Luke Littler won his first PDC major ranking title on Sunday evening defeating Martin Lukeman 16-3 to claim the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts trophy.
Since then, players, pundits and fans are now renewing their expectation of the young 17 year old.
He was being touted as ‘The Next Phil Taylor’ but now people are suggesting he could surpass him!
After the heavy loss to Luke Littler in the final, Martin Lukeman was full of praise for the teenager. He even went as far as saying that Littler will break Phil Taylor’s darts records.
See more – Martin Lukeman says Luke Littler’s “going to break Phil Taylor’s records”
One prominent figure in darts is Barry Hearn.
Alongside Phil Taylor and Sky Sports, Hearn can take partial credit for the growth of darts since the mid 90’s to the professional and lucrative sport that we know it as today.
With the reintroduced hype surrounding Littler ahead of the World Darts Championship next month, Hearn has weighed in with his opinion on what Littler could do in (and for) darts in the many years to come…
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Barry Hearn Says Luke Littler Could Be “Better Than All of Them”
Barry Hearn was speaking on talkSPORT following the Grand Slam of Darts conclusion at the weekend.
Jeff Stelling mentioned Eric Briston, John Lowe, Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen (greats of the game) and asked Hearn in relation to those darts greats, how good could Luke Littler be in comparison?
Hearn responded:
“He could be better than all of them.
“You look at someone like Luke Littler, he wasn’t a secret to those people in the inner circles of darts, but what he did last year in the World Championships was simply stunning.
“Because going up on the big stage, which is like going from Sunday League football to walking out at Wembley, it’s a different world.
“But when you look at these kids and you say, ‘OK, what’s he done since then?,’ well what he’s done since then, he’s probably earned about £1.5million.
“He’s only 17-years-old.
“And he’s hitting averages, numbers don’t lie.
“Pretty much everyone else in this world lies, numbers never lie.
“So your three-dart average is your three-dart average and you can pretty well tell if someone is averaging 110/114 – which he regularly does – they’re special.
“And you can compare that directly with an Eric Bristow that won the World Championships in the late 1980s, who was averaging under 90 per three darts.
“If today you’re not capable of doing at least 110, you’ve got no chance, and this is with the same equipment but in different environments.
“A professional environment.
“And Phil Taylor led the way, because he went to work every day, so he played six/seven/eight hours every day.
“He said, ‘You get quite good after a while,’ and it’s not surprising, these kids are following in the great Phil’s footsteps and Michael van Gerwen’s and putting the work in, and they’ve got no fear.
“They’ve got no wives, no children, no mortgages, they’re just playing darts.”
Any darts player/fan will know that averages don’t mean everything when it comes to winning.
However, If the Grand Slam has shown us anything, it’s that Littler is more than capable of hitting the big averages AND taking out the doubles in pressure moments.
There’s been a lot of predictions and expectations surrounding Luke Littler but if his debut year in darts is anything to go by, he’s more than capable of reaching the highest level in the sport…
Watch the full episode posted on YouTube below:
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