How Littler giving it large made for unbeatable drama

Darts is riding the crest of a wave thanks to Luke Littler's unique blend of mesmerising talent and pure showmanship, and it's not slowing down in 2025

- Lawrence Ostlere

In one of the all-time great pieces of nominative determinism, the man at the epicentre of the poker boom was called Chris Moneymaker.

Moneymaker found himself in the eye of a perfect storm: interest in poker surged after the 1998 film Rounders starring Matt Damon and Ed Norton, at a time when the internet’s arrival spawned poker websites which drew millions of American players. In 2003, ESPN took a punt televising the biggest event in poker, the World Series.

They struck gold with Moneymaker, an accountant from Georgia who became the world champion, beating 852 opponents and turning his $40 buy-in into the $2.5m winner’s prize. He was an ordinary American Joe and his story had an inspirational effect. People who’d never before picked up a deck of cards suddenly wanted to be the next Moneymaker.

Two decades on, there is something of Moneymaker in the Luke Littler story. Like Moneymaker, Littler doesn’t necessarily look like the archetypal sporting superstar, and there is something relatable in that. Moneymaker was an ordinary accountant, and Littler is an ordinary teenager who likes computer games and junk food. Against the backdrop of his humanity, his godly talent is all the more mesmerising to watch.

And right now, Littler is having a similar effect on the game of darts as poker once felt, a niche game going mainstream. The PDC World Darts Championship final last January, which Littler lost to world No 1 Luke Humphries, drew 4.8 million viewers, Sky Sports’ highest ever non-football audience. The Premier League Darts season enjoyed its best ever figures since its inception in 2005, and its astonishing final – Littler got his revenge against Humphries and threw a breathtaking nine-dart finish en route to victory – played out in front of a record 14,000 fans at a sold-out O2 Arena.