LUKE LITTLER is laughing all the way to the bank – after earning more £5,000 per day in prize money since turning professional.
The Warrington teen’s meteoric rise on the oche does not appear to be showing any signs of stopping just now.
Since the start of this year – today is day 71 of 2024 – he has won £357,000 solely from his exceptional exploits throwing darts in competitive action.
That works out to be £5,028 EACH DAY for the 17-year-old – or about £35,200-a-week – since he became a full-time member of the PDC circuit.
And he is now understood to boast a stunning net worth of £600,000.
These are staggering numbers but Littler, who seems to be hitting nine-darters for fun these days, is a rare talent and fully justifying of the hype.
On the two-year rolling PDC Order of Merit, Littler is up to 28th spot with £267,000 of official ranking tournament cash against his name.
That includes the £200,000 cheque for losing 7-4 to Luke Humphries in the final of the World Championship at Ally Pally.
It also includes £15,000 for reaching the quarter-finals of the UK Open, the FA Cup of Darts, and £15,000 for winning his first-ever ProTour Players Championship last month in Wigan.
On Sunday night, boosted by a magical nine-dart leg, The Nuke overcame Rob Cross 8-7 in the final of the Belgian Darts Open on his debut on the PDC European Tour – the winners’ pot for that was £30,000.
He was seen at the boxing in Leeds with partner Eloise back in January[/caption]On top of that, he was handed £20,000 for triumphing at the Bahrain Darts Masters in January and £10,000 for making the final of the Dutch Darts Masters.
Those are both invitational events – glorified exhibitions really – and the money is not added to his PDC Order of Merit tally.
Littler is one of eight stars involved in the Premier League, a 17-week road show that takes in seven countries.
And while he has yet to win a £10,000 weekly winners’ bonus – it is perhaps only a matter of time – he is guaranteed a minimum of £60,000 for being involved in the first place.
The top prize, should he win the O2 Arena play-offs on Thursday May 23, is a whopping £275,000.
As it stands, because he is not defending anything from the past two years, Littler is on course to qualify for the 32-player World Matchplay finals in Blackpool in July.
The winner of the Phil Taylor Trophy gets £200,000 and in this current form, few would bet against Littler not challenging for that prestigious crown.
Of course, all this talk about money is separate to the commercial contracts he has struck since that epic world champ run.
His team have agreed deals for Littler to be the face of boohooMan clothing company and new cereal brand BEST.
In February, Littler signed the ‘biggest deal in darts’ after agreeing a multi-year partnership with loyal sponsors Target Darts.