2007 International Darts League

The total prize fund is €135,000 (plus €26,000 for a nine-dart finish)

Winner €30,000

Runner-up €15,000

Semi-finalists €7,500

Quarter-finalists €4,500

2nd Group stage losers €3,000

1st Group stage losers €2,000

Preliminary round losers €1,000

Nine dart finish An Opel Tigra TwinTop valued at €26,000 – achieved by Phil Taylor on May 8 v Raymond van Barneveld. The sponsors presented Tony O'Shea with the same brand of car later in the tournament for his nine-darter on May 9, although originally there was only one bonus prize on offer.

Highest checkout €1,000 currently shared by Phil Taylor 170 & Adrian Lewis

The staging of the 2007 IDL has been filled with controversy. There have been several format changes, disagreements and even court cases surrounding the event.

In 2006 the BDO secured an agreement for 28 of their players to participate in the event until 2010. However, as the popularity of the PDC circuit grew in the Netherlands, the organisers decided to renege on the deal and invite only 12 BDO players. The remaining 20 players would qualify from the PDC including their top 12 ranked players plus four wildcards and four from a PDC/PDPA qualifying event.

This led to a threat from the BDO to take court action against the organisers who wanted their agreement upholding.[1] A compromise was reached and the organisers introduced a preliminary round. The original 16 BDO/WDF players who believed they had missed out were to be joined by a further four automatic qualifiers from the PDC Order of Merit and a further four players from an already confirmed qualifying event in April. This expanded the field from 32 to 56 players.

However the sponsors of the four wildcard players (Michael van Gerwen, Mervyn King, Jelle Klaasen and Vincent van der Voort) were upset that their players had been relegated to the preliminary round when they felt they had an agreement to be automatically into the televised stages. The BDO also felt that all 28 of their players should not have to face a preliminary round. The dispute was resolved on April 25 when a Dutch court rejected the claims of the four wildcard players. Three of the players managed to qualify from the preliminary round with only van der Voort missing out.

The field was scheduled to contain 56 players with 12 automatically from each organisation going into the group stages. Some players from the BDO withdrew citing the uncertainty over the staging of the event as their reason.

A preliminary round will now consist of:

• The BDO/WDF players ranked 13 to 28 at the cut-off date (Mario Robbe, Scott Waites, Gary Robson, Brian Sørensen, Albertino Essers, Ross Montgomery, Ron Meulenkamp, Shane Tichowitsch, Robert Hughes, Göran Klemme, Steve West, Mark Barilli, Phill Nixon, Steve Farmer, Paul Hogan, Edwin Max) Dirk Hespeels and Andy Murray were added to the field to replace the withdrawn players
• The PDC players ranked 13 to 16 at the cut-off date (Ronnie Baxter, Andy Jenkins, Barrie Bates, Kevin Painter)
• Eight qualifiers from a PDPA qualifying tournament at Villa Park, Birmingham on April 21 (Chris Mason, Wayne Jones, Richie Burnett, Alan Tabern, Mark Dudbridge, Matt Clark, Kevin McDine and Robbie Green)
• Wildcards Michael van Gerwen, Jelle Klaasen, Mervyn King and Vincent van der Voort.

Eight players from the preliminary round will go through to join the 24 automatic qualifiers in the group stages.