The 2025 PDC World Darts Championship was a success both on and off stage as teen sensation Luke Littler was crowned World Champion and, for a second successive year, Paddy Power’s Bigger 180 initiative raised over £1m for Prostate Cancer UK.

Aside from the eventual champion Littler, fan favourites such as Stephen Bunting, Rashad Sweeting, and nine-dart hitters Christian Kist and Damon Heta lit up the Alexandra Palace stage.

Speaking on the latest episode of iGaming Daily, SBC News’ Senior Journalist, Jessie Sale, said: “There were just so many different [players] that people tuned in to watch because it’s just so brilliant and there’s so much going on.

“I think [the PDC] did well with the build-up to it. The PDC and the sponsors did really good advertisements and social media posts just to get everyone really excited about it. Over the past year, the support has grown so much so that had helped to build up the excitement all year round.”

As mentioned, Paddy Power, as title sponsor of the championships, once again ran its Bigger 180 campaign, donating £1,000 to Prostate Cancer UK for every 180 hit and a further £60,000 for every nine-dart leg hit. 

As well as donating money to charity, Paddy Power also paid out £60,000 to the two players who achieved perfection and two lucky members of the Ally Pally crowd.

On this initiative, Christian Lee, Business Journalist for GamblingTV, said: “I think [the campaign] helped to add to the narrative because when the nine darters were hit the fact they were giving money to charity and giving money to people in the crows helped to create bigger headlines and build up the atmosphere.”

Following the tournament, Jack Wilson, Head of Content at Paddy Power, told SBC News that viewing figures for the tournament “have gone through the roof” over the course of the brand’s sponsorship of the event.

The final, which saw Littler triumph 7-3 over Dutch darts legend Michael Van Gerwen, was watched by 3.1 million people, whilst Sky revealed that the overall tournament had an average audience of 2.7 million.

While Paddy Power appears to have cemented itself as the official bookmaker for darts over the festive period when the World Championships take place, the trio concluded the episode by considering what the Flutter-owned brand can do to build on its early darting success.

“For me, it would be looking away from the World Championships and to the rest of the darting calendar,” explained Christian.

“What they should be doing is looking at trying to sponsor a different tournament or major, such as the Grand Slam of Darts, to get its name out there across the year rather than just being something that is thought about over Christmas during the World Championships.”