Last night Luke Littler won the World Darts championship for the first time having been the runner up last year. What is so remarkable about this story is the guy is only 17 year old and he did not just beat his opponent Michael van Gerwen, but absolutely demolished him 7 sets to 3.
I knew this kid was good but have only seen him play a couple of times before and up against MVG who is a 4 x world champion I thought tings would be far closer. How wrong I was as Littler jumped in t a 4 sets to nil lead and had MVG on he back foot immediately.
The standard of the darts was exceptional with MVG at one point hitting bull, triple nineteens and then a bull again just to claim a leg point. Littler then nuked MVG with a checkout of 170 and his domination continued.
MVG has not been on top of his game in 2024 and even if he had been it would have not made much difference as Littler seems to be on another level. The tournament leader when it came to scoring 180's landed 12 during the match against MVG's 13 but it was the crucial doubles when securing the legs that mattered. MVG ended up being bust on 2 occasions which resulted in a no score round of darts. MVG was just under so much pressure he was always playing catch up.
The interesting story about Littler is when e was 18 months he was given a magnetic dartboard from his dad purchased at the Pound shop. This kid has been playing darts ever since and much like Tiger Woods starting out at an early age he is a generational talent.
Not forgetting this kid was challenging for the title last year and was leading 4-2 and went on to lose the title. lessons learned and e was never going to let MVG have a sniff of a chance by sheer domination.
Littler does not come from a wealthy home with his dad being a taxi driver so he has the desire to achieve his dreams. Just within the last year tis kid has earned over 1 million GBP and last night pocketed another 500K GBP for winning the WDC title. Every match he has played in this tournament he has dominated his opponent through the sheer high numbers he consistently hits.
There is no guessing what Littler can do for the sport of darts as this is going to bring in a new wave of fans and they will be much younger. What he has managed to accomplish and earn whilst still 17 many dart players do not achieve this over a 20 year career.
This is what any sport would want to see as the possibility of having higher rewards on offer due to increased tv ratings and advertising this sport could go mainstream within the next 12 months. All the sport required was a fresh face who was young enough and this guy is still a kid.