The Luke Littler effect forces PDC Darts World Championship into major rethink

Barry Hearn has revealed the future of the World Championship at Alexandra Palace is "under discussion" due to the impact of 17-year-old sensation Luke Littler on the sport.

Hearn has compared the prodigy to Tiger Woods, describing him as "the gift that keeps on giving" following his explosive entrance into mainstream darts. Littler announced his arrival with a record-breaking run to the PDC World Darts Championship final at Christmas, and then went on to win the Premier League last week, making him one of the most recognised sports stars in the country.

Alexandra Palace, which has been hosting the premier tournament since 2008 and is seen as the home of the sport, has a limited capacity of 3,200 and tickets sell out in July before even going on general sale. Matchroom president Hearn, who is also dealing with a similar issue in snooker at the Crucible, is contemplating expanding the size of the tournament, but maintains that the Professional Darts Corporation is keeping all options open.

"Do we need to move to a bigger venue? The bigger hall at Ally Pally needs a lot of work done to it but it could handle 6,000 people per session," Hearn said.

"So there is the potential. But the other side of it is the game of darts around the world is getting so huge I actually need to make the World Championship longer. If I have got eight extra sessions I have got 25,000 more tickets to sell. But inevitably in the end we are going to be looking at what we are going to do.

"It is one step at a time, I am not a gambler, but sometimes you get a curveball like Luke Littler and you have to rethink your strategy." We reckon we could sell 250,000 tickets for the World Championship and they wouldn't fit in the Ally Pally.

"It's one step at a