Is Netflix’s £501,000 Beat Luke Littler challenge really for amateurs? Fallon Sherrock among experienced names fuelling debate after London audition

Netflix has promised ordinary darts players the opportunity of a lifetime with Beat Luke Littler, but details emerging from the first London audition have intensified the debate over who should be allowed to compete for £501,000.

Hopefuls initially had to complete a leg of 501 in no more than 24 darts, yet some attendees reportedly understood that previous competitive experience could carry greater weight during the later selection process. With Fallon Sherrock among several recognisable names spotted at the London audition, the question is no longer simply whether an amateur can beat Littler, but what Netflix considers an amateur in the first place.

Thousands descended on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Saturday hoping to secure one of the 20 places opposite the two-time world champion. Some fitted precisely the image promoted by the programme, arriving from pubs, local leagues and jobs far removed from professional darts. Others already possessed considerable experience of the competitive circuit.

Mason Whitlock, Tommy Morris, Lee Cocks and former PDC World Darts Championship participant Bhav Patel were also discussed following the audition.

With no PDC Tour Card required, each can be placed beneath the broad amateur umbrella. Their respective records, however, leave them some distance removed from a complete unknown walking in off the street.

The subject was discussed on Episode 10 of the DartsNews Podcast by Kieran Wood, Nicolas Gayer and special guest Samuel Gill. “I think it depends on who is actually going, because it’s been marketed as an amateur thing,” Wood began. “Then, seeing some of the images and some of the press releases from the other day, you’ve seen Fallon Sherrock there, Mason Whitlock there, people like that. Whitlock has never had a Tour Card, so he is technically an amateur player. But if he beat Luke Littler in one leg, it’s hardly going to be a surprise, is it?”

Whitlock has already competed at Q-School, on the Development Tour and in the MODUS Super Series, where he produced a nine-dart leg in 2024. Sherrock’s pedigree is even more familiar after her historic World Championship victories and years of competing on televised stages.

Gill highlighted several further examples contained in material released around the London audition. “Even the press release we got sent the other day, Kieran, had Tommy Morris in it, who is very much a big, big name on the MODUS Super Series,” he explained. “He’s played on the ProTour before through the Challenge Tour."

“I think they even had players like Lee Cocks and Bhav Patel, who played in the World Championship a few years ago when he replaced Prakash Jiwa. So it wasn’t very much an open field," he continued. “I was kind of scared about this happening because I was speaking to somebody the other day who was actually going to Beat Luke Littler.”

Morris is currently listed at No.110 on the PDC Order of Merit with £24,250 in ranking prize money. Despite not possessing a Tour Card, he has accumulated that total through PDC events and told reporters at the audition: “Luke’s ranked number one and I’m 110, so I’ve got to beat him somehow.”

Cocks has won two Challenge Tour titles, including Event 17 in August 2025, and has extensive MODUS Super Series experience. He has also beaten Littler before, recording a 6-2 victory over the world number one at a Players Championship event in 2024.

Patel, meanwhile, appeared at the 2024 PDC World Championship. Although William O’Connor defeated him in straight sets at Alexandra Palace, he already knows what it is like to compete on darts’ most famous stage.

None of that necessarily places those players outside the rules. Darts contains a substantial group who compete for prize money on secondary tours and televised non-ranking stages without holding the Tour Card usually associated with full professional status.

For Netflix, selecting players from that group would also make Littler considerably more vulnerable. Each challenger only needs to defeat him over one leg of 501, removing the protection that the world number one’s superior level would normally provide across a longer match.

Gill nevertheless believes the original appeal of the programme rests with those who would never ordinarily come close to sharing a stage with Littler. “They need to strike a balance between perhaps players who are lesser known and can throw a dart or two, maybe play county or Super League, maybe one or two play the MODUS Super Series and have got their foot in the door through something like the ADC system, as opposed to the main system, and then rank amateurs like us three, for instance,” he said.

“They’ve even invited radio hosts. I wasn’t invited, but they’ve even invited people from the media to go along, seemingly," he added. “It kind of strikes me as them trying to find a balance between players who could push him close and players who are rank amateurs. I think it should be completely the latter. But of course, they’re trying to make good TV.”

The challenge for the producers is that most of Netflix’s wider audience would have little knowledge of the dividing lines within competitive darts. A player can be familiar to dedicated followers, possess PDC experience and regularly appear on the MODUS Super Series while remaining completely unknown to millions watching at home.

“If it makes good TV, people who watch Netflix won’t know who Tommy Morris is,” Gill continued. “They might know Fallon Sherrock, and they’ll probably try and shoehorn her in somehow, I guess."

“If they try to get those sorts of players in, people won’t know them anyway apart from us lot who work in the media. So I think it’s a good tactic for that, but it doesn’t really fit with Beat Luke Littler, get £501,000 and you’re a complete unknown, because you’re not a complete unknown," concluded Gill. “One Google would show who these people are, basically.”

As DartsNews reported following the London audition, entrants were initially required to complete a leg of 501 in no more than 24 darts. That represents a three-dart average of 62.63, although clearing that threshold alone did not guarantee progression.

Successful hopefuls subsequently faced further assessment, with Barry Hearn, Phil Taylor and Laura Turner forming part of the expert panel.

Accounts and videos shared by people who attended suggested that previous experience could then become an important consideration during the selection process.

“From videos online from people who went, the criteria was that you had to get a 24-dart leg to be in contention,” Wood added. “But even if you got a 24-dart leg, there were other parameters afterwards. They were reportedly saying to some people that they were going to be selecting more on experience rather than just how good your leg was on that day.”

The final composition of Littler’s 20 challengers will reveal where Netflix has chosen to draw that line. The second open audition will be staged at Manchester Central Convention Complex on Saturday, September 19, before Beat Luke Littler is broadcast live on October 30.