The tournament carried a total prize purse of £126,400 (approx US$250,000). Due to the time difference between the UK and US, the matches were played in the morning local time – which is prime-time evening in the UK where the tournament was broadcast live on Sky Sports.
Initially Fox Sports World transmitted the tournament live but in recent years they broadcast recorded coverage in the United States. Partypoker.net became the first sponsors of the event in 2006.
The format of the Classic changed over the years. In 2002, the tournament had a sets format with best of 7 legs per set. In 2003, the tournament had a legs only format throughout with a round robin group stage of 8 groups with 3 players each, before it became straight knockout from the quarter-finals onwards. In 2004 and 2005, the tournament reverted to straight knockout with a sets format with best of 5 legs per set throughout. In 2006, the tournament had a legs only format in the Last 32, before reverting to a sets format with best of 5 legs per set for the Last 16, Quarter-finals, Semi-finals and the Final. From 2007 to 2009, the tournament remained straight knockout but moved back to a legs only format throughout.
The Las Vegas Desert Classic tournament was retired in 2010 and a new tournament held in Las Vegas, the Tropicana World Series, has been put in its place. However, the tournament is not televised.
Philip Douglas Taylor is an English former professional darts player. Nicknamed "The Power", he dominated darts for over three decades and won 214 professional tournaments, including a record 85 major titles and a record 16 World Championships. In 2015, the BBC rated Taylor among the ten greatest British sportsmen of the last 35 years.
Raymond van Barneveld is a Dutch professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Nicknamed "Barney", although originally known as "The Man", he is one of the most successful darts players in history. Van Barneveld is a five-time World Darts Champion, a two-time UK Open Champion and a former winner of the Las Vegas Desert Classic, the Grand Slam of Darts and the Premier League. He is also a twice-winner of the World Masters and the World Darts Trophy, and a three-time winner of the International Darts League, the Dutch Open and the WDF World Cup Singles event.
The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the World Darts Council (WDC). Sports promoter Eddie Hearn is the PDC chairman.
John Part is a Canadian former professional darts player and current commentator. Nicknamed "Darth Maple", he is a three-time World Champion, having won the 1994 BDO World Darts Championship on his world championship debut, and the PDC World Championship in 2003 and 2008. Part is statistically North America's greatest darts player to date. He has the distinction of being the first non-UK player to win the World Championship, and the only non-European to date to win the PDC World Darts Championship.
Colin Edward Lloyd, nicknamed Jaws, is an English former professional darts player. He is a former world number-one ranked player and has won two major television titles in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) – the 2004 World Grand Prix and the 2005 World Matchplay.
ITV Sport is a sport producer for ITV. It was formed following the merger between Granada Sport and Central Sport.
The BoyleSports World Grand Prix is a PDC darts tournament traditionally held in Dublin, Ireland every October, but has taken place in Leicester, England since 2021. Its original venue was the Casino Rooms in Rochester, Kent in 1998 and 1999, and then for one year only in 2000 at the Crosbie Cedars Hotel in Rosslare, County Wexford. In 2001, the tournament moved further north to the Citywest in Dublin. In 2009, the tournament moved from the Reception Hall at the main Citywest Hotel, to the newly completed bigger venue on site, the Citywest Hotel Convention Centre. In 2012, the tournament moved back to the Reception Hall for that year, before returning to the Convention Centre in 2013. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 tournament was held at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry, and since 2021, it has been held at the Morningside Arena, Leicester. When the World Grand Prix was founded in 1998, it replaced the earlier World Pairs tournament which ran from 1995 to 1997.
Premier League Darts, known for sponsorship purposes in 2024 as BetMGM Premier League Darts, is a darts tournament which launched on 20 January 2005 on Sky Sports. Now played weekly from February to May, the event originally started as a fortnightly fixture in small venues around the United Kingdom. The tournament originally featured seven players, gradually expanded to ten by 2013, before reduced again from 2022 to eight players from the Professional Darts Corporation circuit competing in a knockout style format, with nights also hosted in Europe at different venues. The top four players in the PDC Order of Merit are joined by four wildcard selections to make up the eight-person field. Alongside the World Championship and the World Matchplay, it is considered part of the sport's Triple Crown.
