Darts teenager Luke Littler has continued his remarkable winning streak and claimed the biggest title of his career to date. The 17-year-old Englishman won the Premier League in London and left the world elite behind him in his debut season. Littler won the final against English world champion Luke Humphries 11:7 and managed a rare nine-darter, in which the 501 points are set to zero in nine throws.
“The Nuke,” as Littler is called, will receive prize money of 275,000 pounds (around 320,000 euros). Before the victory over Humphries, he had defeated former world champion Michael Smith (also England) 10:5 in the semifinals. Already in the preliminary round, which lasted a total of 16 weeks, World Cup finalist Littler was the measure of all things. The teenager is currently competing in his first full season on the PDC tour. Humphries clearly won the second semi-final with 10:5 against record winner Michael van Gerwen (Netherlands).
Premier League attendance record
Even before the final evening, the World Darts Association had announced a record for the current Premier League season. Over the 17 evenings, over 150,000 tickets were sold for the arenas on the British Isles, in Rotterdam and Berlin, as the PDC announced on Thursday. There were over 14,000 fans in London on Thursday, a record for darts events in the UK. The world record was set in the Schalke football arena in 2018 when over 20,000 people came to the German Darts Masters.
“The sport is at the peak of a wave right now,” said chief executive Matthew Porter. There are even more spectators at the Premier League than at the World Cup, which traditionally takes place around the turn of the year. This is because the league format, which is played weekly, is played in larger halls than Alexandra Palace.