Darts chiefs consider major World Championship change due to Luke Littler

PDC chief executive Matt Porter insists darts doesn’t need the Olympics to increase its popularity, but has hinted at a potential change to the World Championship.

The sport is undergoing somewhat of a mini-resurgence, partly fuelled by the kid of the moment, Luke Littler.

Littler burst onto the scene late last year when he reached the final of the World Championship, but the teenage sensation was denied a fairytale debut tournament when Luke Humphries took home the title.

It didn’t knock Littler’s confidence though, with the 2007-born starlet going on to win the Premier League at the first time of asking, beating familiar foe Humphries in the final.

And Porter believes Littler’s World Championship run, followed by the subsequent Premier League triumph, enthused fans and has drawn more eyes on the sport than ever.

So much so, he expects the 2025 World Championship to have a clamour for tickets on par with Glastonbury.

On the upcoming tournament, Porter told The Evening Standard: “It’s [darts] not like many of these sports that rely on the Olympics for their time in the spotlight once every four years and then they disappear again.

“The sport just doesn’t fit what the Olympics needs or wants. We’re aware of that, which is why we don’t push it. Our own events are good enough. Apart from beach volleyball, I can’t imagine one Olympic crowd that’s anything like a darts crowd.”

He added: “We knew it was going to sell out relatively quickly, but that was a phenomenal return. We were told by our ticket providers that the levels of demand were up there with what they see for Glastonbury.”

Such has been the increase in popularity across recent months and years, talk about a move away from the 3,200-capacity Alexandra Palace has been mooted - a change Porter addressed head-on.

Instead of a venue change, the PDC bigwig hinted the field size for darts’ premier competition could be increased, in order to match the demand for paying customers.

Porter commented: “Increasing the size of the field is something that’s at the front of our minds at the moment.

“If we can increase the number of sessions, that will help us to satisfy demand. The logical progression is to go from 96 players to 128 players. It’s not a case of saying, ‘It’s broken, we need to fix it’. It’s a case of saying, ‘It’s big, how can we make it bigger’?”

The 2025 World Championship gets underway in mid-December and will run until 3 January 2025.