No matter what happens at the World Darts Championship, Luke Littler will have something to look forward to in 2025.
The 17-year-old has enjoyed a stunning year, with his run to last year’s final, where he was beaten by Luke Humphries, followed by a meteoric rise. Littler has brought a fresh buzz to the sport, with a whole new audience inspired to pick up darts by the young phenomenon.
Littler has won 10 titles over 2024: The Premier League, Grand Slam of Darts, World Series of Darts, Bahrain Darts Masters, Poland Darts Masters, Austrian Darts Open, Belgian Darts Open and Players Championship (x3). He now has another achievement to add to the list: a waxwork at Madame Tussaud's.
The Sun reports that Littler has already OK’d the statue, which will go on show in Blackpool in 2025 before moving down to London for display. The youngster reportedly agreed to have his likeness made into wax after being assured they would do a good job.
Littler has been nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award and is considered the second favourite to win, behind runner Keely Hodgkinson. They will battle it out with footballer Jude Bellingham, cricketer Joe Root, Para-cyclist Sarah Storey and triathlete Alex Yee for the gong.
The winner will be announced on December 17, but Littler is fully focused on going one better at the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace. He will open his campaign against the winner of Ryan Meikle vs Fallon Sherrock on Saturday, December 21.
Littler is ranked fourth in the world going into the biggest event of the season, but knows it won’t be easy to repeat last year’s heroics. “You've always got to be on your A game, but obviously as the game goes on you know that if they're playing well you've got to step up and you've got to compete against them,” Littler told Sky Sports.
“We'll just see how it goes, obviously you can only beat what's in front of you so you've just got to look at your next opponent in the Worlds. It will be one game before the Christmas break so be fully focused for that, have Christmas off and then we'll travel back down hopefully another long December, start of January in London.”
Whatever happens, he will be able to reflect on a brilliant 2024, having bagged over £600,000 of prize money over the last 12 months.
Only Michael van Gerwen, Phil Taylor and Peter Wright have won 10 titles in a calendar year before, underlining the size of Littler’s breakthrough.
Sky has slashed the price of its Sky Sports, Sky Stream, Sky TV and Netflix bundle in an unbeatable new deal that saves £240 and includes 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.