One of the more popular events on the darts calendar begins on Saturday when 32 of the best players in the world head to Wolverhampton for the Grand Slam of Darts, the penultimate TV event before we get to the World Championship.
Luke Humphries emulated Michael Smith by winning this tournament a year ago before going on to lift the world title a few months later and he’ll be aiming to keep his hands on the silverware here. A good field is out to stop him though.
Recent Winners
2023 – Luke Humphries
2022 – Michael Smith
2021 – Gerwyn Price
2020 – Jose de Sousa
2019 – Gerwyn Price
2018 – Gerwyn Price
2017 – Michael van Gerwen
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Michael van Gerwen
2014 – Phil Taylor
The Format
The 32 players have been placed in eight groups of four based on their ranking in the PDC setup. 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 difference 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 Sunday of the tournament.
Group A
Luke Humphries is both the defending champion and the world number one and he is in Group A of the tournament as a result of that. He will begin his title defence in a group where the former finalist James Wade is the second seed. They will both be expected to cruise through as far as the rankings are concerned because they are a good deal clear of Mickey Mansell who is the third seed in the group and Rowby-John Rodriguez who is the bottom seed in it.
Group B
There will be a lot of attention on Group B over the course of the early stages of the tournament. One reason for that is because the former UK Open champion Danny Noppert is the top seed in the group but this is one of the standout groups. European Tour number one Martin Schindler is the second seed in this section while the third seed, Cameron Menzies, arrives in Wolverhampton off the back of a first PDC title win recently. The real attention will be on the fourth seed Beau Greaves to see if the best woman in the world can come out of the group.
Group C
Group C looks a pretty tasty affair as well and it is one where Rob Cross is the top seed. He has done everything but win a major title over the last 12 months or so and he’ll be hoping to lift this trophy ahead of the World Championship. The mercurial but inconsistent Peter Wright is the second seed in this group but the fact he doesn’t appear to be playing anything close to his best suggests that the third seed Martin Lukeman and the fourth seed Leonard Gates will fancy their chances of progressing.
Group D
We have another very competitive looking group in Group D where Dave Chisnall is the seed who will probably feel like he has drawn a bit of a short straw. This is likely to be a heavy scoring group because the second seed is Ross Smith who will be looking for a big week to make up for the ranking points he lost at the European Championship recently. Ritchie Edhouse made a major breakthrough in his career in that tournament and the winner of it is a dangerous third seed here. The Challenge Tour star Connor Scutt is the bottom seed with nothing to lose this week.
Group E
This is a key week for Michael Smith as he is defending the money he won here a couple of years ago and the number two seed will begin his protection of those ranking points when he lines up in Group E. He will be expected to progress through along with the World Grand Prix champion Mike De Decker although two seasoned campaigners will be looking to change all that. Jermaine Wattimena was a win away from a major trophy in Dortmund recently and he is the third seed here while Mensur Suljovic completes a tough looking group.
Group F
Dimitri Van den Bergh has had an excellent 2024 so far with his win at the UK Open getting him here as a seed and the seventh seed will be looking to make progress. He probably wouldn’t have wanted to run into Luke Littler as a second seed in the section so he’ll be pleased that two players go through here. You would imagine it will be those two as well unless there are some major shocks as Keane Barry and Lourence Ilagan, the other two in Group F, look a fair way behind the big two in terms of top level consistency.
Group G
The other group that is going to have a lot of attention on it is Group G. Some of that is because the former champion Michael van Gerwen is the top seed in it and he’ll be looking to extend his positive record in the event. The number two seed is Gary Anderson who is more than capable of putting a spanner in the ranking works from this section while Ryan Joyce arrives here as a qualifier but one who was a semi-finalist at the World Grand Prix just last month. There will be a lot of attention on Noa-Lynn van Leuven who makes her debut in the tournament as the fourth seed in this group.
Group H
Group H might well turn out to be the pick of the lot as four very exciting talents line up in it. The Masters winner Stephen Bunting is the top seed in the group but he will have his work cut out to come through it because the exciting Josh Rock recently won a Players Championship event to boost his confidence while Gian van Veen has never been short of that. Those three have got the fourth seed that nobody wanted in the form of the rising Dutch star Wessel Nijman to complete what is the group of death for this year.
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Outright Betting
Rob Cross was the beaten finalist here last year but I think he is worthy of another go because he looks to have the better of what is quite a competitive draw this week. He is in a group with the bang out of form Peter Wright, Martin Lukeman and Leonard Gates so it would be a massive surprise if he doesn’t come out of that section and you would think that he would win the group and potentially avoid Dave Chisnall in the opening knockout round.
Whoever he meets in the knockout stages he will come up against a solid scorer but someone who would have major doubts over their doubling and generally the longer the format gets the better Cross gets so that certainly bodes well with the last three rounds of this competition being the best of 31 legs. Cross exited the European Championship early but in the big events he has gone pretty well this year and I think he has a real big run in him from a quarter of the draw where he looks by far the standout candidate.
Group Betting
There are three group bets that I like the look of this year. We begin in Group B where the 11/2 on Beau Greaves to win the group is just plain daft. I don’t think she’s a favourite by any stretch of the imagination but Danny Noppert is the weakest seed on paper, Martin Schindler can go proper wrong on the doubles when under pressure and there is still a stigma attached to playing a woman in this sport which will naturally having him under pressure and Cameron Menzies is insanely good on the floor but hasn’t done it on the stage yet. Greaves was in a group with Nathan Aspinall and Damon Heta last year and still had a dart to win that group and this looks much weaker than that did. Greaves averages 98.75 in winning the women’s Matchplay earlier in the year and if she can do that a couple of times here that 11/2 could quickly turn into a massive price.
Going into Group C, while I think Rob Cross will dominate the group the battle in behind him could be very good and I wonder if the fact that Leonard Gates doesn’t have a tour card and by definition ends up playing a lot of shorter format darts means that he is better suited to these first to five sprints. I certainly wouldn’t want to rely on his counting but when it does click he can score well and generally finishes well. He has a lot more big stage experience than Martin Lukeman and the form of Peter Wright has to be a concern so the 11/4 on the American to follow the path led by his countryman Stowe Buntz in this tournament last year and make it into the next round looks a little on the large side.
The final bet that I like comes in the form of Wessel Nijman to win Group H. Stephen Bunting is rightly the favourite but his doubling does nothing to convince me so I don’t want to be anywhere near him in nine leg sprints and his partner has just given birth to a child so his mind might not be on the job anyway while Josh Rock has just failed to deliver in the last two TV events. Gian van Veen won’t be a pushover but the 11/4 on Nijman appeals. He has played a lot of Development Tour darts over this distance this year and is a big scorer. If he can click on his doubles then he has the tools to go well in a group where two wins might well be enough if one is by a comfortable margin.
Tips
Back R.Cross to win Grand Slam of Darts (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 23.00 with Unibet (1/2 1-2)
Back B.Greaves to win Group B for a 1/10 stake at 6.50 with Spreadex
Back L.Gates to qualify from Group C for a 2/10 stake at 3.75 with Coral
Back W.Nijman to win Group H for a 2/10 stake at 3.75 with BetVictor
