Michael van Gerwen will begin his bid for a fourth successive Grand Slam of Darts crown against Jonny Clayton, Joe Murnan and Gary Robson, after the draw for the cross-code tournament was made on Tuesday afternoon.
The Grand Slam of Darts brings together players from both the PDC and BDO systems to compete across nine days in Wolverhampton, live on Sky Sports.
‘The Green Machine’ is looking to maintain his impressive unbeaten record at this event dating back to 2014, and the world No 1 and top seed heads up Group A.
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Van Gerwen will begin his title defence against 51-year-old BDO veteran Gary Robson on Saturday, and will also face Austrian Darts Open winner Jonny Clayton and qualifier Joe Murnan in the round-robin phase.
Number two seed Peter Wright has been drawn in Group E against former World Youth champion Max Hopp, 2017 World Youth finalist Josh Payne and BDO debutant Jim Williams, who reached the quarter-finals at Lakeside back in January.
World champion Rob Cross will face reigning World Youth champion Dimitri van den Bergh in a repeat of their classic quarter-final clash at the Alexandra Palace, whilst debutant Ryan Searle and Lakeside finalist Mark McGeeney make up Group H.
Two-time world champion Gary Anderson will begin his bid for a maiden Grand Slam title against BDO World Trophy finalist Michael Unterbuchner.
‘The Flying Scotsman’ has already secured UK Open, World Matchplay and Champions League of Darts titles this year, and will also come up against Ian White and Steve Hine – who is making his Wolverhampton bow.
James Wade is bidding to win a third consecutive televised title and ‘The Machine’ heads up Group C, which features former World Youth champion Keegan Brown, three-time quarter-finalist Mark Webster and Dutchman Wesley Harms.
Mensur Suljovic headlines a competitive Group G, which features in-form German star Martin Schindler and former Lakeside champions Stephen Bunting and Scott Mitchell.
Seventh seed Simon Whitlock will kick off his campaign against reigning Lakeside champion Glen Durrant in Group F, which also contains Premier League star Gerwyn Price and 2015 UK Open semi-finalist Andrew Gilding.
However, eighth seed Michael Smith heads up arguably the toughest quartet, alongside 2012 Grand Slam champion Raymond van Barneveld.
Smith and Van Barneveld will face the two most recent World Masters champions, in the shape of Krzysztof Ratajski and Adam Smith-Neale.
The opening group matches will be held on Saturday, November 10, with play across two sessions at the Aldersley Leisure Village.
Sunday, November 11 sees the second round of group games, with Saturday’s winning players facing each other and the losing players also colliding.
The final group games will then be held on Monday and Tuesday, with the top two players from each group then progressing to the knockout stage from the last 16 onwards.
The Groups
Darts season is in full swing and continues on Sky Sports with the Grand Slam of Darts which gets underway with a double session on Saturday, November 10 and continues through to the final on Sunday, November 18
The World Championships are just around the corner and get underway from the iconic Alexandra Palace on December 13.
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