The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) have announced today they have launched their own TV destination, WTA TV developed by Xerox.

The channel will provide an interactive viewing guide that will allow fans to track the latest broadcast information for WTA Premier events based on users’ locations.

In 2013, WTA tournaments were broadcast in 164 international markets, showing more than 400 matches from 22 Premier events. The introduction of WTA TV is aimed to empower the fans and create a more user-friendly experience when following the tournaments throughout the year.

“Since Xerox has joined the WTA family as a partner, they’ve brought the fans of women’s tennis closer to our stars and enriched the fan experience,” said WTA Chairman & CEO, Stacey Allaster. “For fans who travel, they’ll never have to wonder again what channel is covering a WTA tournament.  Now, with a simple click, they’ll know.”

“Xerox and the WTA are always considering natural ways to help each other achieve business objectives and amplify reach. It’s the essence of our partnership,” said Jon Levine, Vice President, Xerox Global Experiential Marketing. “WTA TV is just one proud example of a program we were able to develop for our partner through the services that Xerox has to offer.”

Following the recent announcement that England will host the women’s Hockey World Cup 2018, drugs England has also won the bids to host two further major international tournaments.

England will also host the Women’s Champions Event in 2016 and the Men’s World League Round 3 in 2017.

With the EuroHockey Championships already secured for August 2015, there’s now an exciting calendar of major international hockey events to look forward to in this country, with back-to-back tournaments from 2015 to 2018.

The purpose-built Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre on London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, is currently being developed as part of the hockey legacy following the London 2012 Olympic Games and will host the events.

England Hockey Chief Executive Sally Munday commented: “It’s such fantastic news for our sport to have back-to-back events hosted in this country. We put a huge amount of work into these bids, so we’re all delighted. This will really help us raise the profile of hockey and deliver a lasting legacy of participation.

“We’re extremely grateful for the support given to us from our partners including the London Mayor’s Office and UK Sport, who have committed to significant funding to help us stage these events which will benefit the hockey and sporting communities in this country hugely.

“I’d also like to thank new Minister for Sport Helen Grant for her support, who I’m sure will be a valuable supporter of our sport in the coming years.”

The Women’s Champions Event in 2016, Men’s League Round 3 in 2017 and World Cup 2018 all form part of UK Sport’s Gold Event Series, which is investing £27million of National Lottery funding to bring up to 70 world-class events to Great Britain to help build a strong legacy from London 2012.

Liz Nicholl, Chief Executive of UK Sport, said: “Through UK Sport’s Gold Event series we will be bringing major hockey championships to Great Britain on a regular basis from 2015.

“Supporting the staging of these high profile, world-level events demonstrates our commitment to helping to build a strong legacy from London 2012. Hockey is doing an excellent job building on their medal success in London and it is particularly pleasing to have won these bids which will showcase our committed, skilful and talented role models to inspire the next generation.”

The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC) has revealed no new sports will be added to the event meaning sports such as beach volleyball will miss out. 

“The sports program will reflect the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) stipulated 10 core sports (including para-sports) and an additional seven optional sports, no rx ‘ GOLDOC said in a statement today. 

“The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) caps the number of sports at 17.’

GOLDOC Chairman, Nigel Chamier OAM, confirmed there were no changes to the sports detailed in the Gold Coast Candidate City File submitted to the CGF in May 2011.

“The sports program was carefully developed to provide a balance of sports with consideration given to potential athlete participation levels, the number of Commonwealth nations hosting international tournaments and participant numbers from the Commonwealth at world championships’ Mr Chamier said.

Mr Chamier said formal submissions for inclusion were received from Beach Volleyball, Canoeing, Judo and Ten Pin Bowling and were reviewed over the last six months.

“All four applicants failed to meet a sufficient number of criteria to warrant being proposed to the CGF for inclusion in the 2018 sports program,’ Mr Chamier said.

UK Athletics chairman, Ed Warner has branded the delay in re-opening of the Olympic Stadium as ‘a farce’.

The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) confirmed last week that the stadium will not re-open until 2015 at the earliest and possibly the summer of 2016 – which would be two years later than expected.

