World Grand Prix Darts Betting Offers 2024

The World Grand Prix is one of the major events held by the Professional Darts Corporation. It has been taking place since 1998 when it was hosted by the Casino Rooms in Rochester, Kent.  From then the event was hosted in Dublin every October until the pandemic when it reverted to Coventry for logistical reasons.  Since 2021 the decision was taken to move the event to the Morningside Arena in Leicester.

As is the case with so many of the PDC events, Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor is the dominant name in the World Grand Prix’s history, having won the tournament eleven times since its inception. He was also knocked out in the first round of the competition a number of times, with many of his exits being seen as shocks.

Below you can find the latest offers for the Grand Prix carefully selection from leading UK bookies, further down you can find out more about the event, its format and history.

World Grand Prix Darts Betting Offers for 2024

This event has not started yet, please check back nearer the time. For other offers see our main loyalty page.

World Matchplay Darts Format & Schedule

The competition has boasted a number of different formats since it came into being. When it was first created back in 1998 it was a straight knockout tournament, boasting a set play format that sees each set contested over three legs. It was altered to be out of the best of five legs the following year, with a group stage also being introduced.

It was reverted back to being a straight knockout tournament and it has remained so ever since. The key difference between the World Grand Prix and any other televised darts event is the fact that every leg both starts and ends with players needing to hit a double, including bullseye. This tweak to the format has meant that a 9-dart finish is more difficult and it took until 2011 before a player achieved it.

Schedule: 7th-13th October 2024

Qualification And Players

* Top 8 PDC Order Of Merit Players Seeded

There are 32 berths available in the World Grand Prix, so the players are made up from two different pools. The top 16 ranked players on the PDC Order of Merit are joined by the top 16 ranked players on the ProTour Order of Merit.

From there, the top 8 players are seeded and the rest are drawn at random. It is far from a given that the top 8 seeds will definitely qualify for the later stages, with the 2023 iteration of the tournament being the perfect example. Here’s a look at the top 8 seeds and the point of the competition that they reached:

1. Michael Smith – Semi-Finals
2. Michael van Gerwen – 2nd Round
3. Peter Wright – Quarter-Finals
4. Gerwyn Price – Runner-Up
5. Nathan Aspinall – 1st Round
6. Luke Humphries – Champion
7. Jonny Clayton – 1st Round
8. Rob Cross – 1st Round

It’s fair to say, then, that with the exception of the Smith, Price and Humphries all of the other seeded players struggled to live up to their billing.

The ranking of a player doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll make it far in the competition, therefore, with the player that was 16th on the order of merit in 2022, Nathan Aspinall, finishing as the runner-up.

Prize Money

The prize money available for the World Grand Prix has, as you might have imagined, increased since the tournament first took place. In the first year the winner received £9,000 and the runner-up £5,000 from a total pot of £38,000.

Fast forward ten years and the total pot had increased to £250,000, with the winner receiving £50,000 and the runner-up £25,000.

In 2023 the winner of the World Grand Prix received £120,000 in prize money, while the runner-up got £60,000. That was out of a total prize pool of £600,000, which is just shy of a 15-fold increase in prize money in the space of 25 years.

No wonder the best and brightest of the Professional Darts Corporation line up to take part in this event.

The table above shows the breakdown of the prize money from the 2023 version of the tournament, depending on the stage at which the players exited the competition.

History Of World Grand Prix Of Darts

In 1995 the Professional Darts Corporation formed a tournament called the World Pairs, but it only lasted for three years before canned. They needed another competition to replace it, with the World Grand Prix doing exactly that job. The first year of the tournament’s existence saw Phil Taylor and Rod Harrington reach the final, with the former winning 13-8.

Between 2001 and 2003 the tournament was sponsored by the bookmaking firm Paddy Power, before being taken over by Sky Bet from 2004. This switched to Sky Poker in 2008 and then in 2010 Bodog took the honour. It has changed hands numerous times since, including enjoying sponsorship from the likes of PartyPoker.com, Unibet and BoyleSports.

Hosted by the Casino Rooms in the Kent town of Rochester in 1998 and 1999, it was switched to the Crosbie Cedars Hotel in County Wexford, Ireland for the new millennium. Though the event only stayed there for one year, it was hosted on the Emerald Isle for the next 20 years. It moved to the Reception Hall at Citywest Hotel in Dublin in 2001 and remained there until 2009, at which point it was moved to the much larger Citywest Hotel Convention Centre.

It returned to the Reception Hall in 2012 and then was hosted by the Convention Centre until 2019. Labelled as Ireland’s ‘Premier Event Venue’, the Convention Centre has enough room for over 4,000 people when used for conferences. It’s around 25 minutes from Dublin City centre and the airport, it’s connected to the middle of the country’s capital by the Luas light rail. Little wonder, then, that was seen as such a suitable venue for the World Grand Prix for more than a decade.

The pandemic in 2020 forced a rethink for logistical reasons and the event was held behind closed doors at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.  The decision was then taken to bring the tournament back to the UK and Leicester’s Morningside Arena, a 3,000 seater venue, was selected to host and has continued to host since 2021.  It is expected the event will return to Ireland in the future.

Previous Winners

Facts, Trivia & Records

People who know about darts and are aware of the quality of Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor will not be surprised that he retains the record for the most wins in the World Grand Prix, in spite of the fact that he retired in 2018.

During his career Taylor won this tournament 11 times, with only James Wade (2) and Michael van Gerwen (6) having also won it more than once but not coming anywhere near ‘The Power’ in terms of competition wins to their name.  Phil also never lost a final with a 11/11 record, impressive.

Shayne Burgess, John Part, Terry Jenkins, Dave Chisnall and Raymond van Barneveld all lay claim to being the unluckiest players to take part in the tournament, having reached the final twice without winning it. It’s essentially the reverse of Phil Taylor, who won every final that he reached.

Brandon Dolan might have been the first player to complete a 9-dart finish, doing so in 2011, but if you want to watch a thrilling match back again then the 2014 version between James Wade and Robert Thornton is the one for you.

Wade, who was the loosing player when Dolan hit his 9-darter, and Thornton both hit perfect legs in exactly the same match. On both occasions the darts went in as follows:

• 160 (starting with a double 20)
• 180
• 161 (the finish saw a treble 20 followed by a treble 17 and then a bullseye)