Saudi Arabia has announced it will host a World Snooker Tour event for the first time in 2020. The event, part of the 2020/21 World Snooker Tour calendar, will run from the 4th-10th October 2020 in Riyadh.
The Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters will be a world ranking event with all 128 tour players in the field.
A structured draw will see players seeded 65th to 128th compete in the first round. The 32 winners will face those seeded 33-64, after which the top 32 seeds will enter the draw in the third round.
The tournament also showcases four local players competing against four Tour players seeded 65th to 128th competing in the first round, drawn at random. All players will be required to win at least one match for prize money to count towards their world ranking. Total prize money will be £2.5 million.
The newly formed partnership with World Snooker kick starts a ten-year deal, throughout which the Kingdom aims to raise the profile of snooker at grassroots level.
World Snooker Chairman Barry Hearn said: “This is a giant leap forward for our sport. We have enjoyed tremendous global expansion over the past decade, particularly in Asia and Europe and we are thrilled to stage a new and momentous tournament in the Middle East. We have a packed calendar throughout the year which creates a competitive marketplace for new events. Snooker has grown to such an extent that we are now creating exceptional tournaments at this level.”
Hearn added: “For the fans in Saudi Arabia it is a wonderful opportunity to see the best players in the world competing for a huge title. We look forward to working with our partners on delivering a huge event.”
WPBSA Chairman Jason Ferguson added: “One of our biggest ambitions is to bring snooker to every corner of the planet so this is a step of huge significance. It gives us a firm footprint in the Middle East and we believe this will be the beginning of a boom for our sport in the region.”
Prince Abdulaziz Bin Turki AlFaisal Al Saud, Chairman of the GSA, said: “This partnership adds further to our hosting of a diverse range of international sports in Saudi Arabia. Having held motorsport and boxing events in recent months, and with tennis and equestrian events to follow, we are thrilled to add the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, which will see world class snooker played in Saudi Arabia for the first time in 2020.
“Our aim is to provide opportunities to those in our country and region to see the world’s best, in a bid to inspire and encourage participation and spectatorship. Part of this ten-year agreement sees a commitment from Matchroom to host clinics within universities and schools prior to each tournament to educate and encourage our youth to try snooker.”
Annastacia Palaszczuk, state Premier for Queensland, has revealed that the state has agreed to back a bid to host the 2032 Olympic Games.
“Hosting the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics could be a game changer and deliver 20 years of accelerated opportunity for our State,” Palaszczuk said.
“That’s why Cabinet has today made the decision to continue working towards securing a Games -and we will continue to work closely with our partners to ensure we receive the financial support we require from all levels of Government.
“This is about so much more than a few weeks of sport,” she added.
“There’s more work to do to ensure we are in a position to put a compelling case to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
“As I’ve said all along, we will only proceed if it is in the best interests of Queenslanders.
“A strong partnership, including the right funding commitments, is vital – and our focus now is to secure that ahead of key discussions with the IOC at the Tokyo Olympics in July next year.”
John Coates, President of the Australian Olympic Committee, commented on the announcement: “Sport unites us and inspires us. We have a lot of work to do from here, but it’s hard not to be excited about the benefits that will flow over many decades if Queensland was successful.
“It’s about a decade of opportunity for sport, the community and the economy, leading into the Games – and for decades after. But now we have to focus on ensuring Queensland mounts a compelling case.”
DAZN have secured the rights to broadcast the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup in Germany.
The competition will see favourites Liverpool compete in a semi-final and final as they look to follow-up their UEFA Champions League Victory.
This announcement comes shortly after DAZN announced that it has a deal to stream Spain’s premier domestic cup competition, the Copa Del Rey, in Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Japan.
The three-year deal covers the upcoming seasons from 2019/20 – 2021/22, bringing the biggest teams in Spanish football to the platform and represents DAZN’s first package of domestic football rights in Spain.
With the 2019 BWF World Tour Finals starting on Wednesday in Guangzhou, China, iSportconnect decided it would be a good time to talk to Thomas Lund, Secretary General of the BWF, about how the sport has developed and progressed throughout the past 12 months and take the opportunity to look ahead at everything to come in 2020 for Badminton.
What have been the biggest changes within badminton during 2019?
