PDC chief executive Matt Porter has revealed he is taking steps to protect players from social media abuse, following the intense criticism aimed at Luke Littler during the 2026 Premier League Darts season. The 19-year-old eventually lifted the title after a thrilling 11-10 final win over Luke Humphries, but the emotional aftermath saw Littler admit he considered walking away from the sport due to the level of hate he received.
The hostility stemmed from the Premier League night in Manchester, where a spat with Gian van Veen left both players unhappy on stage. Van Veen won the match and was widely cited as being in the right, but darts fans were ruthless and cruel, booing Littler at every subsequent event — with the worst reception coming in Rotterdam from Dutch fans. Stephen Bunting has also been affected, breaking down in press conferences after the darting world turned on him, with the former fan favourite regularly receiving hate and criticism.
Speaking on talkSPORT, Porter confirmed he has held talks with social media platforms about introducing filters to shield top PDC talents. “There's no doubt social media is a huge contributing factor to not just darts, but any sports person's mentality at the moment,” Porter said. “Everybody deals with it in a different way. I think it can be used in a real positive. You can engage with your fans, you can use it as a platform to promote yourself and your sponsors.”
“But obviously if you're going on there and reading comments from some idiot who's lost a £5 bet and wants all these terrible things to happen to you and your family, then it's not particularly helpful or constructive,” Porter added. “We've had some conversations with a platform, there's various filter platforms that can come in to place for people with high-profile accounts to help them through that time and make sure they don't see things that can cause ill effects on their mental state. I think that's increasingly important, but it's obviously sad that we're in that position where we have to look at that sort of thing.”