Luke Littler’s arrival to the PDC turned the entire tour on its head as the corporation became as competitive as its ever been.
Luke Littler’s arrival at the 2024 World Darts Championship ushered in an entirely new era for the PDC which saw several first-time major winners.
As well as The Nuke, Ritchie Edhouse and Mike De Decker won their first majors at the European Championships and the World Grand Prix.
The PDC Tour is as wide open as ever, despite Littler’s dominance in several of the top tournaments in 2024.
The competitiveness was most on show as the Premier League line-up was revealed and the likes of Dimitri van Den Bergh and Damon Heta were missing from Sky’s touring event.
Heta has opened up about jealousy on the PDC Tour when it comes to The Nuke and whether any of the other star players are envious of the teenager.
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Damon Heta claims ‘everyone’ wants to beat Luke Littler
After winning several high profile tournaments in 2024, including the Grand Slam of Darts and the Premier League, Heta joked about The Nuke’s dominance of the PDC Tour.
Talking to Jamo & Dylan, The Heat jokingly said: “He’s just a young punk. He’s a real young punk. Stealing all our money, stealing our jobs. No, he’s a good egg. He just sticks to himself like a normal teenager.”
However, Heta believes there’s little jealousy toward The Nuke on tour and he’s blended in well with the rest of the players, many of whom are several years older than him.
Heta revealed: “I don’t even want to say there’s jealousy. I’ve not heard of jealousy. I think a lot of people are like, ‘Oh, this is like, it’s great.'”
Heta does believe that players up their game against Littler in the hope of producing a scalp against The Nuke.
He said: “Like, you know what, [we] all want to beat him. That’s for sure. Everyone wants, you know when they play him, they want to play their best game and just, yeah.
But he’s settled in straight away. He’s, yeah, it’s good for the game. Obviously the exposure.”
Heta is currently World No. 8 after an impressive 2024 which saw him reach the UK Open semi-final and win two Pro Tour events.
Damon Heta bemoans lack of darts
January is notoriously a quiet month for PDC ranking events, with just two World Series of Darts events in the opening month of the calendar.
Heta has head back to Australia during the time off after the World Darts Championship but he’s complained about the lack of action.
Taking to X, The Heat said: “Mad being back in Australia with no darts to play and my feed showing pretty much no dart related content. It’s like going back in time.”
Heta made the PDC plunge when he moved over to the UK full-time in 2020 after achieving his first-ever two year Tour Card.