Is darts a sport? Does Luke Littler have a personality? Is he even an athlete? For many, these will be pressing questions ahead of the 2024 BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Plenty assume this is bookies’ favourite Keely Hodgkinson’s year, European champion turned Olympic gold medallist, the face of Team GB’s Paris 2024 whose 800m victory was watched by 9.1m people.

Others cannot see past Jude Bellingham, La Liga player of the year, England’s acrobatic saviour and the most famous person on the 2024 shortlist by a factor of at least 10.

Joe Root has been the standout Test batsman in the world, even if by his own admission he is not the best. Dame Sarah Storey’s past underperformance in the public vote is a genuine scandal, and her 18th and 19th Paralympic golds – spanning two different sports – are as good an opportunity as any to rectify that.

Alex Yee blitzing past Hayden Wilde when even the BBC coverage had given up on him might be the finest British sporting moment of 2024, an act of mind-bending mental and physical strength. There’s a reasonable argument for any of the six-person SPOTY shortlist to win, perhaps bar Root, England’s second-best men’s bat in a sub-par Test year.

But while she had an excellent Olympics, it remains bizarre that Hodgkinson is considered the runaway favourite when only one listed name has remodelled the face and future of their sport in less than 12 months.

This is one of 11 reasons why Littler should be the standout from this shortlist – here are the rest.

1) Wherever darts goes from here, 2024 will always be the Year of the Nuke. According to Sky Sports’ figures, the 4.8m people who watched the last World Championship final was a 204 per cent increase year-on-year, with a 189 per cent increase for the Premier League in 2024.

He is almost single-handedly dragging up viewing figures for the sport and is a key factor in the potential doubling or trebling or the TV rights deal next year.

2) Past that, he has been named Google’s Athlete of the Year, for the highest-trending sportsperson in the UK. Bellingham was fourth on that list, while no other shortlisted athlete was included. In fact, Littler was also third in the “People” category, ahead of Keir Starmer and King Charles, only behind Kate Middleton and Donald Trump. This has been his year far beyond darts.

3) And despite the name, this award isn’t about personality. Nigel Mansell won twice. The name refers to the outdated usage of “personality” for a well-known person. Littler is certainly that, and even if it were about his charisma, he shouldn’t be ruled out.

He’s far more charming and interesting than his detractors would have you think – his interests are just age-appropriate and his mindset almost unfathomably zen.

4) Then there’s his wider impact on darts as a sport. Over 100,000 children are expected to open Littler magnetic dartboards this Christmas, while ticket interest in the 2025 World Championship was up 83 per cent on 2024. A host of 10-to-14-year-olds have already been anointed the next Littler and his success is proof that darts is now a legitimate career option for people of all ages. This is invaluable.

5) He has also been the best player in the world since that final, with opponent Luke Humphries saying as much. In terms of prize money alone, Littler’s £900,000 earnings post-Ally Pally just slightly tops Humphries’, having won the Grand Slam, the World Series finals and the Premier League to become the world No 4 – despite those last two not counting as ranking events.

If they did, he would already be second, the position he’s expected to occupy come January in the two-year calculations, having played just one. His average in 2024 just trails Gary Anderson, but Anderson’s TV form has been much poorer than Littler’s.

6) No player in the world’s top 50 has a winning record against him, even if he has not won every ranking major going. This is a level of dominance comparable to the very best in any sport.

7) Littler winning SPOTY would help continue darts’ deserved mainstream legitimisation – no sport has grown as quickly in the UK this year, whatever padel’s thriving PR empire would have you think. Football or the 800m do not quite need the same help.

8) There’s also the impact he’s had on media coverage of darts. Some national newspapers have increased their darts output 20-fold this year, with The Guardian set to cover every session of the World Championship live for the first time ever. No other athlete on this shortlist can attest to having a similar impact on media profile.

9) A word also for Littler as a natural showman, perhaps the great entertainer in terms of playing style. He has hit five nine-darters this year alone, regularly produces unorthodox finishes and treats probability like it’s his plaything. As an entertainment package, there are few sporting guarantees like Littler.

10) His popularity compared to the rest of his peers and sport as a whole is also extraordinary. His 1.3m Instagram followers is second only to Bellingham on this list – and double Hodgkinson – while he is the face of the first ever darts trading cards sets – which are reselling for over £200 – a Sky documentary and the new darting Top Trumps. Social media following may feel like an arbitrary metric, but in 2024 it is a fair test of that person’s wider celebrity.

11) And, while it is easily forgotten, he is achieving all of this at 17 years old. He posted an advert for his followers to win a free Xbox, courtesy of his new sponsorship deal, where entrants have to be 18. He couldn’t even enter himself.

The only younger SPOTY winner was swimmer Ian Black, also 17, who won three gold medals at the 1958 European Championships.

While he is a shoe-in for Young Sports Personality of the Year, of which he is on the three-person shortlist, there’s a sense that the scale of his achievement at his age deserves more. It does.