World Grand Prix (darts)

World Grand Prix

Founded	1998
First season	1998
Organising body	Professional Darts Corporation (PDC)
Country	United Kingdom
Venues	Leicester Arena, Leicester
Most recent champion	Luke Littler (2025)
Tournament format	Sets "double in, double out"

The World Grand Prix (known for sponsorship reasons as the BoyleSports World Grand Prix) ^[1] is a professional darts tournament that has been held at the Leicester Arena in Leicester, England since 2021. The tournament was traditionally held in Dublin, Ireland every October. It is played in Sets format, and is run by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). The tournament is the only one in the PDC which currently uses the "double in, double out" format.

The current champion is Luke Littler, who defeated Luke Humphries 6–1 in the 2025 final to win his first World Grand Prix title.

The tourmament's original venue was the Casino Rooms in Rochester, Kent in 1998 and 1999, and then for one year only in 2000 at the Crosbie Cedars Hotel in Rosslare, County Wexford. In 2001, the tournament moved further north to the Citywest in Dublin. In 2009, the tournament moved from the Reception Hall at the main Citywest Hotel, to the newly completed bigger venue on site, the Citywest Hotel Convention Centre. In 2012, the tournament moved back to the Reception Hall for that year, before returning to the Convention Centre in 2013. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 tournament was held at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry, and since 2021, it has been held at the Leicester Arena. When the World Grand Prix was founded in 1998, it replaced the earlier World Pairs tournament which ran from 1995 to 1997.

The World Grand Prix was sponsored by bookmakers Paddy Power from 2001 to 2003, before Sky Bet took over in 2004. The subsidiary Sky Poker was the tournament's sponsor in 2008. In 2010, online gambling company Bodog became the event's title sponsor, while PartyPoker.com took over as the main sponsor in 2011. In 2016, Unibet took over as sponsor, with BoyleSports sponsoring the event since 2019.

Although he has dominated the event with eleven title wins, Phil Taylor has been knocked out of the World Grand Prix five times in the first round. In 2001, he lost 2–1 to qualifier Kevin Painter. in 2004, he was beaten 2–0 by Andy Callaby. in 2007, he lost 2–0 to Adrian Gray. in 2015, he was beaten 2–0 by Vincent van der Voort, and in 2016, he was beaten 2–1 by Steve West.

History

Tournament format

The tournament is unique as it is the only event in the PDC darts calendar that uses the "double in, double out" format, in which players must start on a double or the bullseye to start scoring and do the same to win a leg. ^[2] The inaugural edition in 1998 featured matches consisting of sets played to the best of three legs, with Phil Taylor winning the final 13–8 against Rod Harrington. ^[3] The following year this changed to best of five legs per set. Furthermore, a group stage was introduced in 1999, with there only being four seeded players for the event, all of whom reached the semi-finals. In 2000, the tournament reverted to being a straight knock-out and has remained so ever since.

The double-start format also makes landing a perfect nine-dart finish even more difficult, as it limits the number of combinations and guarantees that a player must finish on the bullseye (unless they start with one). There were two famous near misses in the first two years, the first with Phil Taylor in the 1998 final against Rod Harrington, when Taylor was distracted by loud commentary from Sid Waddell just before throwing the eighth dart (which Taylor hit) before he missed the bullseye; and the second in the 1999 semi final, when Harrington missed the bullseye against Taylor.

Brendan Dolan became the first player to hit a double-start nine-dart finish, achieving the feat in his match against James Wade at the 2011 World Grand Prix; Wade and Robert Thornton both hit nine-darters in their match at the 2014 event, ^[4] the first time this happened in any televised event. On all three occasions, the leg started with a score of 160 (starting on double 20), followed by 180, followed by finishing 161 with treble 20, treble 17, and bullseye.

Location

After first serving as host venue for the 2001 event, the Citywest Hotel in Dublin became the regular home of the tournament. ^[5] In 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Grand Prix was relocated to England due to the Citywest being used for health services, with the event being held in Leicester since 2021. ^{[6] [7]}

