Darts legend Phil Taylor urges Luke Littler to SNUB BBC SPOTY ceremony with ‘£2million on the table’

1 week ago 11

PHIL TAYLOR has urged Luke Littler to snub the BBC SPOTY ceremony.

The darts sensation is among the nominees for this year’s heralded award.

Luke Littler has been nominated for the SPOTY award[/caption]

Keely Hodgkinson is also nominated after her heroics at the Olympics[/caption]

Joe Root has also received a nomination after his record-breaking year for England[/caption]

Phil Taylor has insisted Littler should avoid the ceremony[/caption]

Littler, 17, has enjoyed an incredible rise at the oche since his run to the final in the PDC World Darts Championship in January.

He has some stiff competition for the award despite being one of the favourites.

England and Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham is also up for the award.

Other nominees include cricket star Joe Root, Olympic heroes Keely Hodgkinson and Alex Yee, as well as Para-cyclist Sarah Storey.

However, Taylor has claimed that Littler should not attend the awards show, which will take place two days after the PDC World Darts Championship starts at Ally Pally.

The Power told talkSPORT: “I would advise him not to go on it.

“I’ll be honest. Look there’s half a million pound on the table.

“I wouldn’t do anything, you know what I mean.

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“I’d just do a video and say thank you very much if I win and focus.

“But it isn’t just the half a million pound, it’s the publicity you’ll get, which he doesn’t need at the minute, and it’s also your spin-offs.

Jude Bellingham is one of the favourites for the award[/caption]

Para-cyclist Sarah Storey is also in the running[/caption]

Darts World Championship full draw

Second round draw (seeded vs first-round winner)

Luke Humphries vs Thibault Tricole or Joe Comito

Raymond van Barneveld vs Nick Kenny or Stowe Buntz

James Wade vs Jermaine Wattimena or Stefan Bellmont

Peter Wright vs Wesley Plaisier or Ryusei Azemoto

Stephen Bunting vs Alan Soutar or Kai Gotthardt

Dirk van Duijvenbode vs Madars Ramza or Christian Kist

Damon Heta vs Connor Scutt or Ben Robb

Mike De Decker vs Luke Woodhouse or Lourence Ilagan

Luke Littler vs Ryan Meikle or Fallon Sherrock

Ritchie Edhouse vs Ian White or Sandro Eric Sosing

Danny Noppert vs Ryan Joyce or Darius Labanauskas

Ryan Searle vs Mensur Suljovic or Matt Campbell

Rob Cross vs Scott Williams or Niko Springer

Gian van Veen vs Ricardo Pietreczko or Xiaochen Zong

Nathan Aspinall vs Cameron Menzies or Leonard Gates

Andrew Gilding vs Martin Lukeman or Nitin Kumar

Michael Smith vs Kevin Doets or Noa-Lynn van Leuven

Krzysztof Ratajski vs Richard Veenstra or Alexis Toylo

Chris Dobey vs Stephen Burton or Alexander Merkx

Josh Rock vs Karel Sedlacek or Rhys Griffin

Jonny Clayton vs Mickey Mansell or Tomoya Goto

Daryl Gurney vs Florian Hempel or Jeffrey de Zwaan

Gerwyn Price vs Kim Huybrechts or Keane Barry

Joe Cullen vs Wessel Nijman or Cameron Carolissen

Michael van Gerwen vs James Hurrell or Jim Long

Brendan Dolan vs Chris Landman or Lok Yin Lee

Gary Anderson vs Jeffrey de Graaf or Rashad Sweeting

Ross Smith vs Jim Williams or Paolo Nebrida

Dave Chisnall vs Ricky Evans or Gordon Mathers

Gabriel Clemens vs Niels Zonneveld or Robert Owen

Dimitri Van den Bergh vs William O’Connor or Dylan Slevin

Martin Schindler vs Callan Rydz or Romeo Grbavac

“So that half a million quid could turn into £2million.”

The 16-time darts world champion has insisted that the first round of the tournament will be “dodgy”, suggesting that Littler needs to be focused.

He added: “The first round for everybody is going to be a dodgy one.

“It always is. Also with the world championships, it’s not just – football will be the same – you know you come into the middle of winter.

“There’s all kinds of bugs flying about and illnesses and flus and whatever.

“Make sure you don’t get laid up. We call it laid up in Stoke.

“Make sure you don’t get any you know, catch any colds or flus or whatever so that can knock you back.”

Meanwhile, Taylor has also suggested that Littler keep his distance from his rivals in order to strengthen his position at the oche.

List of all-time Darts World Champions

BELOW is a list of Darts world champions by year.

The list does not include winners from the pre-Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) era or BDO world champions.

That means Raymond van Barneveld, for example, is only listed once – Barney also won four BDO titles – and none of Eric Bristow’s five BDO titles are included.

1994 – Dennis Priestley
1995 – Phil Taylor
1996 – Phil Taylor (2)
1997 – Phil Taylor (3)
1998 – Phil Taylor (4)
1999 – Phil Taylor (5)
2000 – Phil Taylor (6)
2001 – Phil Taylor (7)
2002 – Phil Taylor (8)
2003 – John Part
2004 – Phil Taylor (9)
2005 – Phil Taylor (10)
2006 – Phil Taylor (11)
2007 – Raymond van Barneveld
2008 – John Part (2)
2009 – Phil Taylor (12)
2010 – Phil Taylor (13)
2011 – Adrian Lewis
2012 – Adrian Lewis (2)
2013 – Phil Taylor (14)
2014 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Gary Anderson
2016 – Gary Anderson (2)
2017 – Michael van Gerwen (2)
2018 – Rob Cross
2019 – Michael van Gerwen (3)
2020 – Peter Wright
2021 – Gerwyn Price
2022 – Peter Wright (2)
2023 – Michael Smith
2024 – Luke Humphries

Most World Titles

14 – Phil Taylor
3 – Michael van Gerwen
2 – John Part, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson, Peter Wright
1 – Dennis Priestley, Raymond van Barneveld, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Luke Humphries

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