Luke Littler will likely be barred from playing in the PDC's development tour for the next two years after his success at the 2024 World Championship.
The 17-year-old reached the final at the Alexandra Palace, beating the likes of Rob Cross, Brendan Dolan and Raymond van Barneveld en route to becoming the sport's youngest ever world finalist.
He eventually lost 7-4 to Luke Humphries in the final, but immediately bounced back by winning the Bahrain Darts Masters last month in the first event of the World Series.
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He then reached the final of the Dutch Darts Masters the following week, losing to Michael van Gerwen, before reaching the semi-finals in the first week of his debut Premier League campaign.
Thus far, only his World Championship feat has earned him any prize money that directly contributes to the world rankings, as the World Series uses a different system and the Premier League is an invitational event.
As a result, Littler currently sits in 31st place on the two-year Order of Merit, having earned £200,000 for reaching the World Championship final.
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He received £2,500 for playing in the UK Open in March 2023.
The darts Order of Merit works via a rolling two-year system - meaning that, in each event this season where applicable, players are 'defending' prize money they earned from two seasons ago.
For instance, Michael Smith is currently third in the Order of Merit, having collected £1,106,250 in prize money over the last two seasons.
A total of £500,000 of that money was earned when he won the 2023 World Championship. If he gets knocked out in the second round of the 2025 World Championship - which nets each competitor £15,000 - he will 'lose' £485,000 from his ranking for the start of the following season.
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PDC rules state that any player who is otherwise eligible for its Development Tour, but is in the top 32 of the Order of Merit, cannot play on that particular tour.
And given Littler's current Order of Merit position, he is therefore ineligible to play.
All of Littler's prize money was won in the last 12 months, meaning he will not be defending any of it this year and thus making his position in the top 32 even more secure.
In the newest video on his YouTube channel, former PDC tour card holder Matthew Edgar elaborated further on the one Development Tour event that Littler can play in: "The darts he's playing, I would dare say we're never going to see Luke Littler once again playing on that Development Tour.
"Luke Littler is the World Youth Champion - can he defend that title? That's the twist in the tale.
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"Yes he can. I've looked at this, and I did reach out to the PDC in order to get confirmation. They have confirmed that Luke Littler can and will be in a position to defend his World Youth Championship this year."
The World Championship final money doesn't mean Littler is completely safe inside the top 32, though, as a player from below him in the rankings can still overtake him with some strong tournament performances - but if his form continues, you can't see that happening.
'The Nuke' can continue building up his prize money in the coming months, with the first ranking events of the season - the first two Players Championships - taking place this weekend.
Topics: Luke Littler, Darts
Ryan Smart