"You can't be a softie if you want to make it" - Vincent van der Voort on the hunt for the next darting superstar

Luke Littler won the UK Open last weekend. Earlier this year he also crowned himself the youngest ever PDC World Darts Championship winner. Darts is becoming increasingly popular among the youth, and the 18-year-old Englishman is playing a big part in that.

Paul Engelbertink, director of the Dutch Darts Association (NDB) also notices the rising popularity of the sport. "There is an evolution going on, the Littler effect," he told De Telegraaf. "We have seen the numbers in all categories increase enormously and that included a lot of young darters. We also doubled the number of ranking tournaments this season."

"Darts is very accessible. You buy a set of darts and a dartboard and you can spend hours at a time in your attic playing. That comes close to esports and online gaming. You can grow tremendously fast and that motivates horribly," continues Engelbertink. "They all think they can become the new Van Gerwen or Littler. Little boys of 13 years old see Littler win the World final and think: within five years I can be throwing for half a million pounds. Those amounts will grow spectacularly because of all the attention."

Darts manufacturers are also trying to discover global talents at an increasingly younger age. "I scout for Winmau now, because they want to be there early to pick out the really good darters," says former PDC Tour Card holder Vincent van der Voort. "Only recently a 13-year-old Dutch boy signed, that's how far darts has come these days. It used to be an old man's sport, but now they can already do a lot at 10 or 11, although there's no telling how someone will develop. But that boy stood out at a youth tournament of the NDB for example. The character, the attitude. Other attendees like someone like that or they think: there he is again..."

"He played against a boy who got stitches in his side. He was crying to his mother for a while. Then they actually want you to go over and ask him how he's doing. But this guy pumped that double in first, yelled "come on!" and then walked over," Van der Voort recalls. "Winning came first and that's what people want to see. It sounds harsh, but you can't be a softie if you want to make it."

"We don't deliberately look for that, because it remains tricky business. Those little boys have yet to start puberty," adds Jeroen van Veen, one of the big men at Bull's Darts. "There are brands that like, say, Manchester City, throw some money and a badge over the fence, haphazardly rake in some talent and think: we'll see."

Van Veen also notices that darts is getting more and more attention. "Partly because of Littler, darts is no longer covered only in sports or darts-related programs, but mainstream and worldwide. The excesses of that are that people totally lose sight of reality. They read that Littler signs million-dollar contracts, and if their 12-year-old son throws a 180 once, they think he's worth tons. We really experience that it's just being asked by parents of boys around 18."

"I already see that at challenger tournaments an average of 95 is becoming the standard. The group coming from the bottom is so big and will become even bigger. We already notice that in the kind of items we sell throughout Europe: it's about people who are starting to play darts. The top is not only getting younger, but also wider. The dominance that then Phil Taylor and later Michael van Gerwen showed for years in a row, you're never going to see again," Van Veen concludes.