The Grand Slam of Darts features a group stage round at the start of the tournament, one of two PDC tournaments that use it, the other being the World Cup of Darts.
The 32-player field is broken down into groups of 4, with 2 out of the 4 players in each group advancing to the knockout stage (round-of-16).
After the draw came out, we quickly narrowed down some of the potential intriguing groups, with potential for big names to be knocked out early.
2025 Grand Slam of Darts group stage predictions
Here are my predictions for the group stage round.
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Group A – Luke Humphries (1), Nathan Aspinall, Michael Smith & Alex Spellman
Winners: Luke Humphries and Michael Smith
As I tend to do, I like to pick some upsets. Humphries will have a challenge at his hands, but I believe he’ll put his head down and take care of business after an early exit last year.
Michael Smith has played very few events in 2025, but a shorter format could allow him to find some rhythm and gain back confidence if he capitalizes on the best-of-9-leg games.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Aspinall go through, but he’s either been really good or has had early exits in majors this year, so he’s not a guarantee to go through.
Group B – Chris Dobey (8), Damon Heta, Martin Lukeman & Jurjen van der Velde
Winners: Chris Dobey and Damon Heta
It would be a shame for Heta not to go through, as he’s had a rough year at majors. In 2025, he’s been eliminated in the first round of the World Matchplay, World Grand Prix and European Championship.
Sooner or later, he’ll have to start accumulating substantial prize money, so this will be a big event/opportunity for him.
We’ll find out if Martin Lukeman can replicate his epic final run from last year’s event, but Dobey and Heta are two challenging players to get by.
MORE: 2025 Grand Slam of Darts qualifiers: Littler, Humphries headline field
Group C – Stephen Bunting (4), Martin Schindler, Luke Woodhouse & Alexis Toylo
Winners: Stephen Bunting and Luke Woodhouse
Bunting is another seeded player I’ll take to go through, but he does have some solid opponents in his group.
It shouldn’t be enough to threaten him, but there could be a close race between the other three for the second spot in the knockout stage.
Toylo had a clean sweep against Richard Veenstra in round one of the PDC WC a year ago.
Schindler has always been great in the short-format games on the Pro Tour, but he’s still looking for consistent success at majors.
I’ll take Woodhouse to just get the edge over Schindler and Toylo for the second spot.
Group D – James Wade (5), Gerwyn Price, Ricky Evans & Stefan Bellmont
Winners: Gerwyn Price and Ricky Evans
Evans hasn’t been in many majors outside of the few that aren’t too hard to qualify for.
He seems to be in much better spirits recently after having some personal struggles for a while, so I think if he can play decent, his speed could be an issue for players like James Wade, who tend to play much slower.
Price has had a fantastic year for himself, so it should be the standard that he advances as well.
Wade has also had a great year, but there have been a few times when he’s looked completely lost in matches, like at the World Series of Darts Finals and at the World Grand Prix.
MORE: Grand Slam of Darts to be streamed on Peacock
Group E – Luke Littler (2), Daryl Gurney, Connor Scutt & Karel Sedlacek
Winners: Luke Littler and Connor Scutt
Scutt will be returning for the second year in a row to the event, playing very well at the event qualifier.
He had several high 90s and 100+ averages en route to claiming a qualifying spot, beating names like Mike De Decker and Peter Wright.
Littler has been on fire, so there’s no reason not to pick him to go through, but we have seen upsets before, so this isn’t a format to ease up on.
Group F – Gian van Veen (7), Josh Rock, Wessel Nijman & Lisa Ashton
Winners: Josh Rock and Wessel Njman
Many are saying this is the best group in the tournament this year, as it’s filled with three of the biggest young talents in the world.
Nijman had incredibly bad luck in the event last year, failing to make it out of his group despite insane averages, including a 111.10 in a 4-5 loss.
I believe he will finally break through this year, which would mean one of Rock or van Veen is going home early.
Van Veen had an incredible few days in Germany to win the European Championship a couple of weeks ago, but I don’t see Josh Rock going home, so unfortunately, it might be a quick tournament for the new world number 8.
MORE: Predicting when Luke Littler will overtake Luke Humphries as world number one in darts
Group G – Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson, Niko Springer & Beau Greaves
Winners: Michael van Gerwen & Niko Springer
If Group F wasn’t good enough, Group G is arguably just as good.
You could legitimately make a case for any two players in this group to go through.
We’ve seen Beau Greaves have her way against the top players, but she hasn’t broken out just yet at any of the big on-stage events.
She’ll be at the next two Sky Sports televised events (Grand Slam & PDC WC), so she might be able to break through at one of them.
There is a lot of hype/pressure on her, as she’s been in the news recently, so I don’t think she’ll make the jump quite yet, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see her make it out of the group either.
Springer is finally starting to play in big stage events, and I believe he’ll have enough over Anderson and Greaves to make it out of this insanely competitive group.
Group H – Jonny Clayton, Danny Noppert, Lukas Wenig & Cam Crabtree
Winners: Jonny Clayton and Danny Noppert
It’ll be intriguing to see Wenig and Crabtree play, as we’ve seen slivers of what they are capable of when at the top of their game, but Noppert and Clayton, as the veterans in this group, should be able to get out comfortably.
Clayton has only failed to make it out of the group stage in two of his six career appearances at the Grand Slam.
