How the “Luke Littler effect” has impacted local darts in Sunderland

Since Luke Littler’s dominance as a 16-year-old at the World Darts Championship, the sport has blown up worldwide. Sarah Leaver takes a look at the impact the teenager has had on local darts in the North East.

Remember a few years ago when kids would only be seen wearing Ronaldo or Messi shirts? Yeah, the football shirts are out, and Luke Littler’s darts shirts are in.

One day, the teenager was a 16-year-old only known in local darts leagues. The next, he was dominating at the 2024 World Darts Championship, defeating the likes of former champions Rob Cross and Raymond van Barneveld.

From this moment, the Warrington-born lad was cemented in darting history, becoming the youngest player to play in the World Championship final, and despite losing to Luke Humphries, Littler was the name on everyone’s lips.

Littler at 17 had already won his first World Series title in Bahrain and became the Premier League champion before going one better than the previous year at the 2025 World Championship, beating darting legend Michael van Gerwen in the final and demolishing Jelle Klassen’s record as the youngest World Champion in history.

2024 and 2025 certified the teenager as a household name, and his popularity and impact on darts players, both young and old, has skyrocketed. But how much has the “Luke Littler effect” really had on local darts in Sunderland?

Seaham Darts Academy was opened by John Allan in 2025 after his son and his friends got into the sport because of the teenager’s success and he decided to create a safe space for them to learn how to play and improve on their skills.

Students playing darts at Seaham Darts Academy – credit: John Allan https://www.seahamdartsacademy.com

Nowadays, the academy gets between 80-100 participants over two sessions on a Sunday. The groups are split into groups based on ability and they play in a league format over the two-hour session. The academy also offers one-on-one coaching sessions for players seeking individualised guidance.

A lot of the participants started attending because of Littler, John says.

“You see some of them coming in with Luke Littler tops and stuff on them, the Luke Littler Darts cases and the Luke Littler, they’ve all got Luke Littler Darts.

“I think everyone wants to be the next Luke Littler, you know what I mean? Obviously, they know how much money is involved with it now. Years ago, it was nothing.

But having such a young role model can also cause disappointment in younger children, John says: “What I find is I think everyone thinks that when the throw it’s going to 180, they’re watching Luke Littler on the TV and they think it’s that easy.

“I think there is a pressure there, but we’re finding, obviously which we’re trying to coach out, they’re getting themselves irate or upset, if they hit a bad score.

Professional darts player Joe Cullen after visiting the darts academy – credit: John Allan https://www.seahamdartsacademy.com

“if they score, 26 or something like that, you’ll see them shaking their heads and they’re expecting to hit 180s all the time.”

John says: “There’s a thing called the JDC, Junior Darts corporation. We do a lot of them, we go to the regional finals, and we’ve normally got about five or six, I think we had eight last time, who made it to like the North of England finals.

“One of our lads, Corey, won the regional finals, so he’ll be in the national finals next time. So, they are improving all the time, obviously, so it is working what we’re doing.”

John joked that they needed a sponsor from Polyfilla when they first started out, that the players were hitting the walls more than the actual board, but now they are sponsored by one of the biggest darts companies in the world – Unicorn darts.

He says: “One of my good friends, Adam Hunter, he’s sponsored by Unicorn as well, and he got in touch with me saying ‘look I’ve had Unicorn on and I’ve seen what you’re doing, spotting your socials, your website and stuff, and seen all the feedback that you’ve been getting.’ So, it would look like they’re getting involved and become a brand ambassador.

“They provided us with eight new dart boards, eight lights, eight surrounds, eight white boards even though we don’t use them, we use a tablet now.”

The “Luke Littler effect” hasn’t just impacted people playing darts, but also those writing about it. 180UK is a darts website which started up in January 2025, just after Littler won his first world title.

Deanna Smith, an editorial assistant for the website from Gateshead, says: “180 was started by the creators of RUCK, which had gone from one writer working from his bedroom to the number one ranking rugby news website in the UK in five years!

“It was actually from looking at stats of the most popular sports in the UK by age range. Where rugby was in the top five for over 40s, it wasn’t even in the top 30 sports for younger generations!

“We knew our site got so successful because of the traditional magazine style of content, so it just made sense to try apply our formula to a sport that’s only getting more and more popular!”

She continues to say that Littler is one of the most-read names on the website: “A tactic we’ve learned from RUCK is certain big names are always going to get the clicks! If his name is in the title, it will get miles more clicks than the rest!”

In terms of the future of darts, John and Deanna both believe that darts is only going to get bigger.

John says: “I think it’s just going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. Now there’s Luke Littler, he’s obviously winning things but he’s not going to win it all the time because you’ve got other players, like Gian van Veen – he’s only a young kid. The standard is just absolutely ridiculous now.

It’ll take time to see, but it is clear that Littler’s success at such a young age has shaped a future of darts players, both young and old.