Luke Littler won the World Darts Championship final, defeating Michael van Gerwen 7-3 at Ally Pally.
The 17-year-old improved on his first-round defeat to Luke Humphries last year. This was absolutely different; he remained in command throughout.
On the other hand, Van Gerwen missed out on his fourth World Championship after a challenging year on the road, and the loss to the Warrington youngster only made his sadness worse.
The Nuke raced to a four-set lead, with van Gerwen still scoring brilliantly but suffering with the checkouts.
As the adolescent prodigy threatened to humiliate a game legend, MVG responded with his first set, but Littler responded by sinking an arrow into his preferred double ten to win the sixth and position himself up for victory.
The Nuke responded to Mighty Mike’s seventh-set victory with a resounding victory in the eighth set, and finally achieved his goal in the tenth set by defeating the double 16. Watch as he lifts the award below:
Luke Littler gets his hands on the Sid Waddell trophy 🏆 pic.twitter.com/mCarHpobNn
— Sky Sports Darts (@SkySportsDarts) January 3, 2025
Speaking thereafter, he summed up his accomplishments by addressing what this year holds for him: “I could end 2025 with nothing, but I’ve chosen the best.”
“I want to get more than 10 titles this year, but if I end 2025 with nothing, I’ve picked the big one up.”
It’s difficult to believe these are the words of a 17-year-old. A genuinely incredible skill.
Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler rose to prominence after reaching the 2024 World Darts Championship final at the age of 16 years and 347 days.
The British darts player finished second behind world number one Luke Humphries, losing 7-4, despite entering the game with 66/1 odds of victory and rated 164th in the world.
It wasn’t by luck either; the prodigy got his hands on a pair of magnet darts at the age of 18 months and went on to defeat adult men when he was only 11 years old.
At the age of 16, Karl Hodden, his boyhood coach, remarked, “He was good at nine.” He was exceedingly skilled before the age of eleven. He is truly exceptional. I’d call him the Cristiano Ronaldo of Darts. At 16 years old, he is already one of the top players in the world.”
Speaking of his meteoric climb to stardom, prodigy Littler stated that the ‘world has gone nuts’ in the last year or two.
Littler currently holds ten Senior PDC titles, and it seems likely that he will acquire many more in the future.
Luke Littler will earn a sizable sum with his victory tonight, as the sport of darts expands and provides more options for sportsmen to make money.
The Dutchman will still return to the Netherlands with an eye-watering £200,000, but it is much less than the winner’s prize.
That amount stands at £500,000, which is more than the £2.5 million prize pool that is motivating these athletic titans.
The World Championship’s prize money method is based on the two-year Order of Merit.
All prize money collected at the World Championship is added to a player’s ranking based on the system; thus, if a player ranked second were to be eliminated in the early stages, they would have ‘lost’ the prize money they were defending from tournament performances in the previous two years.
If this makes sense.
Littler had a rocky start in this year’s WDC, but he recovered to win the game 3-1, with an average of 140.91 in the fourth set, a World Championship record.
Despite this, he breezed through to the final, defeating Stephen Bunting by an impressive 6-1 margin in the semi-final Friday night (2 January).
In the previous semi-final, Van Gerwen defeated Chris Dobey by the same score of 6-1 in sets.
It will be the 13th meeting between the two, with the last meeting ending in a 6-6 tie.
Michael Van Gerwen has enjoyed a record-breaking career to date.
Michael van Gerwen is one of the most well-known names in the darts industry.
Similarly to Littler, he broke through as a young wonderkid in 2006, winning the 2006 World Masters in the BDO, although he had to wait until 2012 for his second televised victory.
He didn’t slow down after that and went on to win 157 PDC championships in his career. The former world number one will be hoping to add to his total.
Van Gerwen is a three-time world champion, and a win over Littler would bring his total to four.
Van Gerwen, widely considered one of the greatest darts players of all time, is the PDC’s second most successful player, after only the legendary Phil Taylor.
Luke Littler may just be a teenager, but he has made a lot of money in the last year or two.
His meteoric climb to fame is one thing, but his staggering profits may entice you to walk down to your local bar and start practicing.
After finishing second in the World Championship finals last year, he earned £200,000 before embarking on the first successful year of his professional career.
The biggest victory came in May, when he exacted revenge on world champion Luke Humphries in the Premier League final, earning him £275,000 in prize money.
In total, Littler earned a remarkable £1,018,750 in 2024, according to Sporting Life, after winning ten senior PDC titles.
If he wins today, he will have earned half of what he won last year by the start of 2025.