The Luke Littler effect has supercharged darts – and the boom has only just begun

The sport is riding the crest of a wave thanks to Luke Littler’s unique blend of mesmerising talent and natural showmanship, writes Lawrence Ostlere, and it’s not slowing down

Luke Littler (left) won the Premier League darts (Zac Goodwin/PA) (PA Wire)

In one of the all-time great pieces of nominative determinism, the man at the epicentre of the poker boom was called Chris Moneymaker.

Moneymaker found himself in the eye of a perfect storm: it came around the time of the 1998 film Rounders, starring Matt Damon and Ed Norton, and amid the explosion of the internet which spawned poker websites and drew millions of American players. In 2003, a broadcaster was persuaded to take a punt on televising the biggest event in poker, the World Series.

They struck gold with Moneymaker, an accountant from Georgia who became the world champion, beating 852 opponents and turning his $40 buy-in into the $2.5m winners’ prize. He was an ordinary American Joe and his story had an inspirational effect. People who’d never picked up a deck of cards before suddenly wanted to be the next Moneymaker.