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00:00 Alright everybody, welcome on back. It's Barstool Darts.
00:02 I'm sitting here with a young phenom. Standing here with a young phenom.
00:06 17 years old. His name is Luke Littler and he's taking the dart world by storm.
00:11 We don't follow darts the way we should here in the United States, for whatever reason.
00:15 But I can tell you that since I started working at Barstool, I've been going to the darts and MSG every year.
00:20 And it's probably one of the most fun times that you can have at a sporting event.
00:26 So try to get your ass to MSG this weekend. Watch it on DAZN.
00:30 And I'm going to tell you all about this young son of a bitch.
00:33 17 years old. 17 years old. He looks a little bit old in that because darts takes a lot out of you.
00:38 But he's considered one of the finest dart players in all the world.
00:41 And he just won the Premier League Championship last week, correct?
00:45 What's the check that you got for winning that Premier League Championship?
00:48 £275,000. £275,000.
00:53 And I got £40,000 in bonuses.
00:56 Right. Alright. So £310,000 is what he had taken home last week for playing some darts.
01:01 We talk about who the best dart players in the world are, right?
01:05 And the best dart player in the world considered right now, number one, is... What's his name?
01:09 Luke Humphries.
01:10 Yeah, Luke Humphries. Luke Humphries is starting to become your nemesis.
01:16 He beat you in what would be considered the World Championship, right?
01:20 So he beat you in the World Championship, then you came back and you beat him in the Premier League Championship.
01:26 So that's become quite a rivalry within the world of darts.
01:29 Yeah, you seem like you are absolutely straight up and down six o'clock.
01:33 You don't get rattled or anything. Has it always been this way?
01:36 Always.
01:38 Okay.
01:39 Just like playing on a stage in front of thousands of people.
01:43 Yeah, and it's unbelievable because when you guys go to these events, it's not golf.
01:49 It's not, you know, very respectful golf clapping.
01:53 It's assholes like my guys out there, Mush and Hubs and Greerzy and Jack.
02:00 They're all there with wild fucking hats on screaming their ass off.
02:03 They run out of beer every year. They sell this thing out.
02:05 While these guys are competitively throwing darts, it seems like it's very, very high pressure.
02:10 When was the first time you threw a dart?
02:12 When I was 18 months.
02:14 18 months old?
02:15 Magnetic darts.
02:16 Okay, I was about to say, that's terrible fucking parenting.
02:18 Imagine that.
02:19 And then by the time you worked yourself up to real pointed darts or whatever it is, how old are you?
02:24 Four.
02:25 Four years old.
02:26 So you've been at this, not that you started at four years old, but so you've been at this for quite some time.
02:31 Yeah.
02:32 So has your dad ever used you to make money?
02:35 Has your dad ever tried to play competitive darts and said, you know what, I just hurt my arm.
02:39 Let's double the stakes.
02:40 I'm going to have my 10-year-old kid come in and replace me.
02:42 Has he ever done that to make a couple bucks?
02:44 No.
02:44 Good. I'm glad that he's not pimping you out.
02:46 I want to see, when I put up this dart board, by the way, we spare no expense here at Barstool Sports.
02:51 That's straight off Amazon with the mounting strips.
02:53 But look at the darts that they gave me.
02:55 Fucking disgraceful.
02:56 So I asked Luke to bring along some of his own.
02:58 So let me see yours.
02:59 Are these any way, other than the fact that they have Luke the Nuke on the flights, are these special in any way?
03:06 No, they're just designed for myself.
03:08 Really?
03:09 Yeah.
03:09 Okay, and they're perfectly weighted for you?
03:11 Yeah.
03:11 By the way, these things really are a piece of shit.
03:13 And how do you know about the weighting of darts?
03:15 Is one of those things like a Thanos thing, where they're perfectly balanced?
03:18 So would you be able to throw this or is that just disgusting in your hand?
03:22 That just feels weird.
03:23 That's just weird, right?
03:24 All right, so I'm going to ask you to throw a couple of darts just so people will see what we're cooking with.