The PDC World Darts Championship, known for sponsorship purposes as the Paddy Power World Darts Championship, organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), is a World Professional Darts Championship held annually in the sport of darts. The PDC championship begins in December and ends in January and is held at Alexandra Palace in London and has been held there since 2008. It is the most prestigious of the PDC's tournaments, with the winner receiving the Sid Waddell Trophy, named in honour of the darts commentator Sid Waddell, who died in 2012. Along with the Premier League Darts and World Matchplay, it is considered part of the Triple Crown.
The 2002 Las Vegas Desert Classic was the inaugural staging of a darts tournament by the Professional Darts Corporation. It featured the top players from the PDC along with an opportunity for players from North America to qualify. Over 200 players entered the event, but the last 16 featured mostly British-based players – the only exceptions being Roland Scholten and former World Champion John Part who participate regularly in UK tournaments.
The 2003 Las Vegas Desert Classic was the second major Professional Darts Corporation Las Vegas Desert Classic darts tournament. It was held in the MGM Grand Casino and Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada in early July.
The 2004 Las Vegas Desert Classic, promoted at the time as the Las Vegas Desert Classic III, was the third year that the Professional Darts Corporation held a major darts tournament in the United States. It was held between 30 June and July 4, 2004.
Terry Jenkins is an English former professional darts player who was nicknamed The Bull, having previously used the name "Tucker" for his matches. He reached number three in the world rankings and was a runner-up in nine major PDC televised finals, those being the 2006 and 2007 World Grand Prix, 2007 Premier League, 2007 Las Vegas Desert Classic, 2007 and 2009 World Matchplay, 2008 Grand Slam of Darts, 2014 UK Open and 2014 European Championship.
The 2007 SBets.net Las Vegas Desert Classic was the sixth time that the Professional Darts Corporation stage the prestigious darts tournament. The tournament was held at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino for the second successive year and was staged between July 3 and July 8, televised on Sky Sports from July 4 - there was no title sponsor for the event after PartyPoker.net's sponsorship lasted for just one year.
Wesley Newton is an English professional darts player.
Michael McGowan is an Irish professional darts player who last played in events for the British Darts Organisation (BDO).
PDC World Championship Darts is a sports video game published by Oxygen Interactive and developed and designed by Mere Mortals. It was released for the PlayStation 2 and PC. The game features ten professionals from the Professional Darts Corporation, and five tournaments from the PDC circuit. A sequel, PDC World Championship Darts 2008, was produced the following year.
The 2007 PartyBets.com Grand Slam of Darts was the inaugural staging of the darts tournament, the Grand Slam of Darts, held by the Professional Darts Corporation. The tournament invited the best performing players from the PDC and its rival the British Darts Organisation. There had been two previous head-to-head matches between the champions of the two organisations and a few tournaments have also featured BDO v PDC clashes. This tournament was the first of its kind to be held in the United Kingdom.
The 2009 Las Vegas Desert Classic was a professional darts tournament staged from July 1 to July 5, 2009 at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the eighth and final staging of the event since the original 2002 edition, and the fourth time it took place at the Mandalay Bay Resort. The tournament was the third of five Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) premier events in the 2009 season. Online gambling website PartyPower.com sponsored the tournament broadcast on Sky Sports.
The World Series of Darts Festival was a series of five professional darts competitions organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in the Tropicana Ballroom of the Tropicana Hotel, in Las Vegas, Nevada, from 26 to 30 June 2010. It was established to replace the Las Vegas Desert Classic, and featured the 501-point and cricket formats. There was a £200,000 prize fund divided between all five events.
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Phil Taylor 
