Darts brightest stars will descend on the Alexander Palace in London this month for the 2024-25 World Darts Championship.
It is darts biggest event and with that it brings out the biggest faces in the darts world including world number one Luke Humphries, teen sensation Luke Littler and three-time champion Michael van Gerwen.
The players aren’t the only household names who will be making an appearance at the Ally Pally however as Sky Sports have also lined-up a star studded presenting team for the festive month.
The hugely popular Emma Paton headlines the elite line-up of professionals who will provide expert analysis and commentary throughout the competition.
Paton started out as a journalist with Sky before she made the leap into presenting.
Here is everything you need to know about the Sky Sports presenter.
Sky Sports presenter Emma Parton has been called the ‘queen of darts’
Paton will return to her hosting duties for the 2024-25 World Darts Championship
Who is Emma Paton?
Emma Paton is well known for her starring role as a presenter for Sky Sports and Sky Sports News.
The blonde beauty is a regular face on Sky Sports and Sky Sports News and is highly regarded for her brilliant coverage of the darts championship.
Paton who has an athletic history herself was a former track star and competed in the 400m at national level before she entered the media world.
The 34-year-old started out as a journalist with Sky in 2012 before she made the leap into presenting in 2019.
She has also worked as part of the media team for Team GB during the 2012 London Olympics and has also covered tennis’ US Open and WWE.
Speaking to SportsGazette about her reasoning for wanting to join the journalism industry, Paton said: ‘I’m someone who just loves sport. Having an athletic background — national level 400m metre runner — that’s where it all came from.
‘That’s a reason I got into journalism. If I’m not the athlete, why not be able to speak to the athletes.
‘It was really when I was doing my undergraduate degree at Loughborough, I was doing more reading, more writing, doing more actual watching stuff.
Paton who has an athletic history herself was a former track star and competed in the 400m at national level before she entered the media world.
The 34-year-old started out as a journalist with Sky in 2012 before she made the leap into presenting in 2019
‘And to be honest with you and at that time when I finished, there weren’t that many courses around that I would go onto after.
‘There weren’t many postgraduate courses, there weren’t many that did NCTJ [National Council for the Training of Journalists] qualifications, I was lucky to find the one that I did.’
After finishing her course, Paton went straight into the media world, taking up a role as a runner and it wasn’t until a chance encounter with WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H gave her the courage to take her shot in front of the camera presenting.
The unlikely pair met during a wrestling event at London’s Royal Albert Hall in June 2018.
Speaking about the chance encounter Paton said: ‘Obviously I was trying hard to present six or seven years ago.
‘This was before I made any breakthrough with darts. I was working in production, behind the camera.
‘I was trying to find opportunities to gain experience as a presenter.
‘In the end, one of my colleagues worked on WWE and said ‘We do podcasts if you ever want to come and shadow or watch, let me know’.
‘At event came up at the Royal Albert Hall for a press day and then the event in the evening.
‘My colleague told me to ask a question. I put my hand up and they brought a mic over and I asked about the growth of women’s wrestling and Triple H gave this really long answer.’
‘A month later and my colleague gets an email from his PA and said ‘We want to give you this exclusive as mentioned. There will be this all-women’s pay-per-view which has never been done before. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon would like to invite Emma over to New York to cover the event for Sky Sports.
‘A job came up at Sky Sports News for a presenter/reporter job which I applied for and I was lucky enough to get through the stages.
‘I’d been at Sky for seven or eight years. The Triple H thing maybe gave me confidence as well. Really random.’
A chance encounter with WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H gave her the courage to take her shot in front of the camera presenting
Is Emma Paton married?
Not much is know about Paton’s private life as the queen of darts prefers to keep her relationships out of the public eye.
That being said it is known that she is not married but is reported to be in a relationship with a man named Hannibal.