UK Athletics had planned events such as Diamond League meetings, trials and school competitions from 2014 and Warner admitted he had been stunned to learn of the delay last week.

He is not worried however about any threat to the 2017 world championships which is to be held in the stadium in Stratford, east London.

Warner said: “My biggest concern is that we have some major events planned for that stadium and we thought they were going to be from the summer of 2014 onwards.

“All of the legacy use was scheduled to start in two years’ time and now it might be four years’ time which strikes me as ludicrous and to be a paralysis of decision-making which I hope the mayor [Boris Johnson] is going to cut through.

“I wouldn’t say this is a Whitehall farce but this is fast becoming a Stratford farce.

“We want to lock into the legacy of the Games while people still remember the Mobot, Greg Rutherford, Jonnie Peacock and David Weir.

“Let’s have a bit of imagination here and let’s have a decision – we want one, West Ham want one and we all want it open as soon as possible.”

A decision is expected by December 5 and West Ham’s bid remains the favourite – it includes retaining a running track although the club want the stadium to be converted to have retractable seating over the track, but not at their expense.

Sports minister Hugh Robertson said the issue was “closing the financial gap” because West Ham do not want to pay for the retractable seating which could push the cost up to £200million.

Robertson said: “We know the 2017 world championships will be fine because that is a contractual commitment we have made. The question is how quickly can this be done.

“There is a commercial negotiation going on with West Ham and it’s a question of how quickly the Mayor and the Legacy Company can close the gap.

“There is a package on the table which includes the conversion costs that were built into the budget and a contribution from the local authority and some money that West Ham might put into it, and then there is the bill for all the things they would ideally want to do to have what they would see as a modern stadium.”

Dennis Hone, chief executive of the LLDC, told the London Assembly last week a 2014 reopening is “completely out, it would be August 2015 at the absolute earliest and possibly August 2016.”

iSportconnect, ampoule the world’s leading sports Business platform have agreed a partnership with the European Golf Course Owners Association (EGCOA).

The deal see’s iSportconnect become the official Social Media partner and exclusive networking tool provider for the upcoming 2012 European Golf Business Conference taking place in Cannes on the 21^st-23^rd November.

The partnership sees the EGCOA make full use of the prestigious pre-conference networking tool, allowing delegates of the conference to see who else is attending and schedule meetings with one another.

iSportconnect CEO Sree Varma said: “We are really looking forward to working with the European Golf Course Owners Association and hope to develop our relationship even further. The European Golf Business Conference looks to be shaping up really well and I’m delighted that delegates have the platform to connect with each other, before, during and after the event.”

EGCOA said “We are delighted to be working together with iSportconnect at this year’s European Golf Business Conference. Our theme “Recreating the golf business” ties in well with what the team at iSportconnect are doing. We welcome new technology to the industry and look to embrace these advances to improve golf business as a whole.”

The EGCOA is a trade association, which provides a range of services to support golf course owners.

The EGCOA supports owners through the dissemination and sharing of knowledge, and through the creation of a range of programs for growth of the game, and through cooperation with other EU stakeholders. The EGCOA represents more than 950 members in 24 European countries.

iSportconnect is an exclusive online platform that brings together thousands of sports business professionals worldwide. The site provides news, market data and analysis, columns and features, forums, listings of events and jobs and great opportunities for online networking.

The future of the Heineken Cup will not be resolved until next month after a five-hour meeting in Dublin yesterday ended without a resolution.

European Rugby Cup (ERC) executives said”productive” talks with all stakeholders would resume in Rome on October 8.

But Premiership Rugby, price which is representing the English clubs, pills are in dispute with with ERC after both parties agreed conflicting television contracts that due to become effective in 2014.

Premiership Rugby agreed a £152million (US$246m) contract with BT Vision, to try to establish a “dazzling new European tournament” when the current Heineken Cup participation agreement ends.

But ERC signed its own Heineken Cup broadcasting contract with Sky from 2014 and said Premiership Rugby had broken International Rugby Board (IRCB) regulations by choosing a solo deal.

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) said they had not given the clubs permission to strike a separate  deal with BT Vision.

