BREAKING NEWS: Luke Littler will lose over half of his £200,000 reward following the World Championship match.
Luke Littler received a prize money of £200,000 for making it to the World Darts Championship final.
Luke Littler, who advanced to the World Darts Championship final, is apparently going to forfeit over half of his whole prize money. The 16-year-old captured the interest of the sports community with his amazing run at Alexandra Palace, which culminated in a loss to Luke Humphries in the Wednesday final.
Littler earned himself a £200,000 reward by finishing as the runner-up, and he also collected a respectable amount of prize money during his journey to the final. But it looks like he won’t be able to keep from losing over half of his gains because national insurance and taxes will take at least 45% out of it.
Investment platform Saxo reports that Littler’s winnings will be reduced by nearly half due to £76,203 in taxes and £7,330 in national insurance. This implies that after taxes, his prize money will only come to £116,467, or around £2,236 a week for the next twelve months.
Littler, who won’t be able to legally drive until later this month, has already hinted that he plans to use his winnings to purchase a new vehicle. He gestured to the Skoda sponsor on his shirt when talkSPORT asked him how he planned to spend his money. “I’ve got Skoda so I’m sure they can sort me out,” he said.
“All my friends are watching at home,” he continued, adding that he would use a portion of his money to pay for a day out with his pals. We’ve always stated that we should visit Alton Towers or Blackpool, so I imagine they’ll be staring at me and saying, “You’re paying, Luke.” And my response will be, “Yeah, okay.”
Littler would have made a lot more money if he had won the World Darts Championship, since Humphries took home £500,000 for winning the championship match. The latter has promised to donate a portion of his prize money to a charity that fights prostate cancer, and for the last three weeks, tournament sponsors Paddy Power have given £1,000 for each 180 hits.
“I won’t say the figure, but I’ll donate from the prize money because it is very close to my heart,” stated Humphries. “It would be very, very special to me and I really want to give it to my father-in-law who has gone through the process of getting checked out and finding out that he has got it.”
