“I think it's tough" - Emma Paton doubts Luke Littler's chances of winning prestigious BBC award

With his impressive form on the oche taking the world of darts by storm, Luke Littler is in a league of his own. His qualities has seen him get recognised away from the sport as more and more people keep tabs with the 19-year-old superstar's progress. When it comes to awards outside of darts, most notably Sports Personality of the Year, Sky Sports presenter Emma Paton has acknowledged that it will not be east against the other top talents on display.

'The Nuke' is eyeing up an unprecedented clean sweep of all the major titles in 2026, and after that hugely impressive World Matchplay showing is a huge favourite to do so. The Englishman has so far won the PDC World Darts Championship, Winmau World Masters, UK Open, Premier League, World Cup and World Matchplay.

It has been a very productive year for the world number one who continues to go from strength to strength in a bid to become the greatest in the sport. If he prolongs this incredible trajectory, he will be on par, if not surpassing, the likes of Phil Taylor as he takes darts to different stratospheres it has never been to before.

The BBC's Sports Personality of the Year has recognised darters for their greatness before. 16-time world champion Taylor came second in the 2010 main award, runner-up to jockey AP McCoy.

However, this has since changed with Littler's introduction. He won the Young Sports Personality of the Year award in 2024 following his breakthrough into the sport, including that first noticeable World Championship final run as a 16-year-old. That same year, he also finished runner-up to 800m star Keely Hodgkinson in the main award.

Once again he was in a prestigious lineup for the 2025 honours, not being able to replicate that top three success as golfer Rory McIlroy while footballer Michelle Agyemang pipped him in the young Sports Personality. That was even following Littler winning his first World Championship crown and completing the Triple Crown among a number of other major titles at just 17.

The British Isles are fortunate enough to have an abundance of great sporting icons mastering their chosen occupation. Paton noted that while speaking to Leasing Options. “I think it's tough. It's so dependent on what else has happened that year as well," she said.

“Obviously we've had a major tournament this year in terms of the World Cup, so it depends on who he's competing against. So at the end of 2024, it was the year Keely Hodgkinson won Sports Personality, and I thought - I'm a big athletics fan - so I completely get that. She's won a gold medal at the Olympics, which is very hard to compete with in the 800 metres."

Despite this, she did feel Littler was hard done by to some extent. “But I felt for Luke Littler that year because I thought, I know he didn't win the World Championship but maybe he would have won Sports Personality if he did," she admitted.

“I was looking at it more from the impact that he'd had on the sport, and I think that was a little bit lost. You know, it's not as simple. His achievements are incredible, stand-alone, but I just thought the impact that he's had on darts, I find that really hard for someone else to compare with because, the interest in it has just exploded, gone through the roof. And obviously last year it was Rory (McIlroy) off the back of The Masters, and that was an incredible story and just such a fantastic achievement."

The argument was there that Littler had taken the sport to unprecedented heights while also consistently breaking records and winning major titles along the way. However, this was not recognised enough when it came to Sports Personality.

“So it kind of depends what he's up against. Like, you know, I'm a sports lover, so I can understand the other winners, but I just felt like that year, when he'd made it to the final, just because of the sheer impact he'd had on darts and its popularity. I thought maybe there was an argument to say he could have won it then. I'm not sure he'll get his hands on it this year, but let's see what happens.”