It used to be a game a group of men played in the corner of their local pub. But since the rise to stardom of the young English professional darts player Luke Littler, darts has gained a far wider popularity, reaching people never previously interested in it before.
“Without doubt, there has been a growth of interest among all ages since Luke Littler but particularly among young boys – and girls,” says Fergus O’Brien, who runs Brenfer Trophies, a shop in Dublin city centre that specialises in darts and their accessories.
“He’s a phenomenon. He has achieved so much and nobody has had such an impact on the game. He’s done for darts what Lionel Messi did for football, what Tiger Woods did for golf and what Ronnie O’Sullivan did for snooker,” says O’Brien.
Littler, who turned 18 on January 21st, is ranked world number one in darts after winning the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) World Championship in London last month and was in Belfast this week for the Bet MGM Premier League Darts. He is the youngest ever world darts champion and the surge of interest since he came to global prominence aged 16 has been dubbed Littlermania.
As O’Brien gives me a crash course in the different types of darts (tungsten darts are superior because they are slimmer but maintain their weight) and boards, four customers come into his Capel Street shop, all to buy darts.
Shane Hyland has four boys – aged 10, 11, 13 and 14 - and he’s here to buy new darts for them. “I used to think darts were only for alcoholics playing in pubs but Littler has kicked off things for everyone. It’s the first time my boys have ever played darts.”
Jay Mangan has been playing darts since he was eight and has watched all the championships on television. Now in his late 20s, he’s just about to set up a new darts club in Belvedere Youth Club in Dublin city centre for a group of boys, aged 11 and upwards.
“They have been asking me since last year so I’m happy to set it up for them. Maybe they will be able to play against other youth clubs,” says Mangan.
Dermot Sreenan got a darts board for a Christmas present from his wife. “I’m a total amateur. I’ve come back to it because of Littler. I have it set up at the back of the house. I’m playing alone at the moment but I’ll play with my mates eventually,” he explains.
Sreenan says that he used to watch the World Championships with his dad, who died 20 years ago. “I’m watching it again now because Littler plays really exciting darts. There is a buzz of electricity watching him. It’s comparable to watching George Best playing football,” he says.
Renowned for his high scoring power – hitting a large number of maximum scores (180 is achieved by throwing three consecutive darts into the board’s small triple 20 section) - Littler is also skilled at targeting the double 10 section of the board’s outer ring. He scored his first 180 when he was six.
He is also the youngest player to achieve a televised nine-dart finish, which means to score the exact number of points (usually 501) whilst hitting a double-scoring area at the end, all with only nine darts. He achieved his first nine-dart finish when he was 13, when he was already playing in the under-21 leagues at the St Helen’s Dart Academy in Merseyside.
Nicknamed “The Nuke”, Littler has won 11 senior Professional Darts Corporation titles, the first when he was 14. He was two days before his 17th birthday when he succeeded in his nine-darter feat at the Bahrain Darts Masters event in 2024.
“The grand thing about darts is that it’s a fairly inexpensive sport, with boards costing from €50-€110. You can play for five or 10 minutes or an hour. You can play by yourself or have a few pals over to play,” says O’Brien. While some people still play in the pub, others have a dart board in a games room, a shed, the kitchen or their bedroom.
O’Brien has a special area set up for customers to try out darts of different weights before they purchase them. “That’s the difference between buying in a shop and buying online. It’s like buying a pair of shoes. You have to get the right fitting,” he says.
Tom O’Keeffe has also noticed a huge upsurge of interest in people buying darts and dart boards in his shop OK Sports on Wynnefield Road in Rathmines, Dublin. “I’d say there are 20 times more people buying dart boards than a year ago. Littler has lit up the whole darts world. He’s so young and so accurate. Everybody is in awe of his ability and young men see it and say ‘I can do that too’,” says O’Keeffe.
According to O’Keeffe, the majority of people buying dart boards are fathers buying for their sons. “A lot of men played darts as teenagers and now there is the opportunity to buy a darts board for their sons. Darts used to be synonymous with pubs but that is no longer the case.”
NxGen Darts, an indoor games zone that opened inLeopardstown in December, is also benefiting from the Littler effect. “Everyone is talking about darts now and girls, who historically never played darts, are now playing too. We get groups of women, groups of guys, couples on date nights and corporates,” explains Paul Quinn. The venue has five interactive Dart bays.
In this new form of “competitive socialising” with a bar and restaurant on site, the focus is as much on fun as getting high scores. “We project the games on to the boards with electronic scoring so you’re constantly scoring. It’s not just about trying to hit doubles and triples. Anyone can play but there are different levels,” says Quinn.
And a new social venue, Flight Club, was due to open on Dawson Street on Friday.
Meanwhile, back in OK Sports, O’Keeffe says that while there are different grades of dart boards (the superior ones have narrower wire set into the board so that the darts won’t bounce off the edges so easily), most dart boards are ‘indestructible” and will last a lifetime.
The trend to accessorise everything means that not only can you buy surrounds for the boards (which also protect your wall), but you can have a halo of lights to illuminate the board to create a little atmosphere for those triple scores and bullseye shots.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
