A total of 16 PDC players automatically qualified for the tournament based on their positions in the PDC world rankings following the 2006 PDC World Darts Championship. There were 16 seeds: Colin Lloyd, the world number one, was the first seed and Phil Taylor, the 13-time world champion, was seeded second. There were 12 places decided by a series of qualifying rounds held between 4 February and 19 April at various locations across the United States. The remaining 4 spots were decided in a competition which took place at the Mohegan Sun Resort on 19 May. The maximum number of legs played in a match increased from 11 in the first and second rounds to 17 in the quarter-finals and 21 in the semi-finals, leading up to the best-of-25 legs final.