University Darts UK is soaring across the country, with different Universities forming teams by the years. Chief Executive Kyle Mandell has run the league for the past four years.
Over 50 Universities are involved with UDUK, split into different divisions across the nation including a new Scottish league. UDUK also run tour events alongside the league itself.
Mandell has been in an influential role of the growth of the league.
“Just two years ago, I think we had 32 universities or something playing in the leagues. That number is now past 50 and we’re sort of on the road to having basically 50 percent of UK universities sign up.
“There’s been a lot more teams. So where previously most of the unis would have had a B team and a couple of them would have just had an A team. There’s now leagues where virtually every team in that league has a C team. So the leagues themselves are also bigger.”
The league’s quality has been growing each year, with higher quality players entering the league. WDF world number one Jenson Walker has recently joined the league.
“Three, four years ago, an A team player with a solid 55 average probably wouldn’t lose many games a season, if any. That’s now no longer the case. You’re seeing games where both players are averaging in their 70s and someone comes away from that as a loser. So, you know, it has really jumped.”
UDUK holds events around the country, including major tournaments and tours with players travelling from all across the country to compete.
“So we kind of split into two of our events. So we’ve got our major events, which the calendar for that won’t be changing this year and that we feel like we’ve now got a good lineup of events across a range of sort of formats and regions.
“The tour events are really about servicing some of that additional demand elsewhere. So these are kind of manufactured in the sense that the format is the same, the ticket process is the same, the prize money is the same. Even the trophies are the same across each and every tour event. About anything that changes is the name and the location.”
Alongside the growth of the game, the women’s game has grown with ladies University darts teams popping up around the league.
“Just over two years ago now, we launched our Project 57… 57 percent of UK university students are female and therefore we really want to reflect that number in rising participation and things like that.
“So that was kind of the initiative that we’re going to make a conscious kind of campaign around women’s darts, really try and raise the profile of it slightly. It’s growing outside of university darts, but we also wanted to be kind of a bit of a front runner on it and really show the way for how you can create opportunities for women’s darts there.”
The rise of darts has been influenced by 19 year old star Luke Littler who has won the last two world championship titles.
“I think darts has always been great as an outlet for people who perhaps aren’t into traditional sports, football, rugby, etc.
It’s also got such a low barrier to entry, which is something we’re conscious of and trying to keep things that way. That, you know, for 15, 20 pounds, you can pick up a set of tungsten darts.
“Of course, as you say, the so-called Luke Littler effect. Which really, since sort of mid 2024, has really started to bed in properly. Obviously, he was at the World Championship sort of six months before that, but it was really sort of around two summers ago that we really started to then see the follow on from that and that’s not just in our space.”
UDUK continues throughout the 2026/27 year with Sheffield University reigning champions and the league looking ahead for success in future tour events.
