Luke Littler ‘set for HUGE tax blow’ if he wins £500,000 jackpot in World Darts Championship final against Michael van Gerwen after 17-year-old lost nearly half of his £200k prize in 2024

Luke Littler is set to lose out on nearly half of his prize fund after Friday night’s 2024 World Darts Championship final against Michael van Gerwen.

Three-time champion Van Gerwen cruised through his semi final clash against Chris Dobey, beating the Englishman 6-1 and tonight he will be aiming to win his fourth title, having last lifted the Sid Waddell Trophy in 2019.

Teenage sensation Littler matched his final opponent’s impressive win by recording his very own 6-1 victory over Stephen Bunting, registering a near unbeatable average of 105.48.

This will be the 13th meeting between the pair in just 12 months and so far there is nothing to separate them. The newly establish rivals come into the blockbuster showdown tied 6-6 in their head-to-head meetings.

The winner will claim a £500,000 jackpot, while the runner-up picks up a comfy £200,000 pay day. Last year, Littler received the latter, after losing to Luke Humphries in the final.

But the Brit will not be able to keep that much owing to unavoidable tax laws. 

Michael Van Gerwen is aiming to win his fourth title against the 17-year-old on Friday night

Littler is looking to become the youngest ever winner of the World Darts Championship final

Littler will have to forfeit £223,213.60 in tax, as well as £12,010.60 in National Insurance. In total, he will lose roughly £235,000.

This amounts to a take-home pay of £264,755.80 – just 53 per cent of the initial jackpot.

The total prize pot for this year’s World Darts Championship is a whopping £2.5m. A first round exit alone saw player’s walk out with £7,500, with their purse increasing if they managed to progress further into the competition.

Dan Squires, Chief Commercial Officer at investment platform Saxo, has said: ‘Luke Littler’s whirlwind of a year has seen his earnings skyrocket, tipping him over the £1 million mark before his 18th birthday.

‘Under 18s have a tax-free ISA allowance of £9,000, which means he wouldn’t pay tax on any interest, dividends or profits made from investments made through an ISA account. From his 18th birthday, this allowance shoots up to £20,000, so he should be maximizing his ISA allowance.

‘Turning 18 next month, he’s now in a position to think about a variety of financial options, including investing and saving for his future. If he invested half of his career earnings today, or £500,000, into an index fund returning 7% annually, he would earn £36,145.04 in interest in the first year alone, around the same amount Brits earn on average each year working a full time job.

‘If he leaves that £500k into the same fund for his retirement, at age 65, he would have £13,293,751.87 without ever throwing another dart again.’