“Everyone seems to want a tiny bit of Stephen Bunting,” says the man himself.

If there is no attempt at feigning modesty, that is because there is never an attempt at feigning anything from Bunting.

The world No10 is an elite darts player but also a cult hero with a cult following to boot and a taste for the limelight, and being unabashedly himself, all of which have culminated in the publication, today, of , the 41-year-old Liverpudlian’s memoir, a collection of tales from his life in darts and life more broadly.

Bunting has been as effective as any of the top players of either his generation or the more tech-savvy generational below him at marketing himself on social media. Not a coincidence, he would say.

“Well obviously I’ve got a lot of stories to tell,” he says in an interview with . “I’m quite an interesting person, I believe.”

Hence a project “18 months in the making”. Writing a book is “another feather in my cap” for a man who has made two careers out of throwing stuff out there and hoping it sticks. We are speaking on publication day of his first book and already the ‘Bunting Mental’ brand ambassador is looking towards his next, which he says he might write once he’s retired.

Bunting feels a loyalty to darts and to his family, and a duty to be authentic.

“I always try to be as honest as I can. That might get me into trouble with certain people, but it’s important people know who I really am. It’s not manufactured. I’ve not left any stone unturned, including the bad moments, the gambling problems,” he says, referring to the time he racked up £90,000 in debts on online slots.

Bunting’s website crashed after an hour when his personalised teddy bear range went on sale; he has merchandised his brand as relentlessly as any of today’s top players. And yet becoming a commercial success is “a bit of a fluke”, he says.

He is irreversibly in that world now, proud of the 20million views amassed on a recent Sky Sports video clip posted on TikTok of his famous walkout. It is, he says, the “highest-[viewed] video” on Sky’s darts account. “That’s really important,” he says, as though it really is.

An immensely popular personality, the on-screen other life of Bunting can at times feels the main event and the on-screen day job the true side hustle. Does he prefer being a darts player or being a YouTuber?

“Definitely a darts player,” he laughs. “But if you’re just a darts player, people only see the back of your head.” He believes the real him, his true personality, has only become accessible to his fanbase through his YouTube channel, and that this in turn will bring “new fans” and “a bigger following”.

Accelerated by what he calls “the Luke Littler effect”, darts has boomed in recent years. Ticket sales in Europe are at record highs; demand outweighs venues’ capacity. ESPN have just signed a lucrative five-year deal to bring the sport to a mainstream American audience. Does Bunting believe he is partly responsibility for the sport’s growth?

“I’d like to think so. I think my walkout drives people to knowing who I am.” Bunting famously arrives on stage to the tune of , the David Guetta song featuring Sia. It is also his ringtone and his alarm. Truly, he has come to embody his cult.

Among the pantheon of darts chants that follow the top players around the tour is ‘Let’s go Bunting mental’. And is he? Or is he just Bunting?

“I’m definitely Bunting mental. I think it’s absolutely fantastic that fans chant that. It gives me that extra energy in a match. They say about the crowd being the 12th man for Liverpool at Anfield. The crowd really is the 12th man for me.”

His look owes much to the unmistakable black frames of his glasses, which he cleans “three times before games”, admitting: “I think I’ve got a tiny bit of OCD, to be honest. The more nervous, the more I seem to clean my glasses. Make of that what you will.”

The man from St Helens has many “passions”, including co-owning a horse, of course named ‘Bunting Mental’.

Littler, the 19-year-old world No1 and the horse’s other co-owner, is “a really nice lad”, Bunting says. “We should all be grateful because of the amount of money he’s brought into our sport. He has got that certain aura about him. Long may it continue, but hopefully I can win my fair share of tournaments as well.”

Among his close friends on the tour are Northern Irishman Josh Rock, ranked two places above him in eighth. “I watch Manchester United with him, he watches Liverpool with me. This weekend in Antwerp I’m bringing the missus away with me for the first time this year.”

Bunting dedicates a chapter of his book to his fiancée, Keila, who he “knew was the girl for me,” he writes, when on their first date “she fell off a stool and nearly broke her back”.

A man who claims never to take himself too seriously has had dark times, though. He has nearly walked away from the sport several times, he claims. “Darts can be a lonely sport, not like football where you can pass to your mate and not get it back for 20 minutes. You can’t hide.”

The title for the former world No4’s book, , is borrowed from the lyrics of his walkout song. The question of whether he actually is bulletproof draws an emphatic answer.

“No, definitely not. Certain things have been thrown my way that you could call potential bullets, and they really do leave a scar.”

Bunting received widespread hate online when, last December, he was asked in an interview how he would deal with an upcoming opponent’s large fanbase and responded that he was “the people’s champion” so would be just fine. Though tongue in cheek, social media abuse followed. His 14-year-old son Toby has since been moved to a private school because he was being bullied.

“For them [fans] to think of me like that was totally against everything I’ve worked hard to build up,” says Bunting.

He is in a far better place now — insisting the new wave of academy-trained youngsters breaking into the sport are “amazing” for darts. “I honestly do believe there are going to be another couple of Luke Littlers who take our sport even further.

“Even if I were 9-0 down, I’d always believe I can win a game,” he insists. “I’ve trained my brain with the hypnotherapy to think more positively and stop my brain attacking itself. If I lose 6-1, I think of the leg I won, not about getting absolutely whacked.”

Bunting says of his “biggest supporter”, Toby, “I can see a lot of me in him when I was a kid. I looked up to my dad - a steady player - and I can see Toby looking up to me playing on TV.”

A lifelong Liverpool fan, Bunting’s father gave their season tickets away so he could focus on darts when he was first emerging as a prodigy. The fandom remains, and he approves of the Reds’ summer transfer business.

He met Jurgen Klopp when the ex-Liverpool boss showed him a photo of a selfie Bunting had taken with a member of the public while in Berlin for Premier League Darts in 2025. The German, Klopp explained, was his son, a fan of Bunting, who says this was the perfect “icebreaker”.

For Bunting, as long as it is rooted in a desire to “give back to my fans”, everything is an opportunity to make new content and grow the fanbase. He has boxes full of rare football cards and stickers in his garage and is planning a new YouTube channel where he’ll “open packs, do livestreams, giveaways, not take myself too seriously”.

“I pulled a Lamine Yamal ‘Manga’ card not long back, probably worth about £7,000. I need to get some of them graded. I went to Smyths the other day to buy [20-month-old son] Theo his birthday present and ended up coming out with about £100 worth of football stickers. I am literally just a big kid. I enjoy chasing autographs. I’ve even got a Yamal and Haaland dual autograph one.”

If it all ended tomorrow, would Bunting be content?

“I don’t think you could ever be content until you win the World Championships. But it’s not be a nightmare career so far.

“Even when I’m done in darts, I still want to be involved around darts, whether that be commentary or teaching kids with lessons. To keep providing for my family, that’s the most important thing for me.”