The ITTF is looking forward to receiving many strong bids this Friday for a long-term Commercial Strategic Partner to support its ambitious vision for table tennis.
Since the ITTF issued its Commercial Rights Tender in March the level of interest has been very positive with 50 companies expressing an interest to assist in the remodelling of table tennis’ commercial rights and boost the sport’s global growth.
The conversations held since then including a number of meetings during April’s World Table Tennis Championships have been extremely encouraging and the ITTF is buoyed by the prospect of joining forces soon with the perfect partner in order to revolutionise the world of table tennis forever.
From 2021 all commercial rights to all major international ITTF properties will be available and the ITTF wants to remodel the way in which these rights are monetised and main products are run to finally unlock the full potential of table tennis so that it can compete among the highest-profile sports in the world.
All of the ITTF’s core commercial assets will be held within a brand new commercial vehicle called ‘World Table Tennis’ (WTT) and it is proposed that the Strategic Partner that comes on board will be a key partner of WTT to help shape the transformation and drive success in this revolutionary commercialisation of table tennis.
The comprehensive range of commercial rights available include the following areas: Sponsorship; Media: Digital Social and TV; Gaming and Data; Event Hosting; Licensing; Players; CSR; Future Products.
The road to 2021 is already under way since all of the ITTF’s commercial rights were brought back in-house in 2017 and the ITTF Strategic Plan was launched in 2018. Significant progress has already been made to improve competition structures and commercialise international events assisted by the ITTF’s close collaboration with Deloitte Sports Business Group.
“It’s a time of challenge for many International Federations and based on the recent ASOIF report we believe that splitting the commercial and governance arms of the organisation will be fundamental to driving our commercial growth via our new commercial vehicle World Table Tennis. We believe this modern approach is the key to success ” said Thomas Weikert ITTF President.
“This is the dawn of a new era for the ITTF but also the moment of truth after years of hard work and preparations. Since we brought our commercial rights back in-house in 2017 we have set out to revolutionise our key products such as the ITTF World Tour and World Championships always with the bigger picture in mind of what we can sell from 2021. As we edge closer to that date we are confident and excited to join forces with the right Strategic Partner to really hone our long-term strategy for professionalising and commercialising table tennis like never before ” Steve Dainton ITTF CEO.
“For the first time ever we have stopped and looked at the way we are running our commercial operations and decided to make a fundamental change about how we do business. We are very happy about how the tender process has been run together with our professional consultants at Deloitte Sports Business Group and Withers KhattarWong and the results seen so far. It is very refreshing to see the market show such an immense interest in our tender process and we are sure that this new way of doing business will unlock the undoubted commercial potential of table tennis. We are looking forward to seeing many innovative tender proposals on Friday!” added Matt Pound ITTF Marketing Director.
