The Grand Slam of Darts is one of the better tournaments on the PDC circuit and it gets underway at a new venue on Monday. Covid and lockdown have forced the event to move from Wolverhampton to the behind closed doors setting at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry but while the venue has changed the quality shouldn’t weaken.
Gerwyn Price retained the title last year and he’ll be heading to Coventry looking for a hat trick of titles which would be a decent effort given the quirky early nature of this format. 31 top players will be looking to snatch the title off him.
Recent Winners
2019 – Gerwyn Price
2018 – Gerwyn Price
2017 – Michael van Gerwen
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Michael van Gerwen
2014 – Phil Taylor
2013 – Phil Taylor
2012 – Raymond van Barneveld
2011 – Phil Taylor
2010 – Scott Waites
The Format
The 32 players have been placed in eight groups of four based on their ranking in the PDC setup. There are 30 PDC players and two BDO invited players in the field. The group stage sees each player playing the other three in the group over the best of nine legs after which the top two go through to the knockout stages. Leg different is used to separate players tied on points and a nine dart shootout will be used if points and leg difference are the same. The last 16 is the best of 19 legs and then the remainder of the event is the best of 31 legs with the champion being crowned on the second Tuesday of the tournament.
Group A
There are always good groups in this tournament and some not so good but Group A falls very much into the first category. This might be the best group of the lot as the world number one Michael van Gerwen headlines it. He will take on the winner of the final Winter Series event over the weekend in Joe Cullen, the German World Cup player Gabriel Clemens and Adam Hunt who came through the qualifier last week and backed that up with a good run in the Winter Series events.
Group B
Gary Anderson is the seeded player in this group but he will need to be at his best or close to it if he is going to come out of this section. That is because he is in with a Simon Whitlock who has been showing decent form over the last month or so and the very heavy scoring Ryan Searle. The other player in this group is the World Youth finalist Adam Gawlas who showed while representing Czech Republic at the World Cup that he can play.
Group C
This is the mother of all the groups and should provide an amazing standard. Michael Smith is the seed in the group but to say he has drawn a short straw would be an understatement. That is because the second and third seeds in this section are the toughest they could be in the form of Krzysztof Ratajski and Jose de Sousa, both of whom are in good form right now. Making up the group is the Ladies Series winner Lisa Ashton so this is a quality group.
Group D
Rob Cross is the seeded player in Group D of the competition but with his form the way it is he could be something of a sitting duck and there for the taking for the other three. The former finalist Dave Chisnall is one of the other players in this group while the World Youth champion is another one. The group is completed by Justin Pipe who came through the PDPA qualifier last week and who could upset the applecart in this group.
Group E
The world champion Peter Wright is the headline attraction in Group E but he has a devil of a draw it has to be said. He will be expected to come out of the group but Ian White is perfectly capable of causing an upset while Devon Petersen will go into the tournament in the form of his life after winning on the European Tour recently. The World Grand Prix finalist Dirk van Duijvenbode completes a very tasty looking group.
Group F
James Wade is the man with the seeding next to his name in Group F and as far as draws go I don’t think he can complain too much. Glen Durrant represents a sizeable challenger although his form has noticeably dropped off since he won the Premier League. Jermaine Wattimena qualified through the Winter Series Order of Merit so he is in decent enough touch while the other player in the group is the Australian ace Damon Heta.
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Group G
The defending champion Gerwyn Price is the top seed in Group G of the competition and if he is going to come out of the group and make it into the knockouts he will need to come past the challenge of his Wales teammate from the World Cup last week in Jonny Clayton as well as the rising star Ryan Joyce. The other player in the group is the women’s world champion Mikuru Suzuki who will face Price for the second year in a row.
Group H
The last of the groups has the Premier League finalist Nathan Aspinall as the top seed. He will be looking to go deep in this tournament and if that is going to happen you would think he will need to dominate a section that contains the World Matchplay champion Dimitri Van den Bergh and PDPA qualifier Ricky Evans. The other player in it is the BDO world champion Wayne Warren who will be eager to showcase his best darts again after the fallout from the BDO over the last 10 months.
Outright Betting
I’ll take a couple of players for the week from an outright perspective with the first of those being a man who has been to the final of this tournament in the past in Dave Chisnall. In this tournament possibly more than any other you have to bet the draw and having landed himself in the Rob Cross group there is no denying that Chisnall hasn’t got a lovely draw. You would expect him to come out of the group and then he’ll go up against someone from the Michael Smith group and although Smith went well last week and Ratajski and de Sousa are get players neither of them have delivered on TV and Smith has been out of sorts for too long. There is an opening in the draw for Chisnall to come through at a fair price.
Joe Cullen has been in decent form in recent times. He won a European Tour event not too long ago and then he followed that up with a pro tour title on Saturday where I saw a post from him on Twitter afterwards suggesting that his new found form is because of new darts. You usually see a player go on an extended run of form when they have equipment that suits them so I’m not convinced that the upturn in the fortunes of Cullen will have ended yet. We’ve known for ever and a day that he has the talent to do big things in the game and now it seems like he has the tools as well. As well as the new bats I’ve no doubt that a lot of this increase in form is down to inspiration from what his mate Devon Petersen is achieving right now. Whatever it is Cullen has the draw to go deep this week.
Quarter Betting
I don’t usually get involved in the quarter betting for this tournament because it isn’t guaranteed that the groups will finish how you would expect them to but I’m going to make an exception here because there is one at a bit of value that I like the look of. In the third quarter where I’m prepared to take on Peter Wright although I accept that he is the favourite to come out of the quarter. He might run into a tough second round game though which isn’t ideal.
I’ll take him on with Devon Petersen who should be suited by the shorter format because his scoring power will have a bigger impact. The quarter final will be a harder win for him but again he is scoring well enough to stay relevant in that and if it came about that he was to play James Wade or someone like that then we saw in the European Championship recently that there isn’t a whole lot between them. If Wright doesn’t win this quarter someone who is decent value will and I fancy that can be an in form Petersen.
Group Betting
Usually I like to get involved strongly in the group betting but there are not too many groups that aren’t either straightforward looking or an absolute minefield so in the end I’ve decided to go with just the one bet in the groups and that comes in Group B where I just think Gary Anderson needs to be taken on because we just haven’t seen him in top form recently and he might need to be if he is going to top his section here.
I like Simon Whitlock in this section. He has been in great form in recent times. He made the semi-final of the World Grand Prix and looked pretty good in the World Cup where he had Gerwyn Price on toast until he missed a stack of doubles. Since then he has been to the qualifier for this and he walloped Peter Wright in one of the Winter Series events last week so the Aussie is in a nice groove at the minute. I don’t think he’ll win the tournament but he’s no 3/1 poke to come out on top here.
Tips
Back D.Chisnall to win Grand Slam of Darts (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back J.Cullen to win Grand Slam of Darts (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with BetVictor (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back D.Petersen to win 3rd Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 7.50 with Bet365
WON – Back S.Whitlock to win Group B for a 2/10 stake at 4.00 with Bet365
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