27 players automatically qualified for the main draw with the top 8 seeded according to their final position in the BDO rankings. Mervyn King was seeded first overall and the tournament's reigning champion Ted Hankey was seeded seventh. The remaining five places were decided via an play-off round at the Lakeside Country Club on 30 November 2000. Steve Alker, Shaun Greatbatch, Jez Porter, Davy Richardson and Gary Robson were the five players who progressed from the qualifying rounds to the main draw. The maximum number of sets played in a match increased from five in the first and second rounds to nine in the quarter and semi-finals, leading up to the final which was played as best-of-11 frames. Sponsored by the cigarette brand Embassy, it had a total prize fund of £189,000 and the host broadcaster was the BBC.