The tournament is made up of 24 teams and is contested over three days. The first day sees 12 games as each team plays one game in their pool. Day two sees the remaining 24 group games, which decide who progresses through to which finals competition. The top eight teams contest the Bowl Championship, the middle eight the Plate and the bottom eight the Cup. Quarters, semis and finals of each are all played on the last day.

All matches are seven minutes each way, apart from the three finals, which are ten minutes per half.

International Sevens was born in 1975 as a result of an idea of the then-chairman of the HKRFU and an imaginative marketing executive - with the first game actually taking place on 28 March 1976. Initially the Twickenham-based RFU were dismissive of the tournament, so it began life as a club competition, but was soon legitimised as a national tour and has grown in stature ever since. Hong Kong's glamorous surroundings only add to the excitement of the event.