The highly anticipated 'Beat Luke Littler' event takes place on Friday night in Manchester, broadcast live on Netflix from 7pm GMT, with a £501,000 jackpot on the line. The format has been confirmed, and it includes a live public vote to determine the final challengers, which has sparked debate among fans.
Up to 20 players are each given one leg of 501 to beat Littler. The first challenger to defeat him will win the jackpot and bring the competition to an end. There are 24 players involved, but only 20 places are available. Sixteen challengers will be seeded into four pots of increasing difficulty, with random draws dictating who takes on Littler. The producers have picked out eight contestants viewed as the most experienced players. They will be paired with four head-to-head viewer votes; fans at home can use their remotes to select who progresses.
The public vote matchups are: Fallon Sherrock vs Jarod Becker, Ashley Coleman vs Jacob Gwynne, Katie Sheldon vs Sonny Johal, and Zac Griffiths vs Bhav Patel. Interestingly, Mitchell Lawrie and Jayden Walker are not involved in said vote. Each successful contestant earns a place among the final four challengers provided Littler remains unbeaten long enough. This adds jeopardy to the format, as players waiting in later groups will need Littler to keep winning to even have a chance at winning the event.
The inclusion of Mitchell Lawrie and Fallon Sherrock has caused uproar. Lawrie, despite still being a schoolboy at 15, is a WDF World finalist, a multiple World Youth winner, and a WDF singles title winner and has hoovered up on the JDC for fun. He has also faced Littler in the past. The public vote has drawn criticism, with one fan on X posting: "So I wondered why the Beat Luke Littler show was advertised as 20 contestants yet they chose 24. Well.. this is the reason. Turns out it will go to a live public vote which means some people may not even get an opportunity to get an opportunity of beating Luke Littler. I really don’t like this 😬"
For others, it is a showcase of how much darts has expanded in huge part due to Littler that we now have events like this with shots of the arena being circulated showing Manchester Central with a huge crowd likely for the event, something that darts fans would've dreamt of years ago. The players facing Luke Littler, should he not lose before their match, are: Kasey Smith, Makinley Cooper-Johnson, Taylon Forrester, Tony Cole, Lauren Bloomfield, Zac Spain, Mark Pooke, Pwyll ap Llyr Edwards, Will Kemp, Brett Todd, Theodore Wallich, Pearse Mackle, Jasper Scarott, David Wawrzewski, Jayden Walker, and Mitchell Lawrie.
