Luke Littler and his fellow competitors must remember that the World Grand Prix operates on a ‘double in, double out’ basis or they could risk violating the most basic rule. As the prestigious darts tournament commences this week, stars such as Littler, Michael van Gerwen and Stephen Bunting will vie for the title and a hefty £120,000 cash prize.
However, there’s a catch – the Professional Darts Corporation event is a double-start tournament, meaning every player must commence all legs on a double. The ‘double in, double out’ rule has been a staple of the World Grand Prix since its inception in 1998. If a player fails to hit the double, they won’t score for that dart and their turn continues. To clinch a leg, the player must also land a double with their final dart. A player only begins scoring points in a leg once they’ve hit a double, with the points value of the double counting as the first scoring dart. The tournament also follows a straight knockout format and each set is contested over the best of five legs.
The competition at Leicester’s Mattioli Arena will get underway on Monday, October 6 at 6pm, with Littler being the early favourite to win. However, the teenage darts prodigy isn’t exactly thrilled about his second appearance at the event after an early exit on his debut last year.
Littler suffered a 2-1 defeat in sets to Rob Cross in the first round last year and will aim to improve on this record in 2025. But he’ll need to conquer his struggles with the double-start format to achieve this.
The Nuke has been outspoken about his dislike for the double in, double out format in recent times. He said: “Obviously it’s the next big one for me. But I’ll be honest, I didn’t like it last time. I didn’t like the double start. It’s one of the toughest tournaments to win.
“There is the World Championship, the Matchplay, the Premier League. But the double start – if you don’t get off, then you’re in trouble! I can’t say I really practice the double start often but obviously leading up to it, I think I’ll have to – just to get used to it.
“Every year we’ll see someone hit a treble 20 first out and then they forget. It’ll be tough. But we’ve still got plenty of darts to play this year.”
Littler will face Gian van Veen in the opening round on Tuesday, October 6 at 6pm, whilst Luke Humphries, Bunting and Rob Cross are all set for action the previous evening.