Luke Humphries has revealed the huge amount of money darts players can earn prior to playing matches at major events.
Humphries is currently part of the eight-player Premier League tournament, which is contested over 17 weeks and also includes Luke Littler, Michael van Gerwen, Rob Cross, Stephen Bunting, Chris Dobey, Nathan Aspinall and Gerwyn Price.
As an invitational event, players do not collect ranking points from their performances in the Premier League, although there is guaranteed prize money for each competitor.
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The winner of the Premier League final will earn a total of £275,000 - just over half of the £500,000 on offer to the winner of the World Darts Championship.
But while all the information surrounding prize money is available online, what fans may not be quite as aware of is how much money players can make before they even step on to the oche.
World number one Humphries appeared on the 'Happy Hour' podcast in December and revealed how top stars can earn extra revenue through sponsorship deals - dating back to when he first started competing on the PDC circuit in 2018.
He explained: "They're paying you like, them days, five, 10 grand for each sponsor. You're kind of getting £30-40,000 on your shirt before you've even thrown a dart!
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"This was like, seven years ago. That's already a year's salary, without winning anything.
"That's comfortability. Whereas now it's ridiculous. It's silly money. When you see that half a million going from the worlds, that is like, 'Woah!'"
Humphries scooped darts' biggest individual prize in 2024 after winning the World Darts Championship.
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Humphries has earned £1,902,000 in the two-year Order of Merit, with the world number one having such a lead over number two-ranked Luke Littler that his position is close to being unassailable before the 2026 World Championship.
He first started competing on the PDC main tour in 2018 after topping the PDC Development Tour rankings in 2017, and won the World Youth Championship a year later.
'Cool Hand Luke' had mixed success over the next years, including a 2021 UK Open final appearance and a Premier League invitation to compete as a 'challenger' during one week of the competition in 2020.
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But he has since transformed himself into one of the top darts players on the planet.
It is a transformation which he has partially credited to his over four-stone weight loss that began during the first COVID-19 lockdown in England, achieved by using an exercise bike daily and eating 'clean and healthy'.
Topics: Darts
Ryan Smart