“That changed my life” – Huw Ware reveals how Luke Littler’s rise has transformed darts and his own career

Luke Littler’s remarkable rise has changed far more than the teenager’s own life. His emergence has introduced darts to a vast new audience, altered how the sport is viewed by children and created opportunities for people across the industry.

PDC referee Huw Ware has witnessed that impact from one of the closest positions possible. Ware was on stage when Littler won his first PDC World Darts Championship title and has subsequently felt the benefits of the sport’s rapid growth in his own career.

“I think that’s the ultimate privilege of being a darts referee,” Ware told Online Darts. “You get to be up close to the best players who have ever played the game and to be part of their journey. In some ways, you get to be the voice of their journey.”

Ware took charge of the second half of Littler’s 2025 World Championship final victory over Michael van Gerwen, calling the winning moment as the 17-year-old lifted the Sid Waddell Trophy for the first time.

The referee has also encountered Littler’s influence away from professional tournaments through his involvement in Bullseye Maths, which uses darts to help primary-school pupils engage with numbers.

“I’ve been into primary schools for the wonderful sessions that Gary Horsley puts on, and I can’t believe the complete 360-degree turn there has been in schools up and down the country, and across the world, where darts is now fashionable,” Ware said.

That level of enthusiasm is a stark contrast to Ware’s own childhood. Darts was already his passion, but it was not one that many of his peers understood. “When I was a kid growing up and loving darts, it wasn’t that anybody else looked down on it or anything like that,” he explained. “It was just that nobody else understood why I loved darts so much. They didn’t get it."

“Now, I think kids do get it, to the point where everybody loves it. They’re actively encouraged to like darts, love darts and watch darts. I cannot believe how that change has happened. I never thought it would happen.”

Ware has no doubt about the player who has accelerated that shift. “It’s all down to Luke Littler,” he said.

Littler reached the World Championship final on debut at just 16 before returning to Alexandra Palace a year later and going one step further. His performances and personality attracted viewers who had never previously followed darts, with many younger fans beginning to recognise the sport’s leading players and pick up a set of darts themselves

The increased attention has also created opportunities throughout the professional game. Ware experienced that first-hand after signing with Winmau as a global ambassador and launching his own podcast and website.

“When I signed my contract with Winmau as a global ambassador to do my own podcast, website and so on, if Luke hadn’t come along, would I have got that deal as well?” he asked. “All of a sudden, there was a brand-new, young audience there to exploit. Not exploit, I hate using that word. It sounds awful. But there’s an audience there, isn’t there? Do you know what I mean? It wasn’t necessarily there before and now they’re there in their droves.”

Ware’s own profile increased considerably after the 2025 World Championship final. As well as calling Littler’s title-winning moment, he became the first openly gay referee to officiate a PDC World Championship final.

“Even on a personal level, I’m riding that Littler crest of a wave,” Ware admitted. “It has just been remarkable and astonishing. Even after the World Championship final that I refereed, the first one he won, that changed my life.”

The subsequent media attention also showed Ware just how powerful Littler’s name had become. Despite the history he had made himself, reports often introduced him through his connection to the newly crowned world champion.

“I was in the press a lot, obviously, as the first openly gay referee to referee a World Championship final and all that, but the way I was described in headlines was ‘Luke Littler’s darts referee’,” he recalled. “It wasn’t my name, it was Luke Littler.”

Ware has no complaints about that framing. Instead, he sees it as another indication of the extraordinary interest Littler now generates. “It’s fine because it’s indicative of how big a name Luke Littler is now,” he said. “People see Luke in the headline and they’re drawn to it,” even when the story itself is not primarily about the world champion.

Littler’s emergence has brought new viewers, new commercial interest and a generation of children for whom following darts is no longer an unusual hobby. Ware’s own journey offers another example of just how far that influence now extends beyond Littler’s achievements on the oche.