David defeated Ritchie Davies, Marko Pusa, Bob Taylor and the England captain Martin Adams en route to the final.

The women's tournament was won by Trina Gulliver for the second consecutive year, defeating Mandy Solomons, Vicky Pruim and Francis Hoenselaar en route to victory.

[3] A total of 27 players automatically qualified for the main draw with the top 8 seeded according to their final position in the BDO rankings.

[3] John Ferrell,[6] two-time finalist Bobby George,[7] Markus Korhohen, Davy Richardson and Mensur Suljović were the five players from a worldwide field of 300 who progressed to the main draw by qualifying.

[9] Sponsored by the cigarette brand Embassy,[10] it had a total prize fund of £197,000 and was broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC and SBS6 in the Netherlands.

[2][3][11] There was some controversy prior to the competition when six qualifying players—1996 champion Steve Beaton, two-time finalist Ronnie Baxter, Andy Jenkins, Chris Mason, Kevin Painter and Paul Williams—opted to play in the rival Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) world championship instead.

Olly Croft insisted the absent players would not be missed, but the head of BBC darts disagreed, stating: "You can't just replace recognisable people with unknowns and say it is the same and that nothing has changed.

"[a][13][12] This allowed Peter Johnstone, Wayne Jones, Stefan Nagy, Russell Stewart and Andree Welge to take their places.

[3] Stacy Bromberg, Sandra Greatbatch, Jan Robbins and Mandy Solomon were the quartet of players who advanced from qualifying to the main draw.

He then took the following two legs before Van Der Voort forced a final set decider that Suljović won for a 3–2 victory.

[23][24] Korhohen, the youngest player in the competition's history at 18 years and 50 days,[25] lost 3–1 to Steve Coote from scores of 3–1 and 3–2 in sets two and three.

Both players equalled the score and forced the game to enter a final set decider that Hankey won 3–0.

[22] Afterwards Komula said he was annoyed because he was not informed of tournament organisers moving the game's start time by two hours to allow it to be televised.

[28] Sixth seed Bob Taylor progressed to the second round for the first time since the 1994 championship with a 3–0 victory over Ferrell with a match-winning 102 checkout.

[3][28] Tony David, who has the blood-clotting disorder haemophilia which prevents him from straightening his throwing arm,[27] beat Ritchie Davies, the tournament's sole Welsh player,[29] 3–1.

[30] Walton drew level with Monk 2–2 after his opponent missed the double 18 ring in the fourth set's final leg.

This caused the match to conclude with a final set decider, which Monk won 3–2 to progress to the second round after a 116 checkout and a double 10 finish.

[37] Monk took a 4–1 lead before Mardle replied by winning twelve consecutive legs to level the score at 4–4 and required the game to conclude with a ninth set.

Monk took the deciding frame to enter the semi-finals, saying afterwards, "At 4–1 I was thinking it was happy days, but next thing I had the world on my shoulders.

Both players had been at this stage of the event before; King was defeated 5–3 by Les Wallace in the 1997 tournament and Monk lost to Van Barneveld in the 1998 competition.

[42] He then achieved another maximum score and hit the double four ring to win 5–1 and become the first player to earn a berth in the final.

[5] During the match, which took place before a crowd of 1,200 spectators,[46] an 81 checkout and a 12-dart finish won David the first set 3–2 after King's dart did not strike the double 20 ring in leg four.

[47][48] During the tenth set both players equalled the scoreline before David successfully threw a dart on the double 18 ring to hold a 2–1 advantage.

David became the first Australian to win the BDO world championship,[50][52] and the first non-European player to do so since Canadian, John Part.

"[50] The press reviewed the match positively and David was called "The People's Champion" in a similar fashion to Alex Higgins in snooker.

[50][53] Bruce Wilson writing for the Herald Sun called David's victory "a true Cinderella story" because he was ranked 18th in the world and considered a 66–1 outsider.

[46] Bobby George, writing in his BBC Sport online column, agreed David deserved to win and criticised King's performance in the final.

The final quarter-final saw Greatbatch defeat 2001 semi-finalist Howat after overcoming a challenge from her opponent to equal the score at 2–2 in the second set.

Gulliver compiled 60 points and finished on the double 20 ring to win the second BDO women's world championship.

It was hard this time and there was an extra round, with eight players starting instead of the four last year", and, "Everyone wants the title and with me being the number one seed and defending champion there was a lot of pressure.