The Luke Littler effect: Is darts now a global sport?

The PDC World Darts Championship begins on Thursday. With the meteoric rise of Luke Littler, the 18-year-old who’s swept to the top of the game, the sport’s popularity is at an all-time high – so where does it go from here?

Veteran sports promoter Barry Hearn is the head of Matchroom, the company that has overseen the darts boom since the early 1990s. He tells John Bennett how far the sport has come over the past three decades, and, as its premier tournament gets under way with its biggest-ever field, talks about how he’s looking to expand the game into brand new territory.

They’re joined by Gian van Veen, the 23-year-old Dutchman recently won the European Championship and claimed his second straight world youth title earlier this year. He is heading into the tournament as the 10th seed. He explains how the sport first drew him in as a nine-year-old, and talks about how far he might go this year.

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