The World Darts Championships may have outgrown the Ally Pally as its popularity continues to rise
stood at the top of the walk-on alley at the Alexander Palace, a stocky 16-year-old with five o’clock stubble and his hands in his pockets. By the look on his face, you couldn’t tell if he was about to make his debut at the World Championships or was waiting for a bag of chips. On stage, John McDonald was reaching the climax of his carnival barker’s routine.
His World Championship final against Luke Humphries last January attracted an audience of 3.7 million, an extraordinary number for a subscription channel, and the most watched sports event on Sky – outside of football – in the broadcaster’s history. Littler’s crossover appeal has been extraordinary. In the UK, he was the third most searched person on Google in 2024, behind only Kate Middleton and Donald Trump, but ahead of King Charles, and Keir Starmer, the monarch and the prime minister. His Instagram following grew from 4,000 to 1.2 million and he became a citizen of the TV chatshow circuit. On the Jonathan Ross Show a dart board was wheeled into the studio and all the other guests had a go after Littler.
“The world’s gone mad ,” Littler was quoted as saying in Forbes. “It’s one of them sports where you’re standing there throwing some tungsten into a board and you’re winning yourself some money and you’re creating yourself some legacy.” In darts, there has never been anyone like him, but there was also no other time when darts could have supported the possibility. In the first golden age of darts, 30 or 40 years ago, all the players were required to wear black trousers. Nicknames were optional. There was no music. Crowds of men sat at beer-filled tables and clapped. Cigarette smoke filled the venues like a Dickensian fog. There was scarcely a woman in sight.
O’Connor is inside the world’s top 50 and has been a good player for a long time. But he has never quite broken into the world’s top 32 and that is where the riches lie. Those players are guaranteed a spot at the World Championships, and the glamorous, big money events that increasingly populate Sky’s schedule throughout the year. Everybody else must scrap for one of the qualifying spots.
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