03:28 I know how good you are.
03:30 What's the toughest shot on the board outside the court for you to hit?
03:32 What's your toughest shot?
03:34 Double nine.
03:34 And what's the easiest shot for you to hit?
03:36 Double ten.
03:37 Double ten?
03:38 Okay, so double ten is right here.
03:40 So this is the easiest.
03:41 This is the hardest.
03:42 So one of the toughest shot for you to hit is a double nine.
03:45 I won't ask you to hit that because I don't want to put any pressure on you.
03:48 I want you to hit a double ten, which you said is your favorite shot to hit.
03:51 I'm dangerously close to the board and I know the pressure of being with me isn't getting to you.
03:56 I know the pressure of me isn't getting to you.
03:58 Give me a double ten right now.
03:59 That's right, right.
04:06 Yeah, there you go.
04:07 There's a double ten.
04:08 So that's one of the easiest things on the board for you to hit, right?
04:11 And obviously the 180 is the one that everyone goes absolutely bananas for.
04:14 Yeah.
04:15 And that's a perfect throw, right?
04:17 Or what's...
04:17 Perfect three darts.
04:18 And you're the youngest kid to do that in a couple of different competitions.
04:23 So you were 14 years old when you threw your first one or when you threw your first one in competition?
04:27 First one in competition.
04:29 Okay, so how old were you when you threw a perfect nine darter?
04:32 The first time.
04:34 13.
04:35 Really?
04:35 Okay.
04:36 When we went into COVID.
04:37 Do the older guys who you play with, do they hate you?
04:41 Like, do they hate the fact that you're this successful at 17 when everybody else there is sort of my age, right?
04:47 Because darts, there aren't too many like young bucks like you in the game.
04:51 So those guys hate you?
04:53 Do they take you into the fold and make you best friends?
04:56 What's the relationship you have with some of the guys that you throw against?
05:00 Some of them, I don't know, might be jealous.
05:04 Okay.
05:05 Do you consider them friends?
05:06 Do you have any like close friends on the...
05:08 On what would be, I don't know.
05:09 Essentially the tour?
05:10 Nathan Aspinall, another professional.
05:14 Okay.
05:15 How old's he?
05:16 Are these darts much better?
05:18 32.
05:19 Okay.
05:20 So still a relatively young man for darts.
05:22 Yeah.
05:22 How exciting is it for you to be over here throwing these in the United States?
05:25 Throw around with?
05:26 Can't wait.
05:28 Okay.
05:28 Obviously it's MSG and me being a big sport fan, watching the UFC.
05:32 Okay.
05:33 Yeah, exactly.
05:34 All right.
05:34 So then what's the conditioning like?
05:38 Neither of us are in peak athletic form.
05:40 I don't think anyone's going to have us take our shirt off and pose for an action figure.
05:43 But what's the conditioning for you?
05:45 I'm going to sit there in Madison Square Garden and watch you throw darts for how long?
05:50 How long will you be up there throwing for the night?
05:52 Is it like a two hour type thing?
05:54 It's only first to six.
05:57 So.
05:57 Okay.
05:58 Probably.
05:59 All right.
05:59 We'll see.
06:00 I don't even know.
06:00 I'm just going to go nuts for this.
06:01 So then how long will you actually be throwing?
06:05 The patterns, like 10 minutes.
06:07 And it's just that one motion where you kind of.
06:10 Just constant.
06:11 Yeah.
06:11 So show it to me.
06:12 Show it to me how, because I see these guys, as soon as the dart leaves their hand,
06:16 it's right back and it seems like it's a fluid motion.
06:19 Because as the night goes on, I would assume that your arm starts to get a little bit heavier
06:23 and it affects the way you throw.
06:24 Right?
06:24 Not really, because I just get adrenaline.
06:27 Okay.
06:28 Adrenaline gives it.
06:28 So give me the stroke.
06:29 Let me see what a good dart stroke is or a good form.
06:33 And that's ideal.
06:35 So can you throw it either hand?
