Vincent van der Voort looks back on World Darts Championship: "Luke Humphries is a deserved world champion"

Vincent van der Voort was not himself at this year's World Darts Championship. But as an analyst at Viaplay he was still able to follow the action closely.

Van der Voort sees in Luke Humphries a deserved world champion. "In the beginning of the tournament it was still some struggles for him. But from the new year, around the quarterfinals, he was really the best. It has also been a great year for him. From the semifinals Matchplay to now. Won a lot of tournaments and grabbed 4 titles," Van der Voort said to Sportnieuws.nl.

The vast majority of the audience was on Luke Littler's side. "You do notice that feeling creeping in a little bit because that would be nice for the story. But further into the finale, you notice that you have to have a lot of respect for the way Humphries handled it. Especially when you consider that he used to have some mental problems and then standing there like that, that's handsome."

The final was broadcast in the Netherlands by Viaplay, but almost the start was missed. "We actually had half an hour but in the afternoon it was decided that it would start half an hour earlier so that more children could watch. Then I think, 'What difference does that one half hour make?' But yes, if it is decided that way then you have to stick to it. That was tough."

It did bring the streaming service a lot of complaints. "That's a shame, everyone works hard on this and then you get a lot of comments from outside while they really can't do anything about it," says Van der Voort. "I can't imagine that the World Championship final is suddenly going to start half an hour earlier."