But for referee Huw Ware, it was also history-making. As the Welshman raised his microphone to proclaim Littler victorious, he also became the first openly gay man to referee the world championship final.
Ware, 31, is one of the Professional Darts Corporation’s referees and has been a top-level match official since being thrust into the spotlight at the age of 18 – when he believes he became the youngest person ever to officiate a televised darts match.
In an interview with The Northern Echo ahead of March’s Premier League of Darts night in Newcastle, Ware spoke about his journey into darts, his career highlights and the difficulties he faced coming out in the macho world of tungsten.
“Ever since Luke Littler came along, all of a sudden there is a new audience there and a new thirst for darts content – especially from that Gen Z, TikTok generation.
“And now we’re seeing darts influencers – like proper influencers – coming onboard. Even if they’re not ‘darts’ influencers, they’re directing their audiences to darts.
“It has gone mental over the last couple of years and it’s all down to Luke.”
Ware is no stranger to North East darts, a region he has great admiration for, and believes could produce a world champion soon.
“With Chris Dobey, Ryan Joyce and Callan Rydz, all these people are on television. I’m sure they’re inspiring the next generation of young darts players to come along.
“I don’t see any reason why Chris, Ryan or Callan can’t go on to be world champion.”
Dobey and Rydz both had good runs at the 2025 world championship, with the Bedlington lads reaching the semi-final and quarter-final, respectively. Ware thinks the feats can be replicated and even improved on in the near future.
“Especially in darts, it is its own community. People know each other purely through playing darts – it’s its own sort of subculture.”
But the man whose job involves adding and subtracting numbers is not someone who found maths an easy subject at school.
“I was never very mathsy,” Ware said.
“I was alright at maths, but don’t ask me about Pythagoras and algebra! I’m not a mathematician but I can count a dartboard – that’s what I can do.”
Despite this, he got ‘addicted’ to the sport when he was 11 and quickly found himself throwing at a dartboard after discovering how brilliant it was to watch on the television.
“I started watching it on television and just got addicted to it. It’s very easy viewing,” he said.
“To now be involved in it to the level that I am, I’m just very lucky. It’s a great job and I wouldn’t swap it for the world.
“Honestly I think that boy would have been over the moon with that. I really do. I think that kid would have been very, very happy that he’s made a professional living in darts.
“I felt that I jumped on the train just at the right moment. Darts was just finding its feet again. You watched the standard going up and the new players with their stories and the narratives formed. The second world championship final I ever watched was the 2007 one – the greatest game of darts you’ll ever see.
“I remember thinking ‘this is the greatest sport in the world’ and I’ve thought that for 20 years. And it’s great that the rest of the world is finally catching up!”
Ware began his top-level darts career in 2012 at Lakeside, an iconic darts venue, where he refereed the British Darts Organisation’s World Championships. He made the switch to the PDC and became the organisation’s LGBT ambassador in 2018, linking up with Stonewall and the charity’s Rainbow Laces campaign.
“I realised that I was ready to come out,” he said.
“I was out in all other walks of my life – it had got to the stage where I went to university and I didn’t have to come out, you know? Everybody knew, it didn’t need saying.
“It became more and more frustrating as time went on to have to all of a sudden go back into the closet, frankly.”
Ware felt that the first few years after he told people in the darting world that he was gay were difficult.
“It was tough for a few years, but it is all in the past now. The response to the rainbow laces campaign couldn’t have been any better. There was very little pushback.”
But he suffered some online abuse after being thrust into the spotlight again in 2025 when he called the final part of Littler’s successful world championship final.
“There was a lot of pushback online from random people – I don’t even know if they were fans.
“I don’t tend to get affected by that sort of thing anymore, but even I was sat there thinking ‘oh, that’s not a particularly nice comment’. So it’s still out there.
“But inside darts it’s a much safer place and that’s what I focus on. I try and let go and forget and forgive the past, as fast as I can because it wouldn’t achieve anything if I was sitting and saying ‘this or that happened’.
“Dare I say, I think I’ve grown up with the relationship with my own sexuality. I’ve matured with it. I can take the mick out of myself and I can give it back as much as the next person.
“I’ve become more strong-minded with these things and coming out of these difficult moments stronger.
“I was never going to let it defeat me, if I’m honest.”
Ware was the referee for Chris Dobey’s homecoming walk-on at Utilita Arena on Thursday (March 28) as the North East star fell at the first hurdle, albeit a hurdle in the shape of world number one Luke Humphries.
“I still get nervous even now,” he said. “But I love it.”
He has recently swapped the sidelines for the spotlight after fronting his own podcast, something which has seen a response “beyond anything I’ve been expecting.”
Refereeing in Cardiff the week prior to our chat, Ware said it was a night that would stick with him for the rest of his life.
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“That’s right up there with one of the best moments in my career and I’ll tell you why. Because I went to the very first Premier League in Cardiff in that arena in 2007, 18 years ago, and there’s never been a nine darter in that venue.
“I was 13 at the time and I’m 31 now, and I reffed the first one ever in that venue.”
A career of firsts has followed Huw around, and with darts growing in popularity with every major competition that passes, there is a feeling there will be more firsts yet for the trailblazing Welshman to achieve.
