From pubs to filling arenas: the darts craze knows no bounds

BarcelonaIt all starts in any British pub with a dartboard. Darts, considered a pastime for passing the time after work, also has its championships, clubs, and stars. It's a sport that keeps growing in popularity and is now experiencing its golden age, with millions of viewers glued to the televised World Championship. In the UK, last week's World Darts Championship drew larger audiences than the Super Bowl, Euroleague matches, or Formula 1. Three decades ago, the World Darts Championship was held in a London pub; now it fills a giant arena with thousands of people paying exorbitant prices for tickets. And more and more television networks want the broadcasting rights to a game that continues to expand its reach, even attracting fans from the British royal family.

And at the heart of the spectacle is an eighteen-year-old named Luke Littler, a lad from Warrington who has become the youngest two-time World Darts Champion in history. A Manchester United fan, he has more social media followers than some of the Old Trafford club's players, and in 2024, his name was searched more often on Google than Donald Trump himself. With his elderly face, Littler has become one of the ten most followed British athletes, demonstrating the mental fortitude to withstand the pressure at World Cups that draw thousands of live spectators.

Popularly known as Luke 'The Nuke' (The atomic bomb), Littler had already been a sensation in 2024, reaching the final at just sixteen years old, but he lost to his compatriot Luke Humphries. A young man addicted to video games as a child. His father, a darts enthusiast, encouraged him to leave the house and used a pub's dartboard as an excuse. His father's persistence worked, and in the year of the pandemic, when they finally had one at home, young Luke spent six or seven hours a day practicing during lockdown.

After losing the 2024 final, he has defeated two Dutch rivals, Gian van Veen and Michael van Gerwen, in the finals of the last two years at Alexandra Park. The live show is a success, and this year the final's audience exceeded 2.5 million people in the UK. Spectators fill the venue with tables where food and drinks are served before and during the matches. Many arrive in costume, creating a somewhat frenetic, festive atmosphere. Seats closest to the stage cost upwards of 500 euros. Sometimes, football players pay for them. Last year, the entire Celtic Glasgow squad was there. This year, 20% of tickets were bought by people from outside the UK, many of them Americans.

The spectacle has gone global. Mark Borkowski, a marketing specialist who has worked with actors and bands like Led Zeppelin, explained in the The Guardian that the event has become the "Glastonbury of sport, in a way." "It has that strange mix of pantomime, cosplay, and live sport. The spectators know they contribute a lot to the event; they show up in costumes and whistle and cheer. The organizers have done a remarkable job creating this spectacle." This year the World Championship was held at Alexandra Palace, which has a capacity of 3,200 spectators. But next year it will be held in the Grand Hall, which can hold more than 5,000 fans. "Darts has enormous authenticity in an Instagram age," says Borkowski.

1.2 million for the champion

Littler has earned €1.2 million for being champion. An ordinary guy who has gone from winning in pubs to being interviewed by CNN in just two years. Increasingly famous, this year he was booed for the first time at Alexandra Park, a clear attempt to unsettle him. There were only a few, but they made their voices heard. "I don't care. Those who watch and boo have paid for a ticket. Let's make this World Championship bigger. And if I win, I get paid. Those who boo are paying my prize," said a defiant Littler after winning the semi-finals. The last three World Championship finals, with him participating, have been the most-watched sporting event in the UK, excluding football.

The success of darts has led broadcasters like Sky Sports to invest in live coverage of the World Championship. While the winner of the 2000 World Darts Championship won £31,000, now they earn over a million. The players are becoming increasingly famous. Now they go out accompanied by musicians, as the Scotsman John Henderson did with a bunch of bagpipes.

According to data from Sky Sports, the network that holds the broadcasting rights in the UK, darts is the fourth most popular sport after football, Formula 1, and cricket, but World Championship viewership surpasses that of cricket and Formula 1. With clear British and Dutch dominance, the World Darts Championship is seeing players emerge from every continent. enfant terrible This sport features World Championships played in 501-point matches. Each player throws three darts and subtracts points from 501 until reaching 0. Upon reaching 0, a player wins a set. The first player to win three sets wins the match, except for the final rounds, which are played best-of-seven. Littler won this year's final with a decisive 7-1 victory. Good players can reach 501 points in three throws, using nine darts. Under pressure, it's difficult.

The success of darts is a combination of effective social media management, careful television broadcasting, and betting. Bookmakers have helped expand the sport by offering prizes and attracting more and more viewers to major tournaments. This sport had already produced great champions before Luke, such as Phil Taylor, who held the world number 1 ranking for 3,343 days. "It's crazy what I've done. I'm number 1 in the world. Phil Taylor was number 1 for over three thousand days. And this is another part of the story I want to make: surpass Phil's record at number 1 and stay there as long as I can, and make all these other darts players chase me," he has already warned. Taylor, 65, won the World Championship 16 times and was also responsible for the great leap forward in darts, with his confident and bluffing style. But he surely can't take it well to see how, now that he's no longer competing, darts generates insane amounts of money.