Luke Littler signs record-breaking sponsorship deal worth £20m
Many outside sport will have raised their eyebrows at this deal. But the fact that they are familiar enough with a darts player to be surprised tells you everything you need to know.
Littler is an outlier – and sponsors pay a premium for difference, something that even experienced rightsholders sometimes forget. Put him up there with:
⛳ Woods (Masters winner aged 21)
🎾 Williams (S) (US Open winner, 17)
🤸♀️ Biles (World Championships aged 16)
⚽ Mbappe (World Cup winner, 19).
Darts may lack the global profile of, for example, football but Littler is someone who can change that. He, alone, was posted about 31,000 times during the recent PDC World Championship – including huge coverage outside the UK as highlighted in the chart below.
The Nuke is already ranked fourth all-time for PDC majors – but his sponsorship value has only just begun to be realised. Phil “The Power” Taylor won his 16th and final world darts title aged 52. If Littler follows suit, this could be the first of three ten-year deals.
Photo: Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons
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