PLANS for the Grand Slam of Darts to become a full ranked event from 2015 onwards have been confirmed, with the tournament set to include qualifying places alongside major tournament winners.
The cross-code tournament was introduced in 2007, rewarding players who had reached major finals both in the PDC and BDO/WDF systems, but has been unranked in terms of the PDC Order of Merit.
However, from 2015 onwards, prize money won in the Grand Slam of Darts will count towards the main PDC Order of Merit.
This has led to a revision of the qualifying criteria for the 2015 Grand Slam of Darts, with a maximum of 13 major tournament winners receiving a one-year invitation to compete in the event.
Further places up to a maximum of 16 players will then be allocated to runners-up in the 12 major tournaments, based on their ranking position within the PDC Order of Merit.
The winners of the following 12 major tournaments will each receive an invitation to the 2015 Grand Slam of Darts:
2014 Grand Slam of Darts
2014 Players Championship Finals
2014-15 Ladbrokes World Darts Championship
2015 Premier League Darts
2015 World Matchplay
2015 World Grand Prix
2015 UK Open
2015 European Championship
2015 Masters
2015 World Cup of Darts (two players)
2015 World Youth Championship
2015 Lakeside BDO Championship
The runners-up of the above events will then be listed in PDC Order of Merit order at the cut-off date to top up the list of automatic qualifiers to 16.
The remainder of the 32-player field will be filled by eight qualifiers from each of two qualifying tournaments, one for PDC Tour Card Holders and one for non-PDC Tour Card Holders which will be open to all other players, in the same manner as the current Wildcard Qualifier.
The qualifying criteria for the 2014 Grand Slam of Darts is set to be based in a similar way to the 2013 tournament and will be confirmed in due course.
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