World Darts Championship final preview, expert pick: 16-year old Luke Littler takes on Luke Humphries
The final match of the 2024 PDC Darts World Championship is finally upon us, and it is a most intriguing matchup that very few, if any, would have predicted. In the battle of Lukes, we have on one end, the former world No. 1 and current world No. 3, “Cool Hand” Luke Humphries, taking on the 16-year-old phenom and arguably the biggest story of this year’s tournament, Luke “The Nuke” Littler. Looking solely at PDC Order of Merit Rankings, career earnings, majors, and televised titles presents a vastly different story.
The match starts at 8 p.m. GMT/3 p.m. Eastern Wednesday at the Alexandra Palace in London. Sky Sports will provide coverage in the UK. DAZN will air the match in the United States.
The final is a race to seven sets; each set is a best-of-five legs. The winner takes home $630,000 (£500,000), while the runner-up pockets $250,000 (£200,000).
If you’re new to darts, I wrote an explainer in 2021 about the basic rules, how it is played, and some key terms like 180 you’ll want to know.
Luke Littler - the 'fearless' 16-year-old making darts history... fuelled by omelette
Odds
Decimal odds: Luke Littler 2.15, Luke Humphries 1.66
The Players
Entering this event, Littler was ranked as the world’s No. 164 player. Despite this ranking, Littler has been a favorite in every single one of his matches. This is what he has done thus far:
– Luke Littler (-345) vs. No. 91 Christian Kist – Littler wins 3-0
– Luke Littler (-335) vs. No. 20 Andrew Gilding – Littler wins 3-1
– Luke Littler (-300) vs. No. 57 Matt Campbell – Littler wins 4-1
– Luke Littler (-225) vs. Former world champion and current No. 29 Raymond van Barneveld – Littler wins 4-1
– Luke Littler (-590) vs. No. 28 Brendan Dolan – Littler wins 5-1
– Luke Littler (-135) vs. Former world champion and No. 8 Rob Cross – Littler wins 6-2
One of the most impressive runs we have ever seen in professional darts, and one in which the young Nuke, Luke Littler, has won 25 out of 31 sets and closing doubles at the remarkable rate of 47.75 percent.
“Cool Hand” Luke Humphries has been the consensus player of the year for 2023 and certainly the most formidable player on tour in the past four months. The 28-year-old Humphries has had an incredible stretch in recent televised tournaments this year, stacking up victories at the European Darts Matchplay, the World Grand Prix, the Grand Slam of Darts, and the Players Championship Finals.
In his 2024 PDC Darts World Championship, Humphries has matched up and fared as follows:
– Luke Humphries (-2000) vs. No. 92 Lee Evans – Humphries wins 3-0
– Luke Humphries (-715) vs. No. 39 Ricardo Pietreczko – Humphries wins 4-3
– Luke Humphries (-300) vs. No. 14 Joe Cullen – Humphries wins 4-3
– Luke Humphries (-225) vs. No. 11 Dave Chisnall – Humphries wins 5-1
– Luke Humphries (-715) vs. w No. 52 Scott Williams – Humphries wins 6-0
Humphries was ridiculous in Tuesday’s match against Scott Williams, averaging 108.75 with a 60 percent checkout rate, including a 170 “big fish,” along with multiple other ton-plus checkouts. Humphries also dominated in the match against Chisnall a couple of days ago, but before that one, Humphries showed signs of fallibility. Pietreczko had Humphries down 3-1 and Cullen had a handful of match darts to defeat Humphries. Yet neither “Pikachu” nor “The Rockstar” could get over the line, as Humphries closed the deficits and found some late magic to advance in the tournament.
Expert Pick
Luke Littler (+115) to defeat Luke Humphries
Based on what we have seen, especially since the turn of the new year, I would be quite surprised if this is anything short of an epic battle. After much internal deliberation, I have elected to lock in the youngster and story of this year’s tournament, Luke Littler, to be crowned 2024 PDC World Champion.
The statistics above speak for themselves. Littler stands to gain a few other considerations should he win this match. He’ll skyrocket to a world No. 9 ranking – has already locked up a top-32 ranking, but top-ten gains a couple of additional benefits, including being a World Matchplay seed, a World Grand Prix seed, a Darts Masters seed, and he’ll likely earn a Premier League nomination.
Humphries will certainly not go down without a fight, but he has shown some weakness in a few matches during this tournament. Littler has not blinked at all. It has also been described that nerves and nervousness are often lacking regarding the younger players on tour. Humphries, at 28 years old, is certainly still a younger player in my book, but the courage and sheer resilience Littler has displayed in his six matches thus far has led me to believe he will be crowned world champion of darts for 2024, the year of the dragon.
