THE stars of the PDC have arrived in Dubai ahead of the Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters - as they prepare to compete for $250,000 prize money in the inaugural event.
The Dubai Tennis Stadium is being converted into a darts arena ahead of the Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters, which will be held on Thursday May 23 and Friday May 24 at the venue.
The open-air event will see the stage covered by a canopy to reduce any possible airflow, while around 2,000 fans will pack the stadium on each night.
Thursday will see the four Quarter-Final matches take place, with the winners then returning to compete in the Semi-Finals and Final on Friday night.
The draw for the Dubai Duty Free Masters will be made on Wednesday afternoon at a sponsors' launch, with the top four players at the time of the event's announcement in January - Phil Taylor, Adrian Lewis, James Wade & Michael van Gerwen - all seeded for the Quarter-Finals.
Simon Whitlock, Andy Hamilton, Wes Newton and Raymond van Barneveld will be drawn out to face the seeds.
Van Gerwen, who has won both the McCoy's Premier League Darts and European Darts Open titles in the past week, was joined by van Barneveld in travelling to Dubai on Monday, with the six UK-based stars landing in the Middle East on Tuesday.
The five Unicorn-sponsored players, Taylor, van Barneveld, Wade, Hamilton and Newton, visited the Sun & Sand Sport Store in the Dubai Mall (pictured above) where they played darts with customers on Tuesday afternoon.
Tickets for the Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters - costing AED199 per day, AED299 for two-day and AED495 for two-day VIP tickets - are still available through Irish Village (www.irishvillage.ae) and Timeout Tickets (www.itp.net/tickets).
Corporate Hospitality tables, which include all food and beverages, are on sale through One Events (www.iuae.ae) or Radar (www.radar-world.com).