06:37 I can't throw my left.
06:38 Okay.
06:39 So you're strictly right hand.
06:40 Yeah.
06:40 So how's this form?
06:42 It's not a good little form, right?
06:49 It's all right.
06:49 It looks like I've thrown darts before, right?
06:51 Which I have.
06:51 Yeah.
06:52 All right.
06:52 Cool.
06:52 So what's the prize money?
06:54 What's the, why are you here?
06:56 What are you looking to do?
06:57 Matt, you're going to be throwing a couple of darts.
06:59 Yeah.
06:59 So you're going to be throwing a couple of darts.
07:00 Yeah.
07:01 What are you looking to do Madison Square Garden this weekend?
07:04 What's, is it just the title?
07:05 Is there some prize money involved?
07:06 30,000 pounds.
07:07 Okay.
07:08 20.
07:08 20.
07:09 20,000.
07:10 Yeah.
07:10 Yeah.
07:10 $20,000 I'm assuming.
07:12 20,000 pounds.
07:12 Oh yeah.
07:13 Oh pounds.
07:13 Okay.
07:14 Yeah.
07:14 So 20,000 pounds just to throw it in the thing.
07:16 So at 17 years old, you just made 300 grand and you're going to make another 20 grand this
07:21 weekend.
07:22 What are you doing with all this money?
07:23 I'll just give it to my manager and he'll put it into my business account.
07:30 Okay.
07:30 And socking it away.
07:31 Do you still live at home?
07:32 Yeah.
07:32 Okay.
07:33 How long is that going to last before you go and you get the Luke Littler
07:36 bachelor pad that's going to blow it out?
07:38 Can you see yourself doing this forever?
07:40 For a couple.
07:40 What else would you do if you weren't playing darts?
07:45 Probably smoke me or something.
07:49 All right.
07:50 So the two triple 20s and it's one, right?
07:53 Okay.
07:54 What's the warmup like?
07:55 Is there something where you can just go cold?
07:57 Because I basically just got you off the street and I'm like, go ahead, go hit me
08:00 a double 10 with that type thing.
08:01 Is there a warmup process for you guys?
08:03 Yeah.
08:03 We have like a backstage and we'll have a practice.
08:06 Is there a lot of drinking back there?
08:07 No comment.
08:09 Okay.
08:09 I hear you.
08:10 That's perfect.
08:10 What a great comment, my man.
08:11 All right.
08:12 I'm going to bring in a bunch of hooligans from Barstool if that's okay.
08:15 I'm not going to have them use your darts.
08:16 I'm going to have them use mine and we're going to rate them one at a time.
08:19 And all I need you to do is be brutally honest and give them a one through 10.
08:24 Make sense?
08:25 Okay.
08:26 Does anyone here throw darts?
08:27 Is anyone good at it?
08:28 I'm unbelievable.
08:29 Marty, come on in.
08:31 So what I want you to do is I want to give these guys a couple of my darts.
08:34 Your darts are too expensive.
08:36 I'll give everybody three throws and at the end you rate them one to 10.
08:39 All right.
08:40 Marty's probably one of the best athletes I've ever seen.
08:42 How much is your dart?
08:43 All right, how much?
08:44 How much they cost?
08:45 Yes, 102.
08:47 Oh my God.
08:48 Luke, can you just show them what a true dart player, what their form looks like?
08:51 All right.
08:57 So that's good grouping, right?
08:58 Everyone wants balls.
08:59 If you feel like I'm a bad Marty, please don't kill me.
09:01 Oh my God, I hit you over the head.
09:03 Hi, buddy.
09:03 I don't know what your nickname is.
09:04 How do you feel about, how do you feel the little arc on it?
09:06 See what you did?
09:08 You guys are being shit.
09:09 Luke, before you judge that, does everyone agree that that's probably more feminine than
09:21 you would have expected from a dude like us?
09:23 I didn't expect that, but that was all right.
09:25 You kind of liked it, right?
09:26 That was okay.
09:26 Holy shit.
