We all know someone who reckons they could beat Luke Littler. Maybe it’s your husband, who spends his evening in the pub at the darts board rather than the bar. Maybe it’s your sister, who only agrees to attend the family Sunday roast so she can show off her new arrows. Maybe it’s you! Now, thanks to Netflix, you have the chance to prove yourself right once and for all.
The streaming service has announced Beat Luke Littler, a competition that will see the 19-year-old darts prodigy take on casual players in an event streamed live to the world. Regional heats will take place in London and Manchester in September, with 20 amateurs chosen to face Luke the Nuke in a grand finale on 30 October. Whoever manages to beat him will take home an eye-watering £501,000 (to represent the 501 points they must whittle down to win).
It’s a genius idea. Luke Littler is a superstar, having turned the darts world upside down when he reached the final of the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship at the tender age of 16. His fame and talent have only grown since, and this year he’s already won the World Championship, the UK Open, the Premier League and the Masters.
And yet, thanks to his youth, his nonchalant charm, his ordinariness, thousands still think they could beat Littler in a game of darts. Littler is all too aware of this – the promo video for the competition shows him reading social media posts from people who think they are better at him at darts before looking into the camera and saying: “Think you can beat me in a game of darts? Let’s go.”
