Teenage darts sensation Luke Littler and women’s star Fallon Sharrock have been praised for their impact on the sport of darts. Both players can lay claim to have become overnight sensations following heroics at the World Championship at Ally Pally, with Littler going on a remarkable run to the final this year.
The 17-year-old has since gone on to win the Bahrain Masters and be runner-up in the Dutch Masters, cementing the notion that he has an iconic career ahead of him. And yet four years previously, it was the ‘Queen of the Palace’ who attracted similar media attention after becoming the first woman to win a match in the biggest event in darts.
After beating Ted Evetts 3–2 in the first round, she knocked out 11th seed Mensur Suliovic 3–1 win before bowing out against Chris Dobey. She’s since made three more appearances at Ally Pally, and also starred as a guest player in the Premier League.
And the exploits of both have been positive as far as Michael Smith is concerned. Smith, the 2023 world champion, believes the mass attention that players like Littler and Sherrock have received have meant new levels of positive publicity for darts.
Asked about the ‘Nuke’, he told darts news: “What he’s doing now benefits us, it’s the cycle of it. People won’t like it because he’s in the Premier League or here (on the PDC World Tour), because it’s like when Fallon was here. What they don’t realise is that before Fallon was here we were playing for 250/500 a game and we’re up to a grand now.
“The hard work Luke is doing, Fallon is putting in means the money is going up and up and up. Hopefully, with Luke Littler doing what he’s doing, Barry Hearn gets his wish in the next few years and it’s a million pound for the winner of the World Championships.”
Hearn has already overseen a steady rise in money available to competitors at the event. Only in 2010 did the overall prize fund reach £1 million for the first time, with eventual champion Phil Taylor collecting £200,000.
In 2014, a year that signified a first world crown for Michael van Gerwen, the Dutchman benefited from an increase to £250,000 for their respective wins. But this year’s winner Luke Humphries, who denied in Littler in a thrilling final, took home £500,000.
Littler himself bagged £250,000 for being runner up. But Hearn has long voiced his staunch belief that additional sponsors and television negotiations will eventually allow him to pledge the magical seven-figure sum to future champions.
