2007 International Darts League
The 2007 Tropicana International Darts League was a darts tournament held at the Triavium in Nijmegen, Netherlands from May 4–12. The tournament was sponsored by Tropicana — a Dutch-based soft drink manufacturer. Raymond van Barneveld entered the tournament as three-times and defending champion. Darts history was made when the tournament became the first televised event to witness two nine dart finishes. On May 8, Phil Taylor hit his fourth perfect game on television against Raymond van Barneveld and the following night Tony O'Shea matched the effort against Adrian Lewis. Despite the presence of current BDO  and PDC World Champions and four other former world champions in the field, none progressed beyond the quarter-finals. 36 year old Gary Anderson won his first major title with a 13–9 victory over fellow BDO/WDF player Mark Webster. Prize fund. The total prize fund is €135,000 (plus €26,000 for a nine-dart finish) 2007 controversy. 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. 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. Results. Preliminary Round. Played Friday 4 May 2007 Group One – Winner: Mervyn King Group Two – Winner: Gary Robson Group Three – Winner: Michael van Gerwen Group Four – Winner: Ross Montgomery Group Five – Winner: Barrie Bates Group Six – Winner: Mark Dudbridge Group Seven – Winner: Jelle Klaasen Group Eight – Winner: Ronnie Baxter First Round. Played Saturday 5 May to Monday 7 May Second Round. Played Tuesday  8 May to Thursday 10 May 2007 format. 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: Eight players from the preliminary round will go through to join the 24 automatic qualifiers in the group stages.