09:27 I told you.
09:28 Yeah, yeah.
09:29 I don't go hard.
09:30 I don't go hard.
09:31 Next, one to 10, Marty Mush, what do you rate him?
09:33 Give him a six.
09:34 Give him a six?
09:35 This is a tough crowd.
09:36 That's...
09:39 Holy shit.
09:39 Oh, okay.
09:41 Yep.
09:42 Brings the average down a little bit.
09:44 Right?
09:45 Not too bad, Ainsley.
09:46 So give me a scale of one to 10.
09:48 I know you don't want to be mean, but I'd rather if you were.
09:51 How do we rate Ainsley's dart throwing abilities?
09:53 Two.
09:53 That's a two.
09:54 Yeah, you got to be around.
09:55 I'll take that.
09:56 Oh, come on.
09:57 Oh, bullseye guy.
09:58 Yep.
09:59 Yeah, that's a bullseye guy.
10:03 What?
10:08 You're still far away.
10:09 Fuck.
10:12 Right?
10:14 But now you've seen he's kind of jumping at it, right?
10:17 It's not all arms.
10:18 He threw a lot of body in it.
10:19 What do you rate a guy like Big F?
10:21 Give him a six.
10:21 Give him a six?
10:22 Six!
10:22 Up next, we're going to have Jeff Flitter.
10:26 I need a beer in my hand.
10:27 Yeah, absolutely.
10:28 A pint.
10:29 I'm 17 years old.
10:30 Oh, sorry.
10:31 Sorry.
10:31 In England, what's the drinking age?
10:33 It's 18.
10:33 18.
10:33 Yeah.
10:33 Yeah.
10:33 Yeah.
10:33 He can't wait to have his first beer.
10:36 Oh!
10:37 Look at how he holds it.
10:42 Like a baby bird.
10:44 That's pretty good.
10:45 Is that a bullseye?
10:46 That was pretty good.
10:46 Okay.
10:47 All right.
10:47 That's a bullseye.
10:47 He holds it like a baby bird.
10:49 A lot of respect for the dart.
10:50 What do you give Jeff Fibber?
10:51 Give him a five.
10:51 Oh, I got a ten!
10:52 Oh, yeah!
10:53 I got a ten!
10:54 Listen, Jeff, I got to be honest.
10:56 What does a bullseye mean to you?
10:57 He's a professional.
10:58 What does a bullseye mean?
10:59 So now, you know the deal with this guy, Jack?
11:01 So he lost the world championship,
11:03 and then he goes in the Premier League champion,
11:06 and it beats the gentleman who's going to win.
11:07 I've seen all the videos.
11:08 Oh, okay.
11:09 Yeah.
11:09 Yeah.
11:09 Yeah.
11:10 We know how you guys do it.
11:12 18 blogs.
11:14 I wrote every single blog.
11:15 Yeah.
11:15 Oh, no.
11:17 That's bad.
11:18 Bad start.
11:19 Okay.
11:19 Oh, no.
11:21 Oh, my God.
11:22 Dude, that's a bad start.
11:23 You're barely hanging on.
11:24 You're a third too hard.
11:26 Uh, Luke?
11:28 Give me a five.
11:28 What do you give this guy?
11:30 Put me over him.
11:30 No, I've got a half at three.
11:32 Oh, no.
11:33 You're up.
11:35 Okay.
11:35 Across the pond, you do a little of this.
11:37 We play baseball over here.
11:39 All right.
11:39 So, let's see.
11:39 Oh, my God.
11:41 Jesus Christ.
11:42 Oh, my God.
11:42 Okay.
11:43 Oh, my God.
11:44 I shouldn't have been there at all.
11:45 One.
11:45 Yeah.
11:46 It's a big baseball guy.
11:47 That's a wolf.
11:48 Yeah.
11:48 That's a wolf.
11:48 Only left-handed one so far here.
11:52 He's also tall.
11:53 He's Duncan's ball.
11:54 No elbow rolls, like in pond?
11:57 No.
11:57 And what do you give that?
