There are few sports that have seen the kind of growth that darts has in the past few years. There was a time when it was seen as little more than a thing people did in the pub, being a largely male-dominated activity played with a cigarette and a pint.

In fact, there are plenty of videos of players at the highest level of the game doing exactly that not so long ago.

Now, however, it is a sport that is given a huge amount more respect in general, as seen by the fact that the World Championship will have a £1 million prize on offer when it is played at the end of the year.

How Did Darts Get Here?

Darts was declared to be a game not of luck but of skill back in 1908. That meant that it could be played in public houses legally, with the game exploding exponentially from that point onwards. Even so, it was still seen as being the kind of thing that men did over a pint, which remained the case until the formation of the National Darts Association of Great Britain in 1954.

That began overseeing the competitive nature of the game, but it took until the British Darts Organisation, which was formed in 1973, began the World Darts Championship in 1978 for the sport to be taken more seriously.

@sleepyscrolls247 The Good Old Dart Times! #pdc #fyp #Darts #lukelittler #MVG #michaelsmith #philtaylor #gerwinprice #dimitrivandenbergh #ericbristow #jockeywilson #goodoldtimes #goodolddays ♬ original sound – Sleepyscrolls

It says a lot about darts as a sport that the competition was known as The Embassy for 26 years on account of the fact that it was sponsored by Imperial Tobacco, the makers of Embassy cigarettes, until 2003. There was a split in the sport in the 1990s over the treatment of professional players, which led to the formation of the World Darts Council, which eventually became the Professional Darts Corporation.

This was thanks to a long-standing grievance that players had with the BDO and their inability to make money for themselves. In other words, money was at the heart of the PDC’s formation.

The Luke Littler Effect

Perhaps nothing has seen the popularity of darts go up quite as much as the breakthrough of Luke Littler. The Warrington-born youngster hit the headlines in the January of 2024 when he made it to the final of the World Darts Championship against Luke Humphries, having knocked out former world champions Rob Cross and Raymond van Barneveld on his way to the final.

He was just 17 at the time, being 18 in the January of 2025 when he once again reached the final but went one step further by defeating former champion Michael van Gerwin to become the youngest winner ever.

“The Luke Littler effect is GREAT for everybody” 🌟

Eddie Hearn praises Luke Littler and how he has handled the spotlight ☢️ pic.twitter.com/sBUB0OZOlV

— Sky Sports Darts (@SkySportsDarts) February 13, 2024

The Professional Darts Corporation pointed to what it referred to as the ‘Luke Littler Effect’ for the fact that it has been able to increase prize money for the sport by around £7 million, which is the biggest jump in the sport’s history.

The biggest increase is in the World Darts Championship, which will see the winning player taking home £1 million; more than double that taken home by Littler himself when he won it in 2025. Not only that, but the event itself will see the field increased to 128 players, with £5 million on offer to the players in order to increase their ‘earning potential’.

Great News for the Sport

Although even a £1 million prize doesn’t take the World Darts Championship even close to what is on offer for sports such as football and golf, there is no question that any increase in the money on offer can only be seen as a good thing for darts in general.

Whilst the crowd inside ‘Ally Pally’ is still made up of people wanting to have a few drinks and a great time, which is also the case across the majority of darts tournaments, there is no doubt that it is becoming more respected in the sporting world. That is largely thanks to the efforts that have been made by those in charge in recent years.

Away from the professional side of the game, the PDC has also been able to increase the funding that it puts towards the Challenge Tour and the Women’s Series, in addition to the Development Tour. That means that more and more young people will be encouraged to get into playing darts, which will no doubt pay off further down the line when there are a wealth of people playing the sport across all age groups.

Whilst not everyone is happy with the increase to the prize pot for the World Darts Championship, most people are seeing it as a boon for the long-term health of darts in general.