Double in, double out, and unlike anything else on the PDC calendar. The World Grand Prix returns to Leicester this week, and with it a format that’s produced some of the sport’s strangest and most stubborn numbers.
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Before the Mattioli Arena throws open its doors, here’s the tournament in a few examples.
29
The number of stagings of the World Grand Prix, with this year’s edition marking the 29th edition, running at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester from 28 September to 4 October. Only the World Championship and the World Matchplay have been on the PDC calendar longer.
1998
The year it all began, in Rochester, when the World Grand Prix replaced the old World Pairs event. Phil Taylor won that first final 13-8 against Rod Harrington, for a winner’s cheque of £9,000.
750,000
This year’s total prize fund, up from £600,000 last year and comfortably the largest in the event’s history. The winner in Leicester will collect £150,000.
32
The size of the field, made up of the top 16 players on the PDC Order of Merit and the top 16 from the Pro Tour Order of Merit as the qualifying cut-off.
11
Phil Taylor’s record haul of World Grand Prix titles, won across a span of 15 years. No one else is within five of him. Michael van Gerwen is next best with six.
5
The number of times Taylor, for all of those titles, was knocked out in the first round. Even the greatest to ever play had a torrid relationship with this particular format.
Dolan’s Darts Make History
3
The number of nine-dart finishes in the tournament’s history. Brendan Dolan hit the first, against James Wade in 2011.
Three years later, Wade and Robert Thornton somehow both managed it in the same second-round match, a first for any televised event.
170
The highest checkout of the 2025 tournament, hit by both Nathan Aspinall and Littler.
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Images: PDC / Tip Top Pics
