"Luke's diary is kind of being managed on a short-term basis": PDC Chief Executive Matt Porter admits managing Luke Littler's calendar is difficult

Luke Littler continues to impress. The 17-year-old Englishman immediately won the Belgian Darts Open on his debut last weekend.

Littler works a particularly busy schedule, with Premier League Darts, qualifying matches for Euro Tours, Players Championships, World Series of Darts and so on. The question must therefore be asked whether it is not too busy a schedule. "What's been really positive is Luke's recent wins are going to help his schedule because it will reduce the number of qualifiers he has to play in which will be good for him," Porter told the Love the Darts podcast.

"The media demands are high, still getting a lot of requests for high-end content. We saw him on The Jonathan Ross Show, he's doing Comic Relief, there are a lot of A-list people that want to speak to Luke which is great for him and great for darts and it's important that is managed properly.

Manager and family

"His manager Martin [Foulds] is excellent, his family are very supportive, we're involved and it's a team effort really just to make sure everything is geared around giving him the optimal opportunity to be the best he can on the oche and just get enough rest and time to himself to be a normal 17-year-old as best he can away from that. It's early days, it's hard to think we're only three months into the Luke Littler story but who knows how long it might last?"

Porter is all set with the PDC. "We've got a full safeguarding policy, we've had a heavy involvement in youth darts for a decade now so we're well versed in dealing with minors," Porter added. "Not always at this level to be fair, but nevertheless there's a grounding in place and a lot of very experienced qualified people in place, support networks, the PDPA [Professional Darts Players Association] are there, everybody is fully aware of the situation.

"Luke's diary is kind of being managed on a short-term basis because it will change so frequently. We aren't looking ahead to August, September, October, November yet. It's very much on what's going to work this month to give him as much chance to play darts as he does to rest from darts."