The greatest darting deities on the planet take centre stage at Leicester’s Mattioli Arena from October 7-13 for the World Grand Prix. It’s the only tournament of the year that uses the unique double-start method. So it’s doubles-in, doubles-out all the way from start to finish with £600,000 in prize money up for grabs. The tournament winner scoops a cool £120,000 of that total. It was ‘Cool Hand’ Luke Humphries who claimed the winner’s pot twelve months ago as he clinched his first-ever major TV tournament trophy.
Luke Humphries, who’s won the World Championship and World Matchplay this year, is currently no.1 in the PDC world rankings and will fancy his chances of defending his World Grand Prix crown. However, with the likes of Luke Littler, Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price, and Michael Smith all preparing to launch their arrers on the Leicester oche, Humphries faces several tough tungsten tussles over the coming week if he is going to go all the way again.
It feels like Luke Littler has been around for an age, but the teenage darting sensation is just one of five players making their World Grand Prix debuts in Leicester this year. The other four are Ritchie Edhouse, Cameron Menzies, Gian van Veen, and Ricardo Pietreczko.
When is the World Grand Prix Darts?
Getty ImagesThe 2024 World Grand Prix darts gets underway at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester at 18:00 (BST) on Monday, October 7, with eight first-round matches. The action continues nightly all week and climaxes on Sunday, October 13, with a best-of-11 sets Final.
World Grand Prix Darts - Session times
The opening First Round matches of the World Grand Prix take place during the first two nights, eight matches being played on October Monday 7 and the remaining eight on Tuesday. Both those sessions get underway at 18:00 (BST). From Wednesday through to Friday, the night sessions commence an hour later at 19:00 (BST). There are four Second Round matches on Wednesday and another four on Thursday.
The four Quarter-Finals will all take place on Friday night. The semi-finals are scheduled to commence from 20:30 (BST) onwards on Saturday, with the World Grand Prix curtain-closing Final due off at 20:00 (BST) on Sunday, 13.
World Grand Prix Darts - Venue & location
Getty ImagesFor the fourth year in a row, the World Grand Prix darts is being held at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester (formerly known as the Morningside Arena). The £4.8 million arena was officially opened in January 2016. It is regularly used as the home venue for the Leicester Riders basketball team. The Mattioli Arena has a 3,000-person capacity.
In 2018, Morningside Pharmaceuticals took over the naming rights of the venue, rebranding it as Morningside Arena. In February this year, the arena was renamed the Mattioli Arena, following an agreement with the Ian & Clare Mattioli Charitable Trust. Other darts and snooker events have been held at the venue, including the Champions League of Darts and the Snooker Shoot Out.
Prior to being held in Leicester, Coventry’s Ricoh Arena staged the World Grand Prix when the Covid pandemic struck in 2020. Before then, the tournament had been played in Irish venues (the Citywest Hotel in Dublin and the Crosbie Cedars Hotel in Rosslare) for 20 straight years. However, the inaugural 1998 edition of the World Grand Prix was housed at the Casino Rooms in Rochester, Kent.
How to watch the World Grand Prix Darts in the UK
Getty ImagesThe 2024 World Grand Prix darts will be available to watch live and exclusively on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports+ in the UK from Monday, October 7, to Sunday, October 13.
If you're an existing Sky customer, you can add Sky Sports online or through the My Sky app at any time. The package starts from £20 per month with Sky Stream. Sky Sports+ is included at no extra cost, which allows the viewer to watch many more live events across a range of sports. The Sky Sports app allows subscribers to download and watch live sports on the go and is available on iPhone, iPad, and Android.
NOW offers a variety of sign-ups for the avid sports watcher, including the ‘Sports Day Membership, which allows access to all 12 Sky Sports channels for a 24-hour period. NOW’s ‘Fully Flexible Sports Month Membership’ again gives unlimited Sky Sports access but over a 30-day period instead. That costs £34.99 a month and auto-renews unless cancelled before the end of the month. There’s also a ‘6-month Saver’ package, where you are charged £25% less and only pay £26 a month, but you need to sign up for a 6-month minimum term.
What is the format for the World Grand Prix Darts?
Getty ImagesThe World Grand Prix is one, if not the most unique dart tournaments on the PDC circuit. Although all players start at 501, every match is played double-in and double-out. This means they must begin and finish on either a double or the bull. It's also the only PDC tournament nowadays, aside from the World Championship, where matches are played using the sets scoring format, with each set being the best of five legs.
The First-Round matches are best of 3 sets. The Second-Round and Quarter-Final matches are all best of 5 sets. Earlier this year, it was announced that the 2024 World Grand Prix semi-finals and final will be extended to best of 9 and best of 11 sets, respectively.
What's the prize money for the World Grand Prix Darts?
The total prize money on offer for the 2024 World Grand Prix darts is £600,000, and that is broken down as follows:
- Winner - £120,000
- Runner-up - £60,000
- Losing semi-finalist - £40,000
- Losing quarter-finalist - £25,000
- Second Round losers - £15,000
- First Round losers - £7,500
What are the World Grand Prix Darts First Round matches?
The draw for the opening First Round matches was made on Monday, September 30, and is as follows (the top 8 seeds are highlighted in brackets below):
- Luke Humphries (1) v Stephen Bunting
- Raymond van Barneveld v Ricardo Pietreczko
- Jonny Clayton (8) v Ritchie Edhouse
- Gian van Veen v Ross Smith
- Rob Cross (4) v Luke Littler
- Brendan Dolan v Martin Schindler
- Nathan Aspinall (5) v Ryan Searle
- Josh Rock v Ryan Joyce
- Michael Smith (2) v Gary Anderson
- Mike De Decker v Damon Heta
- Gerwyn Price (7) v Danny Noppert
- Peter Wright v James Wade
- Michael van Gerwen (3) v Daryl Gurney
- Chris Dobey v Joe Cullen
- Dave Chisnall (6) v Cameron Menzies
- Luke Woodhouse v Dimitri Van den Bergh