Premiership Rugby believes its plan to restructure the Heineken Cup would greatly benefit the European game financially.

But, an official ERC statement issued after the meeting of 17 executives focused only the beginning of a formulation of a new Heineken Cup deal.

The statement read: “Representatives of ERC stakeholders met in Dublin today (yesterday) to begin the formulation of a new accord which provides for the structure and format of European club rugby tournaments for the 2014/15 season and beyond.

“The meeting included productive discussions regarding the future of the club game in Europe with a general resolve among all stakeholders to reach agreement towards a new accord.

“It was decided that all parties would continue the consultative process at a meeting in Rome on October 8, 2012.”{jcomments on}

Diageo opted against sponsoring the London 2012 Olympics because they were worried about the returns they were going to receive.

The drinks company chief marketing officer Andy Fennell told Marketing: “We won’t be sponsors of the World Cup or the Olympics.”

“It’s really expensive and hard to get a return.”

He added: “Brands have to do [such sponsorships] on conviction. I’m sure some of them will get real benefit from being associated with the world’s most extraordinary sporting festival.”

“Nonetheless, sickness ” said Fennell: “If they try to do two-decimal-place ROI analysis, generic they will struggle, which is why most of them had board-level corporate conviction, and that’s what needs to happen.”

The fourth edition of The Queen’s Cup, one of Thailand’s most popular golf tournaments, will will be played at the Santiburi Samui Country Club in Koh Samui from June 14 to 17.

Bangkok Airways, the Sports Authority of Thailand, Thailand PGA and Asian Tour announced Thailand’s upcoming event in a press conference.

A total prize fund of US $300,000 will be on offer.

The Queen’s Cup is held in honour of Her Majesty, Queen Sirikit. The competion is sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Thailand PGA.

Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, President of Bangkok Airways, said: “We are particularly excited to be organising this tournament for the fourth year in honour of our beloved Queen Sirikit. We have always strived to take Thai golf tournaments onto the international level and through this tournament, we hope to draw a larger number of golf enthusiasts who consequently will stimulate Samui’s tourism.”

Kanokphand Chulakasem, Director of Professional Sports Competitions Division, Sport Authority of Thailand, said: “The Queen’s Cup Bangkok Airways – SAT Samui Golf Tournament 2012 is one of the major golf tournaments each year which continues to significantly develop Thai golf to the next level. This is an excellent opportunity for Thai golfers to compete side by side with the world’s top players.”

The Queen’s Cup is sponsored by Bangkok Airways, Sport Authority of Thailand, Santiburi Samui Country Club. The competition has a several of co-sponsors— Samui Municipal and Tourism Association of Koh Samui, Bangkok Hospital Group, PTT, Kiatnakin Fund Management, Bangkok Bank, Bangkok Insurance, Sabre, Hertz Media partners are The Nation, True Visions, Bangkok Shuho and Elite magazine.

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Having replaced Bridgestone as the sole provider for Formula One tyres at the start of the season, sickness Pirelli chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera, for sale has declared his company is ready to be a long-term partner of the sport.

The firm will be paid Eur1.25m (US$1.8m) by each of the 12 teams per year for the next three campaigns under the terms of the recent agreement after the company’s previous partnership with F1 ended in 1991.

Tronchetti is hoping that Pirelli’s involvement in F1 will help to boost sales in key markets around the world, ed with India debuting on the race calendar this season and circuits in America and Russia set to be introduced in 2012 and 2014, respectively.

The Pirelli chairman told Reuters: “It is a long-term project if it’s affordable. It is always depending on costs. We left because of the cost, we came back because it was affordable and we will continue to stay if the teams are providing us the opportunity to stay. I think the experience we are making makes us more comfortable in staying in, and then it depends on costs.

“We were asked to create more emotions and we did it, with safe tyres lasting enough but not too much, which is really very difficult. We reached the target, which is more difficult to build tyres that last for the entire Grand Prix. The tyres perform well. What we did in nine months proved that we are ready to do anything.”

Tronchetti also expressed an interest in staying in the sport even if competition between suppliers is ultimately allowed, adding: “It is easier in a sense because to produce tyres for a few teams you can make the fine tuning with each of them.”