Teenage phenom Luke Littler has made history once again by winning the PDC Darts World Championship for the second time in as many years after beating Dutchman Gian van Veen 7-1 at Alexandra Palace.

The 18-year-old Englishman became the youngest ever darts world champion a year ago after beating three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen. Littler has now backed up another stellar year at the top of the sport by taking down 23-year-old Van Veen in a scintillating match.

Van Veen won the opening set but it was not long before Littler got into a groove and pace his opponent could not match. Littler threw a three-dart average of 106 and hit a 180 a total of 16 times as he retained his title with a 147 check out.

Saturday evening’s final was the seventh time Littler has faced Van Veen, with this latest meeting – the youngest ever final – billed as what many are predicting to be the first instalment of what could be a long rivalry. With victory in north London, Littler now takes a 4-3 lead in his head-to-head with Van Veen, having first triumphed against him at the Youth World Championship final in November 2023.

That victory came one month before Littler’s electric run to the final in January 2024 where he eventually lost to Luke Humphries. That defeat incredibly remains Littler’s only loss at the PDC Darts World Championship in three tournament appearances.

Littler, who had to flap a hovering wasp away during the match, has spent the past two years cementing his place at the summit of darts as the sport’s world No 1. This latest victory for the teen born in Warrington, a town in the north west of England, only further adds to the profile he continues to build for himself as one of the most prodigious and talented sports people of his generation.

(Warren Little/Getty Images)

Littler had to keep his cool on his journey to his third final in two years after losing the first set of the semi-final to 20th seed Ryan Searle on Friday. But he mopped up the next six sets to book his place in Saturday’s showdown. He also overcame being jeered by the crowd during his win over 2018 world champion Rob Cross on his way to the quarter-finals.

“I’m not bothered, really not bothered. You guys pay for tickets and you pay for my prize so thanks for booing me,” Littler said in an interview with Sky Sports after his 4-2 win over Cross.

Van Veen’s first final appearance did not go to plan but it was an impressive route there as he swept past former champions Luke Humphries and his idol Gary Anderson. The reigning European and Youth World champion became only the third Dutchman to reach the final since Van Gerwen and five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld.

As for Littler he was ecstatic to retain his world title – which was presented to him by Sir Chris Hoy – and take home the record £1,000,000 (roughly $1,346,700) purse in what has been an expanded tournament which featured 128 players at its start last month.

Littler also paid tribute to British boxer Anthony Joshua, who was involved in a car crash in Nigeria that killed two members of his team. Joshua sustained minor injuries and was released from hospital on Thursday.

“I’ve been wanting to say this. Everyone knows what happened to Anthony Joshua and his team and his friends,” said Littler. “Rest in peace to those guys.”

He then quoted the former world champion boxer: “Just like AJ said, the first time was so nice, I had to do it twice!”

Littler is now the first player to win back-to-back titles since Scotsman Anderson achieved the feat a decade ago. He also becomes only the fourth player to retain the PDC world title after Phil Taylor, Adrian Lewis and Anderson. He is a long way off eclipsing the legendary Taylor’s 16 world titles but this latest victory proves there is no better darts player in the world right now than the young man who began playing the game on a magnetic board when he was just 18 months old. He is now a two-time world champion.