The tenth edition of the Grand Slam of Darts starts on November 12th and will run through to its conclusion on November 20th. This is being hosted at the famous Civic Hall in Wolverhampton as it has been since it started back in 2007. This is one of the more unique competitions on the darts circuit because the PDC invites over the best that rival organisation the BDO has to offer. PDC players get here through winning qualifying tournaments such as the World Matchplay or the Players Championship. Then you get entrants from three BDO qualifying tournaments as well, plus four more representatives from the organisation.
Overall then you have 32 players scrapping it out and this is one of the those tournaments which runs over a round robin format for the first phase. So there is excitement to come throughout the event with four players in each group. There’s no real surprise about who is at the top of the market though to go and win it, as you have Michael van Gerwen, who is the reigning champion at 5/6 with Ladbrokes to take the title again. His dominance in the game at the moment is seen in the Van Gerwen v The Field betting for the Grand Slam of Darts 2016 is a price of 11/10. Van Gerwen’s first win in the event last season, taking down rival Phil Taylor, saw him become just the fourth player in this history of the tournament to win the crown.
Phil Taylor is a six time champion of the Grand Slam of Darts, winning back to back in 2014 and 2015. So he is the one with all of the track record in the tournament, but will he be able to bounce back to land what are become rare wins over Michael van Gerwen? Aside from Scotsman Gary Anderson coming in at 15/2 everyone else in the field is massively priced to come through and take the title at the Civic Centre. It’s usually going to be important to look at the draw to see who could be going up against each other, but that’s harder to call in a round robin group stage. But whatever happens in the group stage, if Van Gerwen and Taylor get through, they would meet in the semi’s.
So do you go with the long history of success for Taylor in the tournament or do you go with the form of Michael van Gerwen this season? It would have to be the latter for the smart money. There’s little to stop him really and although Taylor has had his breadcrumbs against him this season, MVP’s power doesn’t fail when it counts too often. Of course a semi final between the two of them would be huge, and as they are set for a pre-final meeting, it’s not a bad coverage on backing Gary Anderson to come through the bottom half of the draw.
Grand Slam of Darts 2016 Betting odds
Michael van Gerwen 5/6, Phil Taylor 13/2, Gary Anderson 15/2, Adrian Lewis 22/1, Peter Wright 20/1, , James Wade 28/1, Dave Chisnall 28/1, Mensur Suljovic 33/1, Raymond van barneveld 33/1, 50/1 bar
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Grand Slam of Darts 2016 Draw
So you have eight pools of four players going off against each other and it is a straight shot. The top two players from each of the round robin groups make it through to the next round of competition. As mentioned above, Taylor and Van Gerwen would meet before the final. That is because Van Gerwen heads up Group A while Taylor is the top seed in Group D. The qualifying players from groups A through D goes through to the top half of the knockout bracket. So it doesn’t matter in what order they get through, they could only meet in the semi finals.
That leaves an interesting set up in the bottom half of the draw. Gary Anderson looks to have landed on his feet in the first round, but he will get a tricky second round match up against either seventh seed Mensur Suljovic or Raymond van Barneveld. Then from the bottom two groups of the tournament, it is likely going to boil down to a scrap between James Wade and Adrian Lewis to make it through to the semi finals. So even though it is a round robin group stage, it’s like the final eight spots will be filled with the big names.
Grand Slam of Darts 2016 Betting Prediction
Even though this will be billed the PDC v BDO there are limited opportunities from the BDO really coming through. BDO players make up a quarter of the draw and even though they aren’t expected to get in the picture, there are some strong players in there. BDO number one (by a country mile) Glen Durrant has won nine titles during the year and will probably switch over to the PDC next year. He is going in Gary Andersen’s group and makes great value to book a spot in the knockout stages with Ladbrokes. You also have 2010 Grand Slam of Darts Champion Scott Waites back for more, still holding the honour of the first winner from the BDO to get the title. No other BDO player has been to the final since then.
Going back to Durrant, he is a price of 6/1 to come through and win his quarter over 6/5 favourite Anderson. Michael van Gerwen holds the power in the game and he will want to bomb on in form here towards the World Championships at the end of the year. His recent victory over Taylor in the World Matchplay shows that a recent slip up against The Power in the Champions League of Darts, was just that, an increasingly rare slip up. Back Van Gerwen to cruise in this one, he’s not going to give up this title without a big, big fight.
