Luke Littler goes for a third straight Grand Slam of Darts title when the tournament returns to WV Active Aldersley in Wolverhampton from 14 to 22 November 2026. He has never lost a match at the event, winning all 14 he has played across 2024 and 2025.
This is the 20th Grand Slam, and the PDC has marked it with an overhaul. The field grows from 32 players to 48, the old groups of four become 16 groups of three, and the prize fund rises from £650,000 to £1 million, with £200,000 for the winner.
Dates and Schedule
The tournament starts on Saturday 14 November and finishes with the final on Sunday 22 November, nine days of darts in total. Title sponsor Mr Vegas returns, and the winner lifts the Eric Bristow Trophy, renamed after the five-time world champion in 2018.
WV Active Aldersley, previously known as Aldersley Leisure Village, has hosted every Grand Slam since 2018 apart from 2020, when the event was played behind closed doors in Coventry. Before that, the Grand Slam spent its first 11 years at the Civic Hall in Wolverhampton, from 2007 to 2017.
The group stage fills the early part of the week, and the knockout rounds follow, finishing with the semi-finals and final on the last Sunday. The PDC had not published session times when we last checked on 25 October 2026, and we’ll add them here when it does.
The Field and Qualification
Unlike most PDC majors, the Grand Slam does not take its field from the rankings. Players earn their place by reaching finals and winning titles over the previous year, which is why world champions share the stage with the winners of the Challenge Tour, the Development Tour and regional events in Asia and North America.
Places are filled in this order:
- Finalists of PDC televised events over the previous 12 months, up to 24 players. This covers the World Championship, the Premier League, the World Matchplay, the World Grand Prix, the World Masters, the UK Open, the European Championship, the Players Championship Finals, the World Series Finals, the World Cup and last year’s Grand Slam.
- Up to 12 additional qualifiers: the 2025 and 2026 World Youth Championship finalists, the Development Tour and Challenge Tour rankings winners, the Women’s World Matchplay winner, a Women’s Series qualifier, and the winners of the PDC Asian Championship, North American Championship, Nordic & Baltic Championship and ANZ Premier League.
- 2026 European Tour winners, then 2026 Players Championship winners, ranked by number of titles and then PDC ranking, until 40 places are filled.
- At least eight players from the Tour Card Holder Qualifier in Leicester on Friday 6 November. If fewer than 40 players have qualified by then, the qualifier gets extra places so the field still reaches 48.
When a player qualifies more than once, the place passes down the list. Littler has won eight of the events that carry an automatic place, which is why the field goes so deep into the European Tour and Players Championship winners.
Who has qualified so far
These 32 players were confirmed by the PDC as of 25 October 2026.
| Route | Players |
|---|---|
| Televised finalists | Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Ross Smith, Gian van Veen, Gerwyn Price, James Wade, Nathan Aspinall, Michael van Gerwen |
| Youth, secondary tours and regional events | Beau Greaves, Cam Crabtree, Jan Schmidt, Sebastian Bialecki, Joe Hunt, Lisa Ashton, Paolo Nebrida, Adam Sevada |
| European Tour winners | Wessel Nijman, Josh Rock, Luke Woodhouse, Krzysztof Ratajski, Jonny Clayton, Niels Zonneveld |
| Players Championship winners | Chris Dobey, Cameron Menzies, Ryan Searle, Jermaine Wattimena, Rob Cross, Kevin Doets, Andrew Gilding, Jeffrey de Graaf, Gabriel Clemens, Karel Sedlacek |
Beau Greaves makes her fourth Grand Slam appearance in a row after finishing runner-up at the 2025 World Youth Championship. Lisa Ashton joins her through the Women’s Series rankings. James Wade, a three-time Grand Slam finalist, makes his 19th appearance.
