| Sky Poker World Grand Prix | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Dates | October 6-12 |
| Venue | Citywest Hotel |
| Location | Dublin |
| Country | Republic of Ireland |
| Organisation(s) | PDC |
| Format | Sets "double in, double out" |
| Prize fund | £250,000 |
| Winners share | £50,000 |
| Champion(s) | |
| Phil Taylor | |
The 2008 Sky Poker World Grand Prix was the eleventh instance of the darts tournament held by the Professional Darts Corporation, the World Grand Prix. It was held from October 6 to October 12. As usual it was staged at the Citywest Hotel in Saggart, Dublin.[1] The event featured a tournament record prize fund of £250,000 with £50,000 going to the winner.[2][3]
Phil Taylor won his eighth Grand Prix title with a 6-2 victory over Raymond van Barneveld in the final, an impressive 355,000 viewers tuned in to watch it. James Wade was the defending champion, however he suffered a 2-1 defeat to Tony Eccles in the first round.
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The tournament's usual format was in play with the usual 501 legs double-in double-out format (the World Grand Prix remains the only televised darts tournament to use the double-in format). The first round's games were best of 3 sets - the quickfire nature of this round means shocks are frequent in this round, not least involving eight-time champion Phil Taylor who, three times, has gone out the in first round here. Second round games were best of 5 sets, the quarter finals best of 7 sets, the semi finals best of 9 sets, and the final was best of 11 sets. All sets were best of 5 legs/first to three legs.[4]
A tournament record prize fund of £250,000 was available to the participants, divided based on the following performances:[3]
Champion - £50,000
Runner-up - £25,000
Semi-finalists - £14,500
Quarter-finalists - £10,000
Second round losers - £6,750
First round losers - £3,250
Nine-dart jackpot - £15,000
The field of 32 players was mostly made up from the top 16 players in the PDC Order of Merit on September 21, following the two Players Championship events at the Newport Center in Newport, Wales. The top 8 from these rankings were also the seeded players. The remaining 16 places went to the top 12 non-qualified players from the 2008 Players Championship Order of Merit, and then to the top 4 non-qualified residents of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland from the 2008 Players Championship Order of Merit who have competed in at least six Players Championship events.[3]
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Draw and schedule of play was as follows:[4]
| Final (Best of 11 sets) Sunday October 12th | ||
| 97.81 Phil Taylor | 6-2 | Raymond van Barneveld 90.42 |
| Highest Checkout: | Highest Checkout: | |
| Phil Taylor wins the 2008 World Grand Prix | ||
Scores after player's names are three-dart averages (total points scored divided by darts thrown and multiplied by 3)
NB: Due to the double-in format of the tournament, the averages were lower than would normally be expected meaning player performance can not be as accurately inferred.
As usual and since its inception the tournament was screened by Sky Sports.
The sponsorship for the tournament also stayed with Sky Bet who sponsored the event since 2004, however one of its brands, Sky Poker, was the new title sponsor.[2]
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