Former darts major champion suggests bold new Royal Rumble format that Luke Littler would love

DARTS player Paul Nicholson has called for a Royal Rumble-style competition to be introduced to the sport.

Nicholson, who won the 2010 Players Championship Finals, believes the proposed new event would add more excitement to the darts calendar and attract new fans.

It would be a winner stays on competition whereby the loser of each match is replaced by a surprise player.

The replacement player in question would be unknown to everyone watching and taking part until they walk on.

Describing the idea on a Sporting Life podcast, Nicholson said: “I think this idea of a Royal Rumble has been floated around for a little while now but nobody’s done it before and it’s still something that the public really want to see.

“This idea of starting two players on stage after drawing number one and number two and playing each other in whatever format is chosen whether it’s 101, 201, 501 or even 1001.

“There’s a winner in that small match but at the conclusion of that somebody else comes out at position three and then you have another match – number four – and so on and so on.

“But the thing about this, it’s about audience interaction and it’s about surprises because the person on the stage who remains there after winning, they don’t know who they’re going to play next.

“And the audience haven’t got a clue who’s coming.”

Another person continued: “Just imagine the surprise of hearing your favourite players’ walk-on music come on, you didn’t know who was coming in and who gets to walk in.”

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Darts expert Chris Hammer went on to say: “That’s the thing. It’s the element of surprise.

“I think I would like to see this more invitational. So you could have a legend from the past.

“Imagine Phil Taylor’s music hits with three players left to come out.

“You’ve got Rob Cross up there and then, bang, Phil Taylor’s music comes on and he can get revenge for that final.

Nicholson then suggested that while it would be great for the players, fans and promoters, it would be a “nightmare” for commentators because they would not know who is set to feature.

He also said it would purely be a “spectacle” and not a ranking tournament.

Many fans agreed with the idea, with one person taking to X to write: “This event is license to print money for darts, so I’m shocked they haven’t put it together. Mix of retired legends and active players, it would be must watch even for casuals. 1 night. 30 players. 1 winner.”

Another said: “That would be elite. Gerwyn Price coming out no.30 to beat a drained tired Luke Littler to win it all would be amazing .”

While a third added: “Absolutely super idea that. I think that be really cool and different to watch.. Bit like the snooker introduced the Shootout comp.”

However, others disagreed, with one person commenting: “This sounds dreadful. If 20 players are competing and you are drawn to play first, you have to win 19 games in a row to win the tournament, which is close to impossible. If you are drawn to play 20th, you just have to win one match. Makes no sense. Or am I misunderstanding?”

World Champion Luke Littler would likely be in favour of the proposal given his love for WWE.

The 17-year-old’s walk-out song – ‘Greenlight’ by Pitbull – was inspired by a trip to Wrestlemania in Florida.

Last year, he revealed: “Me and my dad went to Wrestlemania 33, seven years ago now, it was in Florida, Orlando.

“It was my first time being there. It was a good song, I was singing my head off as a ten years old.

“I thought that if I did make it – I was playing football at the time a little bit – then that would be my walk-on.

“I will have it for the time being. I haven’t thought about changing it. Gezzy Price went from Ice Ice Baby to Katie Perry. That was weird.”