Young Luke Littler’s meteoric ascension to the summit of professional darts has inevitably been accompanied by an increasingly polarised public reception, with sections of the audience continuing to direct audible hostility towards the reigning world champion during televised events.
The teenage prodigy has once again exerted overwhelming supremacy throughout the 2026 Premier League campaign, concluding the league phase at the pinnacle of the standings after equalling his own remarkable benchmark of six nightly victories in a single season.
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Thursday evening now presents another defining chapter in his burgeoning career as he prepares to confront Gerwyn Price in a blockbuster semi-final encounter at London’s O2 Arena. Victory would extend Littler’s extraordinary sequence of reaching the Premier League final in every appearance since his debut campaign in 2024.
Despite his sustained excellence upon the oche, the Warrington phenomenon has increasingly found himself subjected to jeering, whistles and overt crowd antagonism, particularly in the aftermath of his much-publicised altercation with Gian van Veen earlier in the season.
Speaking to the Daily Star Sport, former Dutch professional Vincent van der Voort suggested that Littler’s own conduct occasionally exacerbates the atmosphere surrounding him, arguing that certain interactions with spectators have inadvertently intensified the animosity directed in his direction.
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He told the Daily Star Sport: “We don’t like somebody who wins everything, but only if you’re a big fan, but sometimes he doesn’t help himself as well.
“He’s been on that stage from 16-years-old, it’s very difficult as well to know what’s good and what’s not.
“I don’t know how good the people around him are with him but sometimes you think he didn’t handle that well.
“But if you win everything, you think you can do whatever you want, but the moment you start losing and the crowd is still against you all the time.
“Ask Gerwyn Price, ask Paul Nicholson, ask other players, then it will get to you, and it will hurt you as long as you win, they can’t hurt you.
“So it could be a problem in the future, but in the moment, he handles it easily. Every boo everything, he just still wins matches.”
Van der Voort also dismissed the increasingly popular notion that a hostile crowd environment somehow elevates Littler’s performances, contending instead that the persistent scrutiny and antagonism could eventually evolve into a more problematic psychological burden over time.
He added: “I don’t think this gets the best out of him because you can see sometimes he’s annoyed and, he loses matches out of it.
“The moments he really wants to be there he wins and sometimes it’s worse than other times, but I think in the long run, it’s not the best situation you can be in when the crowd is always against you.
“If I were involved with him, then I would talk to him 100%, but I’m not, so let him do it if the crowd will be against him forever, and he plays Michael every day it’s no problem for me!
“But if I were involved with him, I would 100% talk to him and say how you don’t have to change your personality.
“You don’t have to be a different guy than you are, but with some interviews and some things you say, you can just show your other side and you’d be more likeable.”
—–ENDS—-
Images: PDC unless labelled
