Older, wiser and better than ever, Luke Littler defends the World Darts Championship with a target on his back

Opponents have been resorting to dark arts to get under Littler’s skin, but the reigning world champion, whose title defence begins at Alexandra Palace tonight, insists no one can knock him off his game, writes Lawrence Ostlere

It is a cold Monday afternoon in central London and, down in a darts-themed basement bar on The Strand, the great and the good of the game have gathered for the World Championship draw.

Michael van Gerwen is being interviewed in a dimly lit corner, as Luke Humphries arrives down the spiral staircase with his manager. Sky Sports broadcasters are applying final bits of make-up while dishevelled sports writers eat too many canapes (those little pizza slices are a weakness). We wait patiently to speak to the world champion, Luke Littler, who is in the middle of the room, beating a German TV presenter at 501 while sitting on a chair.

Before he comes over to see us, Littler speaks to a mother and her 10-year-old son, Josh, who is recovering from meningitis. Littler saw the dart-lover’s story in a BBC article and invited him to the draw event. He signs a shirt and hands over some darts as cameras flash.

We get 10 minutes with Littler to discuss his world title defence, two of which are taken up by a beloved colleague asking the world’s longest question (as sports journalists, we have an impressive ability to use 200 words when 10 will do). It is an intimate setting where Littler is surrounded by a handful of reporters on a small circular table lit by a hanging lamp, and what is so striking is how comfortable he is in the spotlight. Littler is at ease as the king of darts, smiling as he talks about his year dismantling all comers.

Littler meets young fan Josh before the World Championship draw (Taylor Lanning/PDC/PA)

It is a scene that perhaps only sport can create, in which a bunch of middle-aged men are hanging on every word of an 18-year-old from Warrington who has just passed his driving test. But then Littler is special, a young man with a gift, master of a skill which I am later reminded is utterly impossible in a game with another journalist.

It has been an incredible year. World champion at Alexandra Palace back in January, dismantling Van Gerwen in the final. UK Open champion in March. World Matchplay champion in July. World Grand Prix champion in October. He won the Grand Slam of Darts and the Players Championship last month. Humphries won the Masters and the Premier League, but Littler swept almost everything else in sight.

He will be back at Alexandra Palace tonight to raise the curtain on the 2026 World Championship. The newly expanded draw, with 128 players, pits him against Darius Labanauskas, a 49-year-old from Lithuania nicknamed “Lucky D”, who will need some luck against the world No 1. Littler could meet 2021 world champion Gerwyn Price in the quarter-final, or world No 4 Stephen Bunting in the semis, but there is only one player most onlookers believe can stop Littler in full flow, and that’s Humphries, who may yet await in the final on 3 January.

Retaining the world title has become increasingly difficult in recent years, with an ever-widening talent pool, and Littler is bidding to become the first to do so since Gary Anderson in 2016. “It’s not easy,” he nods. “Now there are 32 more players. Usually it’s one game before Christmas, now it’s two (rounds). But I’m just looking forward to opening my tournament and hopefully I get the job done.”

Luke Littler has a favourable opening to the 2026 World Championship after a stunning year on the oche (Zac Goodwin/PA) (PA Archive)

This is Littler’s third World Championship and this time it’s different – he’s different. He is 18, no longer a boy, with a driving licence and an entourage and millions of pounds in the bank. He bought his parents a five-bedroom house in the country and has been taking advice on prudent savings and investments.

Amid a brutal schedule (“no one sees it,” he says, having zoomed down to London first thing to be here), he has managed to retain a semblance of teenaged normality, playing plenty of Xbox online and spending time with mates in the little downtime he’s afforded. He was pictured losing his mind with other fans in the Manchester United away end as they hit four past Wolves the other night.

In the darts world, too, he has grown up. He is no longer a prodigiously talented kid but a young man crushing everyone who tries to challenge his dominance. His era has well and truly begun, and he returns to Alexandra Palace with a target on his back. Everyone wants to beat Luke Littler.

They are resorting to dubious tactics to get under his skin. During the Players Championship finals, with the score 5-5, the German player Ricardo Pietreczko turned to Littler on stage and told him: “I was only expecting to win one leg and now I’ve got five.” Littler was unimpressed with what he perceived as mind games (they had a previous beef last year) and proceeded to tear Pietreczko to shreds, not only winning 10-6 but showboating along the way, checking out an outrageous 121 via bull, treble seven and back to bull.

Luke Littler produced a superb 121 finish – hitting the bullseye twice (Martin Rickett/PA) (PA Wire)

“I don’t know why Ricardo said that because he was playing well throughout the tournament,” Littler says. “When he said it at first, he was laughing and joking, and I just smiled. And then when I walked back around, I was thinking to myself, ‘Why say that?’ Once he said that to me, I just said to myself, ‘You’ve got to win this game, you can’t be having someone saying that to you and not win the game’.”

Littler has added layers to his game over the past year, most notably a resilience that means he can be trailing 7-2, as he was to Dutchman Jermaine Wattimena in the World Matchplay, and come back to win 13-11. No one, he insists, can knock him off his game. “If other players want to do that, then I think the same thing will happen as what I did to Ricardo – I’ll just go on and win. There’s no point in saying that because you might get in your own head. But that’s what players try and do.”

His impact on the sport is a story well told, and is perhaps best illustrated by the jump in prize money at this year’s World Championship. The total prize pot is £5m and the winner will take home £1m, double what Littler won 12 months ago. Would he showboat in the final with that kind of money on the line? He pauses to think for longer than you might imagine. “Errr. No, I think that’s a bit different.”

There is a reverence for this tournament that every player feels, which is one of the few things the super-human Littler has in common with his rivals. It has been a remarkable season, and yet everything leads to this. Would he give back every major trophy this year for the world title? “Absolutely,” he smiles. “I can’t wait to get going.”