Amateur Fallon Sherrock Beats Luke Littler to Win £501,000 on Netflix

Fallon Sherrock, a darts amateur, beat world champion Luke Littler on Friday in Manchester and won £501,000 (about $670,000). The win came in "Beat Luke Littler," a one-off live Netflix broadcast. The show offered that prize to any amateur who could beat Littler over a single leg, which is one game of darts.

Littler, 19, was the defending world champion and was ranked world No. 1 when the show aired. He was set to face 20 challengers, with one-leg matches played every 10 minutes. He had already beaten 14 opponents when Sherrock arrived as the 15th.

According to the Professional Darts Corporation, which runs the sport's top tour, Sherrock won the throw to start by getting closer to the bullseye. She then hit a maximum 180, the top score possible with three darts, leaving 43 while Littler was on 142. She finished with a double 20, a throw that lands on the outer ring of the 20 section and closes out the leg.

The prize is the second-biggest in darts history, according to the Associated Press. Only the £1 million (about $1.33 million) prize for winning the world championship is larger. Sherrock was eligible because she is not a member of the PDC Tour, the sport's top-tier circuit, and has never held a tour card. A tour card gives a player a place on that circuit. The AP also refers to Sherrock as the "Queen of the Palace."

Netflix billed the event as a live darts show and opened it to everyday players from the UK. The broadcast ran live around the world. The 24 amateurs selected included Mitchell Lawrie, a 15-year-old from Renfrew in Scotland, and Makinley Cooper-Johnson, a Welsh teenager whom Netflix chose for the field, according to BBC Sport.

After the match, Sherrock said she was delighted to "overcome the hate," Sky Sports reported.

For the amateurs who took part, the format offered one chance per challenger at a large payday. Each player had a single leg to make it count, and most of them did not get the result they wanted. Sherrock's run ended with the biggest cheque of the night.