Luke Littler has conceded he may never reach the final of the World Darts Championship ever again. The teenage sensation missed out on the title after going down to Luke Humphries in the showpiece event on Wednesday night but has since been fast-tracked into this year’s Premier League Darts.
Littler has enjoyed an incredible rise to fame in recent weeks after producing a string of scintillating performances in the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace. The 16-year-old dropped just six sets before the final as he overcame the likes of 2007 champion Raymond van Barneveld and 2018 winner Rob Cross. But he squandered a 4-2 lead to lose 7-4 to Luke Humphries in the last showdown of the tournament.
Littler will compete against seven other players over 16 weekends to be crowned Premier League champion at the end of May. And the youngster has revealed how he heard about his invitation to the tournament as he outlined his concerns for the future.
“It’s unbelievable, no more development tour – this is it,” Littler told Sky Sports. “Playing in the Premier League and comfortably in the [world’s top] 32. As soon as I came off the stage, did the media and saw the family, my manager pulled me aside and said, ‘do you want to do it?’ I said, ‘let’s do it, it might not happen again.’
“Same as I’ve just come runner-up, that may never happen again so [I’ve] just got to take every opportunity I can get.” And he added: “I’ll probably have to take a break maybe from a few ProTours but I knew what was coming as soon as I said yes to the Premier League. This is just going to be an incredible experience.”
Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Peter Wright, Cross, Nathan Aspinall and Humphries will all take their place in Premier League Darts, which gets underway in Cardiff on Thursday, February 1. Each event will be formatted as a mini-tournament and will start at the quarter-final stage ahead of two semi-finals and a final.
The winner of each event will earn five points, while the runner-up will be handed three points. And the losing semi-finalists will both bag two points. The top four players at the end of the 16 weeks will qualify for the play-offs at London’s O2 Arena, where a semi-final and final will be played to determine the overall winner.
And ahead of the tournament, Littler’s conqueror Humphries explained: “This is a new experience for me as well. Last year was incredibly busy and I wasn’t in the Premier League. I now know this year is going to be even busier.
“I think Luke did make the right decision. He’s a top talent in darts now and these are the sorts of things you want to be playing in. Massive arenas with the best players in the world week in week out. It will grow his game to even greater heights and hopefully it does the same for me as well.”
