{"id":191739,"date":"2025-12-19T12:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T12:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/191739\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T12:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T12:30:08","slug":"luke-littler-makes-his-feelings-clear-after-being-snubbed-for-two-spoty-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/191739\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Littler makes his feelings clear after being snubbed for two SPOTY awards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Luke Littler appeared to express his frustration on social media after leaving the BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony without any silverware last night.<\/p>\n<p>The teenage darts prodigy, who chose not to attend the glitzy event in Salford, took to Instagram following the broadcast to share his thoughts.<\/p>\n<p>Littler wrote: &#8220;Thanks to everyone who voted for me tonight, appreciate it. And for Young SPOTY, wow fair enough.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The 18-year-old had been nominated for both the main award and the Young Sports Personality prize, but lost the latter to England Lioness Michelle Agyemang, who starred in the team&#8217;s Euro 2025 triumph.<\/p>\n<p>Littler&#8217;s year at the oche has been nothing short of extraordinary, making his omission from the top three all the more surprising to many observers.<\/p>\n<p>In January, he etched his name into the record books by lifting the World Darts Championship trophy at just 17 years and 347 days old, becoming the youngest player ever to claim darts&#8217; most coveted prize.<\/p>\n<p>His dominance continued throughout 2025, with the teenager securing five major titles in total.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond his world crown, Littler captured the UK Open, World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, and claimed back-to-back Grand Slam victories, cementing his status as the sport&#8217;s brightest star.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"2ef46\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"b8f98439e7e2f4b2899a7df52dfc7b69\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%202000%201334'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/luke-littler.jpg\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" alt=\"Luke Littler\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Luke Littler appeared to express his frustration on social media<\/p>\n<p> | <\/p>\n<p>GETTY<\/p>\n<p>Despite his remarkable achievements, Littler had been pessimistic about his chances heading into the ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>When asked last week whether he believed he could win, the world number one simply replied &#8220;no&#8221; during an interview following his opening World Championship victory over Darius Labanauskas.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than making the trip to Salford, the teenager opted to practise at The Sidac Social sports club in St Helens, where a darts academy is based.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think they know. The people in the top three of the betting odds will go,&#8221; Littler said when questioned about whether he had informed the BBC of his absence.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"04dc0\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"8b574ea800948d5032bb20949fe0df71\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201080%201080'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/darts.jpg\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1080\" alt=\"Darts\"\/>Five things to know about the sport of darts | PA<\/p>\n<p>Despite missing out on both awards, Littler was quick to offer his congratulations to the evening&#8217;s main winner.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Well done @rorymcilroy never in doubt mate unreal year,&#8221; he posted on Instagram alongside a picture of the Northern Irish golfer.<\/p>\n<p>The teenager&#8217;s attention now turns firmly back to defending his world title at Alexandra Palace, where he faces debutant David Davies on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Littler dispatched Labanauskas 3-0 on the tournament&#8217;s opening day and remains focused on securing another victory before Christmas.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"c4f59\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"7603299c02718b48415668cab764a02c\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20382%20502'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/luke-littler.png\" width=\"382\" height=\"502\" alt=\"Luke Littler\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Littler was quick to offer his congratulations to the evening&#8217;s main winner<\/p>\n<p> | <\/p>\n<p>INSTAGRAM<\/p>\n<p>He explained: &#8220;For us players we really have to focus, especially at the World Darts Championships.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>McIlroy was moved to tears whilst honouring the fathers of two children killed in last summer&#8217;s Southport tragedy, with the Northern Irish golfer becoming visibly overcome with emotion during the live broadcast.<\/p>\n<p>The poignant moment came shortly after Sergio Aguiar and David Stancombe were presented with the Helen Rollason Award for their extraordinary efforts in completing the London Marathon earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>Both men ran the 26.2-mile course to commemorate their daughters, who lost their lives in the devastating attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luke Littler appeared to express his frustration on social media after leaving the BBC Sports Personality of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,45426,156,111,43,139,69,51066,2022],"class_list":{"0":"post-191739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-darts","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-sgg","16":"tag-sport"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}