World Grand Prix Finals

Year	Champion (average in final)	Score	Runner-up (average in final)	Prize money			Sponsor	Venue
				Total	Champion	Runner-up
1998	Phil Taylor (94.61)	13–8	Rod Harrington (86.64)	£38,000	£9,000	£5,000	PDC	Casino Rooms, Rochester
1999	Phil Taylor (92.59)	6–1	Shayne Burgess (81.26)
2000	Phil Taylor (91.32)	6–1	Shayne Burgess (81.48)	£70,000	£15,000	£7,500		Crosbie Cedars Hotel, Rosslare
2001	Alan Warriner (83.52)	8–2	Roland Scholten (81.84)	£78,000			Paddy Power	Citywest Hotel, Dublin Reception Hall (2001–2008, 2012) Convention Centre (2009–2011, 2013–2019)
2002	Phil Taylor (100.17)	7–3	John Part (88.62)	£70,000	£14,000	£7,000
2003	Phil Taylor (94.80)	7–2	John Part (83.25)	£76,000	£15,000	£7,500
2004	Colin Lloyd (85.29)	7–3	Alan Warriner (77.91)	£100,000	£20,000	£10,000	Sky Bet
2005	Phil Taylor (90.74)	7–1	Colin Lloyd (82.05)
2006	Phil Taylor (88.24)	7–4	Terry Jenkins (82.51)	£130,000	£25,000	£12,500
2007	James Wade (86.03)	6–3	Terry Jenkins (84.58)	£200,000	£50,000	£20,000
2008	Phil Taylor (97.81)	6–2	Raymond van Barneveld (90.42)	£250,000		£25,000	Sky Poker
2009	Phil Taylor (97.07)	6–3	Raymond van Barneveld (86.62)	£350,000	£100,000	£40,000	Sky Bet
2010	James Wade (88.92)	6–3	Adrian Lewis (89.33)				Bodog
2011	Phil Taylor (90.29)	6–3	Brendan Dolan (84.68)				PartyPoker.com
2012	Michael van Gerwen (87.53)	6–4	Mervyn King (81.96)
2013	Phil Taylor (97.67)	6–0	Dave Chisnall (81.29)
2014	Michael van Gerwen (90.81)	5–3	James Wade (89.26)	£400,000	£100,000	£45,000
2015	Robert Thornton (90.79)	5–4	Michael van Gerwen (96.79)
2016	Michael van Gerwen (100.29)	5–2	Gary Anderson (92.73)				Unibet
2017	Daryl Gurney (88.50)	5–4	Simon Whitlock (83.53)
2018	Michael van Gerwen (88.85)	5–2	Peter Wright (91.61)
2019	Michael van Gerwen (94.74)	5–2	Dave Chisnall (93.32)	£450,000	£110,000	£50,000	BoyleSports
2020	Gerwyn Price (88.19)	5–2	Dirk van Duijvenbode (87.07)					Ricoh Arena, Coventry [8]
2021	Jonny Clayton (94.44)	5–1	Gerwyn Price (92.47)					Leicester Arena, Leicester
2022	Michael van Gerwen (91.07)	5–3	Nathan Aspinall (91.88)	£600,000	£120,000	£60,000
2023	Luke Humphries (93.30)	5–2	Gerwyn Price (91.00)
2024	Mike De Decker (92.06)	6–4	Luke Humphries (90.56)

Records and statistics

As of 7 October 2025.

Total finalist appearances

Rank	Player	Nationality	Won	Runner-up	Finals	Appearances
1	Phil Taylor	England	11	0	11	19
2	Michael van Gerwen	Netherlands	6	1	7	14
3	James Wade	England	2	1	3	20
4	Gerwyn Price	Wales	1	2	3	10
5	Colin Lloyd	England	1	1	2	14
	Alan Warriner	England	1	1	2	9
	Luke Humphries	England	1	1	2	4
8	Daryl Gurney	Northern Ireland	1	0	1	11
	Robert Thornton	Scotland	1	0	1	8
	Jonny Clayton	Wales	1	0	1	7
	Mike De Decker	Belgium	1	0	1	2
12	Raymond van Barneveld	Netherlands	0	2	2	15
	Dave Chisnall	England	0	2	2	14
	John Part	Canada	0	2	2	14
	Terry Jenkins	England	0	2	2	12
	Shayne Burgess	England	0	2	2	4
17	Adrian Lewis	England	0	1	1	16
	Mervyn King	England	0	1	1	15
	Brendan Dolan	Northern Ireland	0	1	1	15
	Gary Anderson	Scotland	0	1	1	15
	Peter Wright	Scotland	0	1	1	13
	Simon Whitlock	Australia	0	1	1	11
	Roland Scholten	Netherlands	0	1	1	9
	Nathan Aspinall	England	0	1	1	6
	Rod Harrington	England	0	1	1	5
	Dirk van Duijvenbode	Netherlands	0	1	1	4

Nine-dart finishes

Three nine-darters have been thrown at the World Grand Prix. The first one was in 2011, the other two happened in the same game in 2014, notable as being the only televised match which has had nine-darters from both players.