At the other end, Kevin Doets, Niels Zonneveld, Sebastian Bialecki, Joe Hunt, Paolo Nebrida and Adam Sevada are all set for Grand Slam debuts. Zonneveld booked his on 18 October by beating Danny Noppert 8-5 to win the Dutch Darts Championship, his first PDC ranking title.
Places still to be decided
The European Championship finalists in Dortmund on 25 October, the ANZ Premier League winner on 31 October and the PDC Nordic & Baltic Championship winner on 8 November all earn places, unless they have already qualified. Henry Coates has won a Players Championship title but, as the lowest-ranked winner, could still miss out if the European Championship finalists or the winners of the four remaining Players Championship events are not already qualified and rank above him. The Tour Card Holder Qualifier on 6 November completes the field.
Gary Anderson is the biggest name not yet in, and he needs one of those remaining routes to make it to Wolverhampton.
The draw
The top 16 qualifiers by PDC ranking are seeded, one per group, and placed in bracket order. The other 32 are split into two pots, ranked 17 to 32 and 33 to 48, and drawn into the groups. The draw has not been made yet, and we’ll add all 16 groups here as soon as it is.
The Format
Each group of three plays a round robin, so every player has two group matches. Only the group winner goes through, which means 32 of the 48 players are out after the group stage. Under the old format two of four went through, so a player could lose once and still progress. Now a single defeat leaves them relying on other results. The 16 group winners then play a straight knockout from the last 16 to the final.
The PDC had not confirmed the 2026 match lengths when we last checked on 25 October 2026. For reference, this is how the 2025 event was played, all in legs:
| Round | 2025 format |
|---|---|
| Group stage | Best of 9 legs |
| Last 16 | Best of 19 legs |
| Quarter-finals | Best of 31 legs |
| Semi-finals | Best of 31 legs |
| Final | Best of 31 legs |
Prize Money
The 2026 prize fund is £1,000,000, up £350,000 on 2025’s £650,000. The winner’s share rises from £150,000 to £200,000, and every player in the field takes home at least £5,000.
| Stage | Prize money |
|---|---|
| Winner | £200,000 |
| Runner-up | £100,000 |
| Semi-finalists (2) | £60,000 |
| Quarter-finalists (4) | £35,000 |
| Last 16 (8) | £20,000 |
| Second in group (16) | £12,500 |
| Third in group (16) | £5,000 |
| Total | £1,000,000 |
How to Watch
The Grand Slam is live on Sky Sports in the UK. Outside the UK, rights are sold country by country. The 2025 event was shown on DAZN, Viaplay and Fox Sports among others, so check what’s available locally. PDCTV, the PDC’s own streaming service, carries full session replays for subscribers.
Tickets were allocated by ballot in June because of demand for recent editions. The PDC lists Ticketmaster and Sportsbreaks.com as the official sellers, with Sportsbreaks offering ticket and hotel packages. Avoid resale sites: the PDC cancels tickets that have been resold and may refuse entry to anyone holding one.
The Defending Champion
Littler beat Luke Humphries 16-11 in the 2025 final on 16 November, averaging 100.61. Humphries led 4-2 and was still 8-7 up at the third interval, but Littler levelled with a 167 checkout straight after the break, went 11-9 ahead with a 160 finish and closed it out with a 96 checkout. Hours earlier, his semi-final win over Danny Noppert had made him the youngest world number one in PDC history at 18.
It was his second Grand Slam in a row after beating Martin Lukeman 16-3 in 2024. That made him only the fourth player to retain the title, after Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price. Taylor’s record of six Grand Slam titles still stands, and van Gerwen is the only player to win three in a row, from 2015 to 2017.
Littler arrives in even better form this year. In 2026 he has won the World Championship, the Premier League, the World Matchplay, the World Masters, the UK Open and the World Cup of Darts alongside Humphries. Humphries won the 2023 Grand Slam and comes in as the World Grand Prix champion, so another final between the two is a realistic prospect. Price, the three-time Grand Slam winner, has reached three televised finals this year.