NICE LITTLE HEARN-ER
Luke Littler can be ‘one of darts’ all time greats’ with 17 year old helping drive World Championship prize money to £1m
The 17-year-old sensation has helped Sky smash viewer numbers
LUKE LITTLER has the potential to be "one of the greats of all-time" - and could soon be throwing for £1million.
That’s according to Professional Darts Corporation president Barry Hearn in his new explosive podcast.
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Hearn waxed lyrical over the 17-year-old and believes Ally Pally prize money will soon double to a cool £1m for the winner.
On Littler, he said: "He has the potential to be one of the greats of all-time.
"That is the sacrifice he has to make. Does money spoil him along the way?
“No one really knows the answer, will he be or won’t he be? It will largely depend on him and how he copes with his new world.
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“I think he will surprise a lot of people with his maturity as he already has. The way he handles himself. He’s excellent.
"Let’s hope he keeps like that. We are being entertained by greatness.
"There’s a dozen or so players that have the potential from 12 years up.
"People will always be wise after the event. Now all of a sudden I found myself saying this the other day ‘Oh we’ve all known about Luke Littler since he was seven’. Marginally true!
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"I think there’s another kid coming up at the moment who I think is 10 who has been throwing since he was three.
"This is joy to a promoter, what we all need is narrative in every sport.
Darts star, 16, dubbed the ‘next Luke Littler’ as he becomes youngest ever to play in Modus Super Series
"We need to be able to tell a story, set the scene. We need to involve everybody, get people talking.
"Luke Littler did that. By the way, he’s still got a long way to go.
"I think he’s a sensible boy, I think he knows that. He’s pacing himself and he’s going to get beat as well, he’s not going to suddenly blow everybody away.
"Because the sport we’ve created over the years is too competitive for someone to come in and do a Phil Taylor.
"I mean Phil Taylor has 16 world championships, an unbelievable player.
Inside Littler's massive rise
LUKE LITTLER has taken the darts world by storm since exploding onto the scene at the PDC World Championship at the beginning of the year.
The Nuke reached the final on his Ally Pally debut at just 16 years of age - smashing records along the way.
He has then gone on to win a host of PDC events and the Premier League title - which he claimed at the O2 Arena by beating world champion Luke Humphries in May.
He also finished his first season in the World Series as the No1 ranked player.
He has joined Jude Bellingham on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list.
And the teenage titan even had to snub an invite from the WWE.
The Sun exclusively revealed that Littler is plotting to create a fitness empire.
He is also cashing in away from the Oche thanks to an Instagram side hustle.
And he's even the face of a brand new cereal.
But he is newly single after splitting from girlfriend Eloise Milburn following a 10-month relationship.
Check out all of our latest Luke Littler stories.
"I would say really the first disciplined darts player that had a regime of clocking on at nine o'clock. That’s why Phil Taylor was a great, great player.
"Everyone’s learned from that. Steve Davis was the first great professional snooker player. He lived his life built around the sport. Other people had distractions.
"Probably today Alex Higgins wouldn’t get in the top 32 in the world. But he was a sport that made people turn on and made them talk about it in the pub, made them read about it in the newspapers.”
Hearn also believes that PDC prize money will skyrocket along with the viewing figures.
He added: “There’s of things that are tiring about darts, sometimes you are going into a hostile environment.
"If you’re Gerwyn Price and you are going up against the local favourite, they are going to boo you and you’ve got to cope with that.
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"Secondly there’s a lot of money at stake, it’s in your mind, half a million quid to the winner. How long will it be before it’s a million. Probably not that long. There's a lot of pressures on them.
"The next generation is seeing that alcohol isn’t part of darts in the long-term.
"You need to be fit, strong mentally and physically to play this game at the level they’ve got to consistently play at."
Hearn also stated that the ‘Luke Littler effect’ has seen their audience go through the roof.
He said: "I think our best on Sky was a 1.6 million peak. I think it was Michael van Gerwen against Gary Anderson, six, seven years ago.
"This guy’s come along with 4.7 million, I’m hearing it might be close to 5.2 million. Those numbers are humongous.
"They are way up there beyond most Premier League games. In fact every Premier League game on Sky.
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"Why? Because suddenly there was a story to tell that the media got behind. That everyone was talking about and it just caught fire. It was like a forest fire.
"We had women and children saying we want to be like him. The Luke Littler effect we call it now.";
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