Who will win the Grand Slam of Darts?
The coming weekend sees one of the key events leading up to December’s World Championship take place – The Grand Slam of Darts.
Let’s take a closer look at this event and in particular, what we can expect from the 2024 tournament which starts on the 9th November.
What is the Grand Slam of Darts?
The demise of the BDO means that the Grand Slam of Darts is now a PDC event which features 32 players that qualify via tournament victories (or finalist places in key events) or through a special qualifier held at the start of November.
Unlike other darts tournaments, it begins with eight groups of four players, who play each other once with the top two players qualifying for the knockout phase from each group.
The tournament then progresses as a knockout tournament through to the final.
The event is held at Aldersley Leisure Village in Wolverhampton in November each year. The current champion is World Number 1 Luke Humphries, who beat Rob Cross 16-8 in the 2023 final.
The Qualifiers for 2024
The draw for the league stage of the tournament has not been made, but the 32 qualifiers, and the pool that they will be drawn from, are known. They are:
Pool A (seeded players)
- Luke Humphries (1)
- Michael Smith (2)
- Michael van Gerwen (3)
- Rob Cross (4)
- Dave Chisnall (5)
- Stephen Bunting (6)
- Dmitri Van den Bergh (7)
- Danny Noppert (8)
Pool B (qualifiers)
- Peter Wright
- Josh Rock
- James Wade
- Luke Littler
- Gary Anderson
- Ross Smith
- Martin Schindler
- Mike De Decker
Pool C (qualifiers)
- Ritchie Edhouse
- Gian van Veen
- Ryan Joyce
- Jermaine Wattimena
- Cameron Menzies
- Martin Lukeman
- Keane Barry
- Mickey Mansell
Pool D (qualifiers)
- Mensur Suljovic
- Wessel Nijman
- Rowby-John Rodriguez
- Leonard Gates
- Beau Greaves
- Lourence Ilagan
- Noa-Lynn van Leuven
- + PDC Challenge Tour Top Ranked Non-Qualified Player by 3rd November.(currently Connor Scutt).
Who Won’t Be There…
Due to the unique qualifying criteria for this event, a number of famous players will not be in attendance at the event having failed to qualify. They include:
- Gerwyn Price
- Raymond van Barneveld
- Damon Heta
- Ryan Searle
- Jonny Clayton
- Daryl Gurney
- Chris Dobey
- Nathan Aspinall
- Joe Cullen
Tournament History
Originally, the Grand Slam of Darts was one of the few tournaments that featured PDC and BDO players competing against each other, however only one BDO player, Scott Waites in 2010, won the event.
With the collapse of the BDO, the PDC now have their own qualifying system for the event, which also includes two female players (Beau Greaves and Noa-Lynn van Leuven).
Phil Taylor is the most successful player in the tournament’s history, winning it six times in total. Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price have both won the tournament three times. Scott Waites, Raymond van Barneveld, Jose de Sousa, Michael Smith and last year’s winner Luke Humphries have all won it once.
This popular event will see the first odds quoted once the draw for the initial group stages has been made, but expect Luke Humphries, Luke Littler, Michael Van Gerwen and Gary Anderson to feature amongst the early outright winner favourites!