Player	Year (+ Round)	Method (double-in double-out)	Opponent	Result
Brendan Dolan	2011, Semi-Final	D20, 2 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T17, Bull	James Wade	5–2
James Wade	2014, 2nd Round	D20, 2 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T17, Bull	Robert Thornton	3–2
Robert Thornton	2014, 2nd Round	D20, 2 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T17, Bull	James Wade	2–3

High averages

An average over 100 in a match in the World Grand Prix has been achieved 24 times, of which Phil Taylor is responsible for 9.

Ten highest World Grand Prix one-match averages
Average	Player	Year (+ Round)	Opponent	Result
106.47	Gian van Veen	2025, 1st Round	Luke Littler	0–2
106.45	Alan Warriner	2001, 1st Round	Andy Jenkins	2–0
105.58	Luke Littler	2025, 1st Round	Gian van Veen	2–0
104.86	Gary Anderson	2013, 1st Round	Jelle Klaasen	2–0
104.47	Michael van Gerwen	2013, 1st Round	John Part	2–0
103.09	Michael van Gerwen	2016, Quarter-Final	Simon Whitlock	3–1
103.02	Phil Taylor	2011, Semi-Final	Richie Burnett	5–2
102.85	Dave Chisnall	2020, 1st Round	Glen Durrant	2–0
102.48	Phil Taylor	2010, 1st Round	Brendan Dolan	2–0
102.26	Phil Taylor	2011, 1st Round	Peter Wright	2–1

Five highest losing averages
Average	Player	Year (+ Round)	Opponent	Result
106.47	Gian van Veen	2025, 1st Round	Luke Littler	0–2
97.78	Dave Chisnall	2018, Quarter-Final	Michael van Gerwen	1–3
97.20	Gary Anderson	2015, 2nd Round	Ian White	1–3
97.03	Phil Taylor	2015, 1st Round	Vincent van der Voort	0–2
96.84	Michael van Gerwen	2020, Quarter-Final	Simon Whitlock	0–3

Different players with a 100+ match average – updated 07/10/25
Player	Total	Highest Av.	Year (+ Round)
Phil Taylor	9	103.02	2011, Semi-Final
Michael van Gerwen	4	104.47	2013, 1st Round
Dave Chisnall	2	102.85	2020, 1st Round
Simon Whitlock	2	101.12	2020, 1st Round
Gian van Veen	1	106.47	2025, 1st Round
Alan Warriner	1	106.45	2001, 1st Round
Luke Littler	1	105.58	2025, 1st Round
Gary Anderson	1	104.86	2013, 1st Round
Ross Smith	1	101.79	2024, 1st Round
Gerwyn Price	1	100.82	2021, 1st Round
Luke Humphries	1	100.30	2024, Semi-Final

Five highest tournament averages (min 3 matches)
Average	Player	Year
99.46	Michael van Gerwen	2016
99.23	Phil Taylor	2010
98.62	Phil Taylor	2009
98.50	Phil Taylor	2008
98.22	Phil Taylor	2012

World Team Championship

The World Team Championship event which preceded the introduction of this event was held between 1995 and 1997. ^[9]

Year	Winners	Score	Runners Up	Venue
1995	Eric Bristow Dennis Priestley	14–9 (legs)	Keith Deller Jamie Harvey	Butlin's Wonder West World, Ayr
1996	Bob Anderson Phil Taylor	18–15 (legs)	Chris Mason Steve Raw	Willows Variety Centre, Salford
1997	Raymond van Barneveld Roland Scholten	18–15 (legs)	Richie Burnett Rod Harrington	Butlin's South Coast World, Bognor Regis

Media coverage

The World Grand Prix has been broadcast in the UK by Sky Sports since the first tournament.

References

1. Phillips, Josh (23 April 2025). "BoyleSports extends World Grand Prix sponsorship to 2027". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
2. Mardle, Wayne (7 October 2020). "World Grand Prix is different from any other major tournament". Sky Sports. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
3. "World Grand Prix 1998". mastercaller.com. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
4. Mirza, Raz (7 October 2020). "Best nine-dart moments from the World Grand Prix Darts in Dublin". Sky Sports. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
5. "New home for Grand Prix". Sky Sports. 9 September 2009. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
6. Glennon, Michael (27 August 2020). "Dublin to miss out on World Grand Prix with HSE holding Citywest lease". RTÉ. Retrieved 31 August 2025.
7. Phillips, Josh (5 July 2021). "BoyleSports World Grand Prix heading to Leicester in October". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
8. Allen, Dave. "BoyleSports World Grand Prix moves to Coventry in 2020". Professional Darts Corporation . Retrieved 28 August 2020.
9. "PDC World Pairs Winners". dartsdatabase.co.uk. Retrieved 9 October 2011.

External links

• World Grand Prix page on the PDC website
• World Grand Prix on Darts Database
• World Grand Prix on Mastercaller