Sky Sports has reportedly signed an extension with the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) that will see it continue broadcasting the World Darts Championship

The new deal is worth £125m according to a report from The Telegraph and comes off the back of a highly successful 2025 PDC World Darts Championship, as 17-year-old sensation Luke Littler became the youngest world champion in history. 

The Telegraph reported that the deal will be split across five years, starting in 2026. Not only will Sky Sports retain rights for the World Championship, but also for other majors such as Premier League Darts, World Cup of Darts and Darts World Matchplay.

Darts has found new levels of attention and global recognition, partially backed by Littler’s rise to prominence and the entertainment value found by other players such as Michael Van Gerwen and Stephen Bunting

Last year, recognising darts’ increase in popularity, PDC Chairman Barry Hearn alluded to the current broadcast deal with Sky Sports coming to an end and that he was seeking up to £45m-per-year as part of a new deal. 

Despite the new five-year deal seeing the PDC bring in £25m-per-year, this is more than double it was making annually from the current broadcast deal in place, which is valued at £12m-per-year. 

Darts, particularly the annual World Championship held between December to January, has now become a huge draw for Sky Sports’, setting viewing records only exceeded by football in the country. 

The 2025 World Championship final between Littler and Van Gerwen saw a peak audience of 3.1 million viewers tune in, the highest non-football event on the platform since Littler’s defeat in last year’s final against Luke Humphries, which brought in a peak audience of 3.7 million. 

Sky Sports would have also been keen to renew its deal with the PDC following reported interest from Netflix and Amazon Prime Video in scooping rights for its competitions.  

With Littler now the face of darts at such a young age, the PDC’s confidence in the sport’s long-term popularity will only increase, as will its faith in securing more lucrative broadcast rights deals in the future. 

Read Insider Sports’ exclusive interview with Littler’s management team Target Darts on his rise to stardom, the successful marketing and sponsorship activities surrounding Littler and the growth of darts from an audience and technology standpoint.

Elsewhere in darts, the Championship Darts Corporation (CDC) and Championship Darts Latin America (CDLC) and Caribbean Tours are set to expand this year with additional weekends of action. The 2025 CDC season will feature six weekends of competition from May to September, with the CDLC circuit expanding from four to six events in 2025.

The CDC season begins with the return of the Cross-Border Darts Challenge on April 11-12, as the top-ranked players from the US and Canada compete in singles competition. Beginning in New York, the competition will also take place in Ontario, Canada, Chicago, Indianapolis and more locations to be announced. 

The CDLC and Caribbean Tour has also been expanded in 2025, with three weekends of competition set to be staged between April and October.

The 2025 CDLC Tour will begin in Panama City, which will be preceded by the CDLC World Cup Qualifier Final on 25 April. Grand Bahama in Bahamas will host its first CDLC double-header, before the 2025 season concludes in Santiago, Chile in October.

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