The Grand Slam of Darts tournament has arrived on the calendar with 32 of the best players in the world heading to Wolverhampton to compete in what has become one of the bigger tournaments of the season.
Luke Littler won the event for the first time a year ago and the world champion will attempt to make a successful defence of the title but we are seeing more and more players showing good form and in a volatile format will look to take the crown from him.
Recent Winners
2024 – Luke Littler
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
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
The seedings for this tournament are based on the official world rankings which means that the top seed is the man who is still world number one in Luke Humphries. Just because he has a lofty ranking doesn’t mean he has been handed an easy route through though because the man who led the European Tour Order of Merit this term, Nathan Aspinall, is the second seed. Given that two players exit the group in the right direction, the difficulty for the seeds is determined by the third seed which in this group is the former world champion Michael Smith. The American qualifier Alex Spellman completes the quartet.
Group B
Chris Dobey has made his way into the higher echelons of the world rankings and his reward for that is a seeded position in the draw. He hasn’t necessarily delivered the goods in the big events this season but his Players Championship campaign has got him into the tournament and he is the top seed in the group. Damon Heta will be the man expected to come out of the group along with him but the beaten finalist of 2024, Martin Lukeman, will be hoping this venue revives his fortunes and allows him a top two spot. The World Youth Championship finalist Jurjen van der Velde completes a weak looking section.
Group C
Stephen Bunting will be popular down in Wolverhampton this week and The Bullet will be looking to take advantage of being the fourth seed for the competition. He is the top seed in Group C with the German number one Martin Schindler the man who came out of pot two for this section. Luke Woodhouse probably isn’t the third seed that either of those two wanted to see in their section as in a short format he is capable of delivering good things. The Philippines will be represented in this group too as Alexis Toylo completes the four men in it.
Group D
James Wade is enjoying a revival in his career after a run to the World Matchplay final and other notable runs in decent events this season and as a former finalist here he will fancy his chances of another good run this week. Gerwyn Price has a fantastic record in this tournament and he’ll be expected to come out of the group with Wade and when you consider that the inconsistent Ricky Evans is the third seed it is hard to go against the main two here. The Swiss qualifier Stefan Bellmont is the other player in the section.
Group E
We move into the bottom half of the draw with Group E and that is where the world and defending champion Luke Littler heads the way. The World Matchplay winner will be expected to breeze through but he could have had an easier route to the next round as the World Cup winner Daryl Gurney is also in this group. Connor Scutt is the third seed in this group and he can be more than capable on his day and will act as a danger for the established two. The Czech qualifier Karel Sedlacek will aim to be competitive in a tough section.
Group F
Speaking of tough sections, Group F looks an absolute minefield for the four players involved. It is headed up by the newly crowned European champion Gian van Veen, who will be out to show that his lofty world ranking is justified in this company. He is by no means a guarantee to come out of this group though because the World Cup winner Josh Rock is the second seed in it and he is sure to lay it down to van Veen. We are guaranteed to lose a top quality player because Wessel Nijman is arguably the pick of the third seeds. Lisa Ashton must be wondering what she has done wrong to be drawn in this company.
Group G
Group G is a contender for the Group of Death as well and might actually be tougher than Group F. The World Series champion Michael van Gerwen heads the way in the group but he will run into a Gary Anderson who openly admits that he loves Wolverhampton and will want to put out a decent showing over the course of the week as the second seed. Niko Springer makes his debut in the tournament but as a European Tour event winner he is certainly a competent third seed and the fourth seed that nobody wanted to draw has landed in this group as Beau Greaves will be out to make an even bigger name for herself against three seasoned campaigners.
Group H
The last of the groups this week will be headed up by the World Cup finalist Jonny Clayton. When you consider he has never gone past the quarter final of this event the others in this group will fancy their chances of getting to the knockout stages with the second seed the in form Danny Noppert, the recent World Grand Prix and European Championship semi-finalist, certainly someone who will believe he can go well. The German qualifier Lukas Wenig is the third seed in this group which will boost the chances of the main two getting through but the Development Tour winner Cam Crabtree could be a spoiler to those plans.
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Outright Betting
I think when you look at the state of at least two of the groups in the bottom half of the draw in terms of quality and difficulty in actually picking the two players to come out of them, the safer option in terms of an outright bet would be to focus on the top half. Luke Humphries is obviously the man to beat but he failed to come out of his group last year having won pretty much everything there was to win. That gives me encouragement that Nathan Aspinall is the first player to back here. He is in the Humphries group so as long as he finishes second to him we will have a runner in the knockout stage but were he and Michael Smith to come out of the section then the route to the final will be clear for all to see. In the last month or so Humphries has won a European Tour event and made the final of a Players Championship tournament so his form is strong and in a half of the draw which looks weak if Humphries comes a cropper ‘The Asp’ has to be backed here.
The other bet that I like probably won’t surprise anyone because I’ve been backing James Wade fairly regularly since the World Matchplay. He made the final there so any concerns over him over the longer formats can be put to bed and he has a lovely draw. It would be a massive surprise if he and Gerwyn Price don’t come out of their group and then he runs into the qualifiers from the Stephen Bunting group in the last 16 so there is an obvious route to the quarter finals from there and maybe even the semis. Wade is playing as well as he has done for quite some time and with the draw he has I can’t ignore him at 40/1.
Group Betting
One of the beauties of this week is that we get to have a go at the group betting where there are a couple of value selections for me. Annoyingly there isn’t a to not qualify market so I’m going with a couple of group winners. In Group C I think Stephen Bunting could be vulnerable at odds on. He is known to miss doubles in bunches and in a best of nine that isn’t an ideal situation. I think he is worth taking on with Luke Woodhouse. Woodhouse is from Worcester so this is pretty much a home game for him and in recent weeks he has made the final of a European Tour event, a Players Championship event and come through the qualifier for this. He’s in decent enough touch and in an open group looks a big price at 9/2.
The other group which grabs my attention is Group H where I think Jonny Clayton could be vulnerable as a favourite. I say that because Danny Noppert has a very good record of winning his group having done so for the last three years and he arrives here off the back of brilliant runs in the World Grand Prix and European Championship so his confidence should be sky high. Noppert generally starts matches well which you have to do in this tournament so that is a positive. Clayton can be hit and miss at the best of times but in form terms I think Noppert should be favourite here and at odds against I’m happy to be on in a group where the match between the big two could decide proceedings.
Tips
Back N.Aspinall to win Grand Slam of Darts (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 23.00 with Sky Bet (1/2 1-2)
Back J.Wade to win Grand Slam of Darts (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 41.00 with Spreadex (1/2 1-2)
Back L.Woodhouse to win Group C for a 1/10 stake at 5.50 with Coral
Back D.Noppert to win Group H for a 2/10 stake at 2.40 with Coral
