Background:

This tournament has been played in its current format since 1994 and it takes place in Blackpool at The Winter Gardens. Its probably the best venue on tour and one that all the players look forward to due to the vociferous crowds and large prize pools. Its been sponsored by Stan James since the year 2000 and to date is the longest running sponsorship in the PDC calendar. Its also the only tournament that doesn’t have a deciding leg as all matches must be decided by 2 clear legs which leads to a lot of excitement and games that run and run.

The tournament has been won 9 times by Taylor in its 15 years and other winners are Larry Butler, Peter Evison, Rod Harrington (x2), Colin Lloyd and James Wade. The tournament takes place over the course of a week in late July and features 32 of the top players in the world. It’s the 16 top players as taken from the PDC order of Merit along with 16 players who have earned the most money in qualifying events up until the cut off point at the end of June. From there the 16 from the OOM will be seeded and drawn against the 16 qualifiers which always leads to some explosive matches in R1. As in most tournaments the format gets longer as the rounds progress and will culminate in a final that is best of 35 legs.

Past Winners:

2000 – Phil Taylor bt Alan Warriner 18-12
2001 – Phil Taylor bt Richie Burnett 18-10
2002 – Phil Taylor bt John Part 18-16
2003 – Phil Taylor bt Wayne Mardle 18-12
2004 – Phil Taylor bt Mark Dudbridge 18-8
2005 – Colin Lloyd bt John Part 18-12
2006 – Phil Taylor bt James Wade 18-11
2007 – James Wade bt Terry Jenkins 18-7
2008 – Phil Taylor bt James Wade 18-9