World Grand Prix Darts 2024 Predictions: Cool Hand to retain title?

The PDC calendar continues with the World Grand Prix from Leicester, which runs from Monday, October 7 to Sunday, October 13, with reigning champion Luke Humphries looking to defend last year's title.

Ahead of the event, we've turned to our resident Darts expert Sean Rafferty to find out his World Grand Prix Darts predictions, with three players considered for the outright winners market, and one for the quarters...

World Grand Prix Darts Odds

Tournament Winner:

Luke Humphries @ 4/1 - 4 units win

Before the Pro Tour events started this week I was set on Luke Humphries being my main selection for this, but I was hoping to see some signs of promise midweek. I got that on Thursday as Cool Hand finally picked up his first Pro Tour title of the year. He had to come through four deciding leg wins in his seven games en route to the title, showing real grit and a never-say-die attitude. This should hopefully give him the boost he probably needed heading into Leicester.

The current World Champ has recently expressed his discomfort with feeling fatigued due to a lot of playing/travelling in recent months. He gets a few days off before the Grand Prix and makes the much shorter commute from Crewe or Wigan for this tournament, so he should be feeling fairly fresh when it comes to his opening-round match.

He faces a very tricky opener against Stephen Bunting, who he defeated in the final of his Pro Tour win this week. Bunting made all three finals this week so is showing some real consistency; however, I feel in these big events Humphries definitely has the upper hand - he’s already played Bunting in the UK Open and World Matchplay this year, victorious in both.

Cool Hand comes here looking to defend his title, and it was the Grand Prix where it all really started for him last year in his quest to become the best in the world. He won this then went on to win the Grand Slam, Players Championship Finals, and World Championship in the remainder of 2023. He’ll look to set a similar tone this year - if his D16 is on song with the doubling in then he’ll be very tough to beat, especially if he goes deep and the format increases.

Luke Littler is 7/2 fav for this but I think that his and Humphries’ places in the market should be swapped. 4/1 is a really good price for a player who currently holds the World Grand Prix, Grand Slam, World Championship and World Matchplay titles, on top of making the UK Open final. A no-brainer to make Cool Hand my main pick to lift the title.

Gerwyn Price @ 12/1 - 2 units win

Not a lot is being said for Gezzy’s chances this week, likely due to a lack of silverware this year for the Welshman and not playing too many events recently. However, I can’t ignore his sterling record at this double-in format event - since 2020, his record reads as follows: Winner, Final, Semi-Final, Final - an unbelievable record which perhaps shows he doesn’t need to come into this event on the top of his game to have a realistic chance of winning.

The Iceman is well known for his D20 hitting - when he gets confident on tops he becomes a daunting opponent for anybody in this event and it’s a big reason behind his great record here. The Grand Slam is classed as Gezzy’s tournament but his record here isn’t a million miles behind it. He sits in a really open quarter of the draw - the likes of Gary Anderson and Michael Smith are in it but haven’t got the strongest records at this event and doubles definitely aren’t their strength.

I don’t have the stats or numbers to prove Gezzy is the man to go with, this is purely based on his love for the event and his formidable top-hitting. His outright prices have slowly been drifting and 12/1 is a good number for a multiple major winner who isn’t afraid of getting over the line.

Nathan Aspinall @ 50/1 - 0.75 units e/w 2 places

First off, I can’t believe Asp is this big a price, especially now he’s injury-free. With all due respect to them, should the likes of Damon Heta, Ryan Searle and Stephen Bunting be a shorter price? Not for me - none of them have won a major title, whereas Asp has two of them. The 2023 World Matchplay champion reached the final here in 2022 and will aim for a similar type of run this week to kickstart his year.

It’s been well documented that Nath has had some severe injury struggles, which eventually saw him stay out of action for a couple of months after the World Matchplay this year so he could undergo surgery to fix the injuries that have somewhat plagued his career at times in the last few years, particularly the last 12 months. The surgery appears to have been a success and he can finally throw pain-free now.

Asp’s returned to some decent form a lot quicker than I expected - he’s been unlucky with some results but has been producing a decent level. He's only dropped below a 90 average twice in his 17 matches since his return, averaging 98-plus in seven of them. But, I really did think it would take him at least a few weeks to blow the cobwebs away, and he’s already making that thought look silly.

Luke Littler is in his quarter of the draw but could well go out early doors as he faces a very tricky opener against Rob Cross. Asp has a tough game against Ryan Searle to kick off - they’ve only played each other on the TV once previously, Asp winning that meeting 6-3 at the European Championship last year. The Asp generally has a stronger record in televised events than Searle so I expect him to come through that. We all know Nathan is renowned for his aggressive determination and being so tough to beat - he won’t be an easy match for anyone this week and 50/1 is a stupendous bit of value.

Quarter Winner:

Dave Chisnall to win Quarter 4 @ 9/2 - 2 units

I couldn’t not back Dave in some form as I’ve rated the way he’s been playing for the best part of the last 18 months. It’s well known that Chizzy is still vying for that first major title that has deserted him his whole career - I’m not in the camp that’s convinced he can get over the line in one. I do feel it’s a mental thing with Dave that prevents him from being able to get the job done in the latter stages of these big events, which is why I’ve opted to go for him to win his section instead.

He’s proved he can do it in front of big crowds, after all the success he’s had on the Euro Tour over the past 18 months, picking up several titles. He’s also continued to enjoy success on the Pro Tour and you could argue this is the most prolific period of Chizzy’s career to date in terms of winning titles. He played well in the recent batch of Pro Tour events this past week - he made back-to-back quarter-finals in the last two events, posting four 101-plus averages along the way.

I actually think he has a nice little mini section of the draw - he plays Cameron Menzies in the first round who people are raving about; however, I’ve yet to see him transfer this form to the bigger events and I’d say his form has just tailed off a tad in the last week or two. If he prevails in that match then he’d face the winner of Woodhouse/Van den Bergh, which I’d make him favourite for too.

Chiz may not be best known for his double hitting but his record here isn’t too shabby, having been runner-up in 2013 and 2019. He’s made the semi-finals in four of his 13 previous WGP appearances, which is what we require here. He won’t have entered many in better form than he does this year, and there's every chance Dave makes the semis at 9/2.

Darts Odds

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