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

Fallon Sherrock beat world No 1 Luke Littler in a single leg of darts on Friday and walked away with £501,000. The result came on Netflix's Beat Luke Littler show, and it ended a night in which 14 challengers had already failed.

A leg is one game of darts. Each player starts on 501 and throws three darts a turn, subtracting what they score until they reach exactly zero. The finish has to be a double, which is called a checkout. Netflix offered the £501,000 to any of 20 amateur challengers who could beat Littler in one leg.

Netflix also set a rule on who could enter. Anyone who has never held a PDC tour card was eligible, and a tour card is the licence that lets a player compete on the sport's main professional circuit. The Guardian reported that Sherrock has never held one.

Sherrock was the 15th contender to face Littler. The whole match took about two and a half hours. The deciding leg was 501, and she finished from 43. She sealed it with double top, the double 20 at the top of the board. Reuters carried the details of that finish.

Littler is known in the sport as 'The Nuke', a nickname that Sky Sports used in its coverage of the night. He came into the event as the world No 1.

The show was hosted by Gary Lineker and Richard Osman and staged at Manchester Central. It was Netflix's first live entertainment event in the UK. It was also scheduled against the final of the BBC's The Celebrity Traitors, so the two broadcasters were competing for the same evening's audience.

Sherrock said she was "lost for words" after the win.

For anyone new to darts, the format is worth knowing. A single leg is a short, sharp contest, and one missed finish can decide it. The prize was the only thing at stake in that leg. It was not a title, a ranking place or a place on the tour.