Nitin Kumar last week became the first Indian match-winner at the World Darts Championship. Despite recent growth, darts is relatively parochial with 45% of players from Britain and 88% European. This mirrors golf’s The Masters, where 86% of the 2025 field was from Anglophone or European countries, including 51% from the US.

Compare this to tennis: Wimbledon last year had no more than 13% of the field from a single country, with China, Japan and Brazil well-represented too. No individual sport has more global reach and media value, demonstrating the value of a talent pool that comes from a range of markets. 

Yet many sports are not deliberate in their talent pathways strategies and investments, often put off by the long time-to-value.

Darts too may be many years or even decades off global cut-through, but even a small investment in any ‘Kumar effect’ in India may reap long-term rewards.