To Survive: Wetherspoons Edition.
Sky Sports will certainly remain the natural and premier destination for live action. During the recent final, there was an interesting exchange on Twitter, now known as X, when the BBC's Dan Walker remarked that “sport like this should be shown on terrestrial television.” Sky mainstay Wayne Mardle, in my opinion, rightly took up his batons and said: “Dan, terrestrial TV didn't want to know when darts needed it. Sky Sports stood alone as he played darts.”
Like anyone who has spent an eternity in the semi-darkness, it is quite reasonable for darts to feel engrossed by its newfound attention, but at the same time to bristle and feel, that's a little annoying. However, we all like to back a winner.
You can say that darts is on the rise because even Rishi Sunak, or at least his lieutenants, have realized it. After the final, his office sent out a tweet: “Congratulations to Luke on his win today.” Clever: I could have written this and planned it out ahead of time. We always optimize. Like everything Rishi does, there was a strong feeling that it was made by an artificial half-intelligence. The Prime Minister even played darts with Luke Humphires: darts are really here, I hope this doesn't ruin it.
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