The 2008 Sky Poker World Grand Prix was the eleventh World Grand Prix

darts Darts is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, projectiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dartboard. Point ...

tournament held by the

Professional Darts Corporation The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the Wor ...

. It was held from 6–12 October 2008 at the Citywest Hotel in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ireland.PDC website report - Irish Fans Show Record Support
from the

, obtained 15-08-2008 The event featured a tournament record prize fund of £250,000 with £50,000 going to the winner.PDC website report - Sky Poker sponsors World Grand Prix
from the Professional Darts Corporation, obtained 15-08-2008
from the Professional Darts Corporation, obtained 15-08-2008 Phil Taylor won his eighth Grand Prix title with a 6-2 victory over Raymond van Barneveld in the final watched by 355,000 viewers. James Wade was the defending champion, however lost 2-1 to Tony Eccles in the first round.

Format

All legs were 501 points double-in double-out format. The first round games were best of three sets. Second round games were best of five sets, the quarter-finals best of seven sets, the semi-finals best of nine sets, and the final was best of eleven sets. All sets were best of five legs/first to three legs.PDC website report - Sky Poker World Grand Prix Schedule of Play
from the Professional Darts Corporation, obtained 23-09-2008

Prize money

A tournament record prize fund of £250,000 was available to the participants, divided based on the following performances:

Qualification

The field of 32 players was mostly made up from the top sixteen players in th

on September 21, following the two Players Championship events at the Newport Center in Newport,

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. The top eight from these rankings were also the seeded players. The remaining sixteen places went to the top twelve non-qualified players from th
2008 Players Championship Order of Merit
and then to the top four non-qualified residents of the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

from the 2008 Players Championship Order of Merit who have competed in at least six Players Championship events.

Draw

Draw and schedule of play was as follows:

Television coverage and sponsorship

The tournament was screened by

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

. The sponsorship for the tournament was Sky Bet who had sponsored the event since 2004, however one of its brands, Sky Poker, was the new title sponsor.

References

External links

World Grand Prix page on the PDC's official website
{{2008 in PDC darts World Grand Prix (darts) World Grand Prix Darts