What Does the Formbook Say About Darts 2024 World Grand Prix?
The 2024 BoyleSports World Grand Prix begins on Monday. The 26th edition of the competition – a unique double-start tournament – will be staged in Leicester’s Mattioli Arena. Concluding the following Sunday, every match in the 32-player event will be broadcast live on Sky Sports. The ultimate champion will collect a £120,000 prize.
Reigning World Champion Luke Humpries headlines the field, which includes six-time Grand Prix winner Michael van Gerwen and previous champions Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton. Teenage sensation Luke Littler will be one of five debutants in the field. The Premier League champion opens his title challenge with a showdown against fourth seed Rob Cross.
Reigning champion Luke Humphries will meet Stephen Bunting in the first round of the World Grand Prix. ©Simon O’Connor/PDC
Other opening-round matches will see world number two Michael Smith play 2016 Grand Prix finalist Gary Anderson. In another blockbuster tussle, Michael van Gerwen faces 2017 champion Daryl Gurney. Peter Wright – runner-up in 2018 – kicks off his campaign against two-time Grand Prix champion James Wade.
How Can I Watch Darts World Grand Prix?
The Boylesports World Grand Prix will be broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK, through the PDC’s worldwide broadcast partners, including DAZN and Viaplay, and on PDCTV (excluding UK, Germany, Austria and Switzerland-based subscribers).
| First-Round | Monday 7th October & Tuesday 8th October |
| Second-Round | Wednesday 9th October & Thursday 10th October |
| Quarter-Finals | Friday 11th October |
| Semi-Finals | Saturday 12th October |
| Final | Sunday 13th October |
| First-Round | Best of Three Sets |
| Second-Round | Best of Five Sets |
| Quarter-Finals | Best of Five Sets |
| Semi-Finals | Best of Nine Sets |
| Final | Best of Eleven Sets |
All sets are ‘best of five’ legs. All games are double start and double finish meaning players must first hit a double before they can begin scoring in each leg. The bullseye will count as double 25.
| Winner | £120,000 |
| Runner-Up | £60,000 |
| Semi-Finalists | £40,000 |
| Quarter-Finalists | £25,000 |
| Last 16 | £15,000 |
| Last 32 | £7,500 |
| Total | £600,000 |
Who will win the 2024 World Grand Prix?
The World Grand Prix was first played in 1998 and has always had a ‘double-in’ and ‘double-out’ format. During its 26-year history, only one winner has been unseeded – or resident outside of the world’s top 16.
PDC Order of Merit – Top 16 Seeded Players
- Luke Humphries
- Michael Smith
- Michael van Gerwen
- Rob Cross
- Nathan Aspinall
- Dave Chisnall
- Gerwyn Price
- Jonny Clayton
- Damon Heta
- Ross Smith
- Peter Wright
- Chris Dobey
- Dimitri Van den Bergh
- Stephen Bunting
- Danny Noppert
- Josh Rock
The biggest Grand Prix shock came in 2012 when Michael van Gerwen won as the number 1 PDPA Players Championship qualifier (technically seeded 17). Jonny Clayton won 2021s event seeded 14th. Daryl Gurney won when ranked 11 in 2017; the 2015 winner, Robert Thornton, was seeded 7. Twenty-one other winners were seeded one, two or three.
Statistics strongly suggest that 2024’s World Grand Prix winner will again fall to a top three seed. They are Luke Humphries, Michael Smith and six-time Grand Prix winner Michael van Gerwen. However, the UK’s online bookmakers see things differently.
| 3/1 | Luke Littler |
| 7/2 | Luke Humphries |
| 5/1 | Michael van Gerwen |
| 12/1 | Gerwyn Price |
| 16/1 | Gary Anderson |
| 20/1 | Michael Smith |
| 28/1 | Dave Chisnall |
The competition favourite, Luke Littler, who burst onto the scene in the 2024 World Darts Championship, starts the competition placed second on the list of PDC Pro Tour qualifiers. He is not seeded but is technically ranked 18 in the standings.
The PDC Order of Merit is based on prize money won during the previous two seasons, so Littler will feature amongst the top-ranked players during the 2025 season.
Despite Littler being the sport’s shooting star, Luke Humphris is our expert selection. “Cool Hand Luke” won this competition last year, putting a first ‘televised major’ on his CV. Since then, the 29-year-old has gone on the rampage. Of the subsequent six majors, he won the Grand Slam, Players Championship finals, the Worlds, and, in July, the World Matchplay.
Of the two competitions he did not win, Humphries lost the UK Open in the final by a single leg and was a quarter-finalist in the European Championship. Admittedly, his 2024 PDC European Tour results have been indifferent in 2024. However, the world’s number 1 ranked player is a man for the big stage, and the Grand Prix is one of the sport’s biggest platforms.