12:00 I'll give it a seven.
12:02 There we go.
12:02 All right.
12:10 So, a roller coaster for you over the last six months, basically.
12:13 One of the reasons why you're not ranked higher in darts is because you've been doing it
12:18 professionally for only six months.
12:21 Yeah.
12:21 So, I think the last shot that I saw, you were ranked in and around 25 or 26.
12:27 25 for the minute.
12:28 But that's going to change very, very soon as you start to amass more stuff.
12:32 But in that little six-month time, on top of winning hundreds of thousands of dollars,
12:38 which is awesome, by the way.
12:39 Yeah, I feel great about that.
12:40 What's some of the weird stuff that's happened to you?
12:42 On top of meeting people like me who mean nothing, who have you met who've meant something?
12:47 Just the United.
12:47 Oh, the Man U squad.
12:48 That's fucking huge.
12:50 Went to the training ground.
12:51 Met Sir Alex Ferguson at a United game.
12:55 Yeah, yeah.
12:55 David Beckham dropped me a DM.
12:57 Oh, yeah.
12:57 That's not a bad thing, right?
12:59 He's creeping into your DMs.
13:01 So, from here, we kick ass in New York.
13:04 What's the next stop for this 17-year-old dart player?
13:07 Well, next week, we go away to Orlando for a holiday.
13:11 Okay.
13:11 And then I'll come back on the Tuesday the following week.
13:14 And then the next day, we fly out to Poland.
13:16 And you're playing in Poland?
13:17 Yeah.
13:18 Is the dart...
13:18 Does darts have a season or do you play all year round?
13:21 There's no off-season.
13:22 There is no off-season.
13:22 So, you just pick and choose when you want the competitions off.
13:25 And if you want a weekend off, then just pull out of it.
13:28 I spoke to your mom and dad and they were talking to me about how impactful you've been to kids,
13:35 particularly in and around the UK.
13:39 And it's just a matter of time before it gets here into the United States.
13:42 What does that mean to you?
13:44 I think they're starting a darts academy or something over there.
13:47 So, tell me about that and tell me how it's now,
13:49 on top of trying to go up against these, I don't know, titans of the sport,
13:55 you're also dealing with being a 17-year-old kid who's now a role model.
13:59 How difficult is that?
14:00 And what are you doing for the kids back there who are your fans?
14:02 I've been going to an academy called St. Alan's Darts Academy for years and years.
14:08 I don't go anymore, but I do go in there and see what the kids are doing,
14:12 see how well they're improving.
14:14 And I think we've got about 80 to 90 kids playing every Monday.
14:18 Really?
14:19 And there's about 50, 60 on the waiting list, waiting to get in.
14:23 Is that how you got your start playing in an academy like that?
14:27 And I'm not saying anything illegal,
14:29 were you playing in bars at 11 and 12 years old?
14:32 Because that's where I was, I've never thrown a dart outside of a bar until today.
14:36 So, is it one of those things where your dad would bring you in,
14:39 your dad would kind of sit down and have a couple of pints while you go in there
14:41 and just make a bunch of money taking dough off of guys like me?
14:45 We just started getting involved with the Tuesday League,
14:48 Wednesday League and Thursday League.
14:50 Right.
14:50 And yeah, I did go to play pubs.
14:52 Okay, and you wipe people out there, right?
14:55 I mean, there isn't anybody who isn't a professional that you don't feel comfortable
14:58 with just coming in and absolutely wiping the fucking floor with, correct?
15:01 Yeah.
15:02 All right, good, I love that.
15:03 So, this is Luke "The Nuke" Littler.
15:05 This is the face of darts, not only right now, but probably for the foreseeable future.
15:10 Unless they pay him so much money, he goes into a downward spiral of drugs and debauchery,
15:15 which you shouldn't do.
15:16 So, it's a pleasure meeting you.
15:18 I wish you the best of luck and I'll see you at MSG in a couple hours.
15:20 You're the man, Luke Littler right there.
15:23 [BLANK_AUDIO]