Darts will reap the rewards of the Luke Littler phenomenon with a multi-million pound new TV deal as the sport’s powerbrokers declared ambitions to become “bigger than golf.”
Viewing figures for the World Darts Championship hit new heights with ratings up 39 per cent year-on-year as 17 year-old Littler’s journey to becoming the tournament’s youngest ever winner won an army of new fans.
The 3.1m who watched Littler beat Michael van Gerwen in Friday’s final was bigger than any Sky non-football audience over the past 12 months, including Formula 1, tennis and golf.
Sky’s £12m seven-year deal with the Professional Darts Championship expires this year and the darts boom has strengthened the negotiating hand of PDC supremo Barry Hearn, the veteran sports promoter.
Netflix and Amazon are said to be circling the world finals along with DAZN, the subscription sports streamer, which poached boxing from Sky Sports in a £100m deal masterminded by Hearn’s Matchroom Sports company in 2021.
However, Sky and Hearn are understood to be currently thrashing out a deal that could double the £12m the satellite broadcaster paid for the sport in 2017.
Hearn slapped a £30m-plus valuation on darts’ calendar of tournaments, arguing that a new wave of prodigies set to follow in Littler’s wake will cement the sport’s soaring popularity.
However he is willing to compromise if Sky shows the “respect” that darts, once associated with smoky pub backrooms and boozy players, deserves.
“I think Sky should get a bit of a favour because of the fact they’ve stuck with us for 30 years, but there’s an awful lot that has obviously changed the value of the PDC product,” Hearn said after Littler’s victory.
“We’re quite close. It’s just a question of making sure we get the respect we deserve. That’s the key word.”
Hearn said Sky had previously become “complacent” over Matchroom’s boxing contract and suggested that a new darts deal had to be “well in excess of £20m”.
The game’s stars will receive extra prize money under the new deal – Littler, who banked £500,000 for his triumph this year could be the first £1m world champion, Hearn predicted.
Sky’s coverage, helping to turn the world championships into a fan-powered, entertainment spectacle, is credited with giving darts a new, youthful profile attractive to advertisers. Female viewers now account for around 30 per cent of the total and the average age has dropped from 50-60 year-olds to people in their 20s and 30s.
The championship has outgrown its Alexandra Palace base in north London. “My team told me we could have sold 300,000 tickets (instead of 90,000),” said Hearn, who hopes the historic venue can be upgraded to accommodate more fans.
There will be 128 players instead of 96, creating extra sessions to meet demand, at the next finals in December.
Boosted by Littler, tipped to earn £50m over the next decade from tournament wins, sponsorship and TV deals, Hearn’s said his ambition was to turn darts into the global “working man’s golf”.
America has already fallen under the sport’s spell and a major Saudi tournament is being discussed – although alcohol restrictions could be an issue.
“If darts can reach every corner of the world, which it will do in the next five years, it’ll be a massive participation sport and easily do more numbers than golf,” he said.
“Its viewing numbers already slaughter golf, but sometimes things are valued on perception. Why does a sponsor pay £10m for a golf event and £1m for a darts tournament when the numbers are so clearly stacked in our favour?”
A stable of emerging superstars means darts will not have to rely on Littler to maintain its momentum. “The guys coming through are going to knock your teeth out,” Hearn promised.
The next TV deal is a far cry from the Hearn’s first involvement with the sport. Darts appeared to be withering after the sport split into rival professional bodies and Hearn stepped in to negotiate a £100,000 a-year deal with Sky in 1998.
Sky was approached for comment on a new deal.
