Five days after winning the Premier League Darts title by vanquishing world No 1 Luke Humphries with a sensational nine-dart finish before a mass of 14,000 roaring spectators inside London’s O2 Arena, Luke Littler has found himself up against a far less forgiving opponent on Tuesday afternoon: Manhattan’s snarling rush-hour traffic.
An all-day media spree pinballing around New York City to promote this weekend’s US Darts Masters at Madison Square Garden has careened off the rails after the hired driver of Littler’s black Cadillac Escalade ESV went to the wrong location for a live in-studio appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour podcast, leaving the show’s genial host treading water on air. When he finally arrives at the Financial District offices nearly 40 minutes late, the 17-year-old sensation known as Luke the Nuke calmly slides into his chair on set while an entourage including his parents, girlfriend and best mate crowd into the green room to watch, all of them smarting from the same lesson every New York neophyte absorbs early on: the subway is always faster.
Admittedly jet-lagged but warming up as he goes, Littler spends a half-hour chopping it up with Helwani, the popular fight pundit who’s become a darts fan in the past year. He fires off takes on everything from Nando’s (“overrated”) to his beloved Manchester United (“Ten Hag deserves another season”). He teases an entry into influencer boxing, even calling out a TikToker named Beavo who swallows potatoes whole on camera, and heartily entertains Helwani’s fantastic pitch of a one-off, made-for-Netflix match against Phil Taylor, the 63-year-old darts legend whom Littler describes as his sporting idol. We’re on the penultimate stop of a gruelling day of press appointments that started with a CNN hit at 8am followed by a photo shoot with Flaunt Magazine and a news conference at MSG with a visit to Bleacher Report’s midtown offices still to come before Barstool and WWE on Thursday.
Until Wednesday’s transpo hiccup, Littler’s first ever trip to New York had gone off without a hitch. Since touching down at JFK from Manchester on Monday afternoon, he’s made himself at home at the Times Square Renaissance hotel, a short walk from the Garden. As we chat between stops amid Wednesday’s marathon, the Warrington native heaps earnest praise on the New York culinary scene – McDonald’s, Wendy’s and 99 Cent Fresh Pizza have been his three favourite meals since arriving – while recalling a full day of sightseeing on Tuesday that included stops by the Brooklyn Bridge, the Twin Towers memorial and the USS Intrepid. “It’s once in a lifetime for many people,” Littler tells me. “It’s just like even being here, seeing the Statue of Liberty and all the other things. It’s just a great dream come true for myself.”
That dream continues starting on Friday night when Littler makes his US debut at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, headlining a star-studded 16-player field including Humphries, reigning champion Michael van Gerwen and former world champions Peter Wright, Gerwyn Price and Rob Cross. “It’s just crazy to think of the other athletes who have played here,” he says, rattling off two of his favourites in Conor McGregor and Anthony Joshua, divergent outcomes notwithstanding.
It’s been some year in the life of Littler, who began playing when he was 18 months old on a board purchased by his father in a pound shop. This time last May he was still in secondary school at Padgate Academy in the town midway between Merseyside and Greater Manchester where he grew up and still lives. But he rocketed into the stratosphere of the British sporting consciousness at Christmas on his world championship debut with a fairytale run to the final at the Alexandra Palace, having since climbed to 25th in the Professional Darts Corporation’s world rankings. Even before last Thursday’s stirring win for the Premier League crown – where he saw off the rival who defeated him in December, became the youngest person ever to win a major and hauled in the winner’s purse of £275,000 ($350,450) – Littler has become front and center of the sport’s promotion. The breathless hype seems to redouble by the day: Matchroom supremo Barry Hearn, classically understated as ever, described him as “the British version of Tiger Woods” earlier this week.
Littler’s domestic celebrity has fuelled reports that organisers could take the once-unthinkable step of relocating the world championship’s longtime venue at the Ally Pally – the 3,200-capacity room in north London regarded as the home of the sport – to a larger space to accommodate demand. Not only would Littler embrace the change, he tells me, but he would be willing to go even farther afield. “Imagine going to Saudi to play some darts?” he says with a smile. “I know we went to Bahrain [for a January event], but just think of a world championship in Saudi.” Asked whether he feels any responsibility to grow the game beyond its UK foundation, Littler toes the company line. “The PDC will obviously change things if they want to,” he says. “If they get the numbers abroad and where else, then they’ll do what’s best for the sport. And I’m sure players will follow in the directions of whatever they choose.”
The grind of the Premier League circuit – a PDC flack described it to me as rock tour unfolding over 17 consecutive Thursdays from February through May – has taken its toll on Littler, who says the biggest challenge has been getting used to the draining travel demands. Same for days like Wednesday, which have become more common as the organisation looks to leverage his popularity.
There’s an easy stillness and quietude about Littler that may do him a disservice in today’s screaming news economy, but which appears to be his most prized asset on the oche and the foundation of his extraordinary nerve. Asked whether he’s developed any routines or superstitions to help ensure confidence and focus, Littler tips a routine of remarkable simplicity. (“I just do what I do,” he says. “Just get in the zone.”) It calls to mind what David Foster Wallace observed of elite athletes’ genius three decades ago: “The real, many-veiled answer to the question of just what goes through a great player’s mind as he stands at the center of hostile crowd-noise and lines up the free-throw that will decide the game might well be: nothing at all.”
After his Garden debut concluding with Saturday night’s semi-final and final rounds, a long-overdue holiday awaits. Littler and co light up at the mention of his fourth visit to Orlando – where he first traveled for Wrestlemania 33 as an impressionable tween back in 2017 – for a return trip to Universal Studios and a long-awaited first journey to Disney World. Afterward it’s back to the day job with fast-approaching dates in Poland and France on the docket. Heavy lifting no doubt, but it beats working.
“I’m just taking everything in my stride,” he says. “I’m just a 17-year-old boy enjoying his darts.”
