‘The Glastonbury of sport’: Luke Littler effect takes darts to new heights
A peak audience of 2,5m watched the world championship final on Sky as Luke Littler defended his titleIf further proof was needed about the burgeoning popularity of Luke Littler and darts, it came with early viewing figures from Barb that showed the 18-year-old’s second world title victory on Saturday night was watched by a peak audience of 2,5m on Sky,They are huge numbers in a sport that, not so long ago, would have been delighted with anything over a million,That is the Littler effect in action.
But after thrashing the Dutch player Gian van Veen 7-1 in the final, he promised that his latest success – and the £1m first prize, a record for his sport – would not change him.“I’m just me as you see me – outside of the darts, inside of the darts, I’ll never change,” he said.“This is how I am.Even my mum and dad, from the first worlds were saying to me, ‘don’t change anything, just be yourself’.That’s how it’s going to be.
”What makes Littler’s dominance even more remarkable is that he is not a slave to the grind.During lockdown, he practised five or six hours a day to hone his technique.Nowadays it is a lot less.Yet he seems able to turn on a switch and the talent oozes out.Such was his dominance during these world championships that he won 32 sets and lost just four over his seven matches.
But despite having already won two world titles while still a teenager, Littler still thirsts for more.“I want to dominate everything,” he says.“I want to try and win everything.”However this was not only victory for Littler, but darts too.The 170,000 tickets for this year’s world championships sold out in pre-sale, with 20% of tickets going to non-UK based supporters.
Fans from Germany and the Netherlands, as well as Ireland and the United States, turned up in droves – many of them in fancy dress.The PR guru Mark Borkowski, who has worked with Ian Botham, Michael Jackson and Led Zeppelin, among others, told the Guardian that it was a further sign that darts really has gone global.“The event has become the Glastonbury of sport, in a sense.It’s got that weird mixture of pantomime, cosplay and live sport,” he said.“The spectators know that they add so much to the event, turn up in their costumes, and boo and cheer along.
Those in charge have done a remarkable job to create that spectacle,”It helps, of course, that darts has struck gold with Littler: an everyman with an extraordinary talent,After his win over Van Veen, for instance, he also admitted that he had forgotten to eat until he arrived at Alexandra Palace, when he fuelled himself for the final with a margherita pizza,“All sports need new heroes, and of course, Littler is that new hero,” says Borkowski,“He is an extraordinary talent.
But he could also be any kid from any street in Salford, Sheffield, Southampton.That’s part of his appeal.”And the sport continues to grow.This year’s PDC world championships was staged in Alexandra Palace’s West Hall, which has a capacity of 3,200.Next year’s event will be in the Great Hall, which has room for more than 5,000 fans.
The audience is getting younger and so are the players, with Littler attracting more kids to a sport with almost no barriers to entry.“In most sports they coach people to within an inch of their lives,” says Borkowski.“But darts has got massive authenticity in an age of Instagram.And there’s going to be a lot of talent out there looking at him and thinking, ‘I can do the same.’However Borkowski, who has also worked with the likes of Macaulay Culkin and helped celebrities protect their reputations, warns that Littler will inevitably face a few bumpy moments as his popularity grows and some fans find his dominance boring.
“We talk about the upside of fame, but very few people talk about the downsides,” he says.“And the sophistication in managing fame, particularly in an age of a million cameras, is just so difficult.”The fact that Littler bit back at fans after being booed earlier in the tournament was a sign, Borkowski says, of how difficult that balance can be.“Whether it’s in industry, entrepreneurship, entertainment or sport, we build people up to kill them.Culturally, that’s what British people do.
They distrust dominance,” he adds,“They don’t like success, especially when it arrives too quickly,It is a game of snakes and ladders,”But having joined Gary Anderson, Adrian Lewis and Phil Taylor to have won successive PDC World Championships, Borkowski hopes Littler will be given room to continue to thrive,“Littler will have a thousand brands crawling all over him, but there’ll be one or two who will think: ‘Let’s just see how he behaves’,” he says.
“But I think he’ll come through it,”
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