Darts phenomenon Luke Humphries isn’t shy when it comes to explaining how much he sees of his winnings – and it’s nothing to be sniffed at.
The 2024 darts world champion won a £500,000 top prize for his triumph at Alexandra Palace last year and has racked up almost £3million in winnings over the course of his career.
It was back in 2019 – the year Humphries was crown world youth champion – that he earned his first top-level pay cheque for a quarter-final finish at the World Darts Championship.
The 29-year-old raked in £50,000 for making it to the top eight, then repeated the feat the following year to instil belief that he was cut out for the life of a pro darts player.
Not every penny of that ends up making it to the athletes’ bank balance. But Humphries was nonetheless chuffed explaining precisely how much him and his peers get their hands on, particularly when looking back on those early days winning big.
“Bloody lovely,” he laughed when asked about his first major payday hitting his bank account during a recent appearance on the Happy Hour Podcast. “Really nice! You look at it and think, ‘Jesus!’ You’ve got £50,000 that’s just been put in.
“Obviously you have to pay management and tax. . .but you sort of get 65 per cent of it in the end, maybe 70 per cent if you’re lucky. And it was amazing. You think, ‘This is amazing, £50,000, I want to keep doing this!'”
Needless to say ‘Cool Hand’ has seen his average winnings escalate quite a bit in more recent years. In addition to the world title, the Newbury native also clinched the World Matchplay and Players Championship in 2024, as well as helping to guide England to the World Cup of Darts.
That equates to more than £850,000 in winning last year alone, which is also roughly what he’s forked out in tax and management fees to date in his career. That leaves around £2m that Humphiries has taken home – and that’s without accounting for sponsorship money.
“You get sponsors coming in then,” he continued. “They’re paying you – in those days – £5,000 or £10,000 for each sponsor, and you kind of get £30,000 or £40,000 on your shirt before you’ve even thrown a dart!
“And this was like seven years ago. That’s already your salary without winning anything. So that’s comfortability, whereas now it’s ridiculous, silly money. When you see that half a million from the Worlds, you go, ‘Woah.'”
The prize money at the World Darts Championship grew 25 per cent to £500,000 in 2019 but hasn’t seen an increase since then. One would imagine it won’t be long before the rewards grow once more, and the increasing popularity in darts means other competitions may follow suit.
