Darts prodigy Luke Littler is considering retiring early

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Luke Littler at Newcastle on February 22nd during week four of the Premier League

Photo: Every Second Media / IMAGO

Luke Littler is the shooting star of darts.

The 17-year-old Englishman made a sensational appearance in the final on his World Cup debut last January, generated record viewing figures and media hype in Great Britain and has been considered by many to be the next dominator of the sport since his strong start to the 2024 season.

In an interview with "The Times", "The Nuke" has now promised a short term as the king of dart throwing.

"Maybe I'll play for another ten or fifteen years and retire when I've had enough," Littler is quoted as saying in the report.

Littler has only been known to the general public for a few weeks, but he has been a semi-professional athlete at least for several years.

At the age of twelve he was signed by an arrow manufacturer, and at the age of 14 Littler played in the men's amateur world championships.

The darts prodigy could probably have been keeping up with the professionals at the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) for several years.

But since the PDC has set a minimum age of 16, Littler had to wait a long time before he could compete with the professionals.

At the World Cup and in the first few weeks of this season, it seemed as if the hype around him hardly affected Littler.

But now the teenager from Warrington is on the road sometimes seven days a week, playing in addition to the Pro Tour tournaments, various invitation tournaments, including the lucrative Premier League, which is played every Thursday for 16 weeks.

And as expected, Littler is now having to deal with more and more setbacks.

After winning both the first invitational tournament and his debut at a Pro Tour event this year, “The Nuke” has recently started to suffer early defeats.

It is not clear in the report by "The Times" whether his stressful everyday life makes Littler think about an early end to his career or whether the teenager assumes that he will be financially secure in his late 20s or early 30s.

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