It’s been a year where we have focused on growing our existing assets including hosting thrilling Major Championships with the TOTAL BWF Sudirman Cup 2019 in Nanning, China, the TOTAL BWF World Championships together with the TOTAL BWF Word Para Badminton Championships in Basel, Switzerland, and further building the HSBC BWF World Tour to reach out to even more global fans.
Our new AirBadminton project was launched in May this year and is one of the exciting new participation initiatives aimed at making badminton even more accessible with more people able to get more enjoyment from badminton by playing in an outdoor environment. With the launch of AirBadminton we hope to see it thrive in all badminton markets and we are delighted to see positive reaction to some of the first AirBadminton competitions and we hope this can also become a new exciting part of badminton’s future.
Which area of progression have you been most pleased about recently?
We are extremely satisfied with the successful staging of the TOTAL BWF World Championships 2019 and TOTAL BWF Para Badminton World Championships 2019 concurrently for the very first time. Some 384 badminton players competed in the TOTAL BWF World Championships and close to 300 Para badminton athletes took to the courts in Basel, Switzerland, competing in 22 wheelchair and standing events. It was seven days of thrilling badminton and Para badminton action that showcased some of the most exciting matches seen in the sport and we believe it’s one of the first times that a Para Sport World Championships has been integrated fully into an able-bodied World Championships.
England’s Para badminton Short Stature (SH6) world champion Jack Shephard. Image: Alan Spink/BWF – Other images: BWF
For us this is a reflection of unity and diversity in badminton, and that Para badminton is now completely in sync with the BWF. The focus now turns to both badminton and Para badminton being showcased at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, with Para badminton making its debut on the Paralympic sports programme. Earlier this year we also heard of the inclusion of Para badminton at Paris 2024 and this provides us with a great opportunity to build upon all the hard work that has been done in the lead up to Tokyo 2020 and to continue to create awareness of the sport and our development initiatives for the foreseeable future.
How do you continue to grow fan engagement at the BWF?
According to our 2018 Global Badminton Study conducted by Nielsen Sports, research has shown that outside of China, badminton is experiencing large-scale growth. The fan base is estimated to be 681 million across seven regionsbased on sample surveys conducted in 21 badminton markets globally. This is an increase of around 37% since 2015 on those same 21 markets. For 2018, the survey added 15 additional markets, increasing the badminton fan base by 54 million and bringing the total number of badminton fans globally in 35 markets to be an estimated 735 million fans across seven regions. In fact, we are now ranked third behind football and basketball and ahead of tennis, motorsport and golf in terms of total fans when measured in those 21 key countries.
One area we are behind on is leveraging influencers and utilising athletes as ambassadors to get more people talking about badminton. This is something we are working very hard on at the moment…
Our next efforts are to tell the world about this. Our digital and TV coverage is the biggest it has ever been and with superstars like Pusarla V Sindhu who is ranked 13th in Forbes’ Highest-Paid Female Athletes list for 2019 with US$5.5 million in earnings, we feel badminton is starting to be talked about more and more. Our simple strategy to capitalise on this is to strengthen the bond between our fans and our athletes, so our stars are more accessible to the world. And this includes converting the huge number of active participants we have globally into everyday fans. One area we are behind on is leveraging influencers and utilising athletes as ambassadors to get more people talking about badminton. This is something we are working very hard on at the moment and are looking forward to unveiling some exciting new projects very soon.
How much of a focus do you place on social media to grow the sport?
We see the digital sphere as being a crucial asset to communicate with the younger generation and to target new and potential fan bases. We are placing considerable resources into improving and expanding our existing digital and social media presence and over the course of the next 12 months you will begin to see exciting new developments both on our Anglophone and Chinese platforms. Naturally, there’s huge potential in China with an existing participation group of around 149.4 million. As we start to build our digital presence and fully utilise the capabilities of digital and social media platforms in China, as well as bringing the athlete-fan relationship close together, we feel we will start to see a shift in our online fan numbers, too.
Are there any big changes you are going to implement in the next 12 months?
In the first quarter of 2020, we expect the first AirShuttles to be on the shelf and available for public purchase. AirBadminton, and specifically the creation of the AirShuttle, is BWF’s ambitious new development project designed to create opportunities for people of all ages and ability to play badminton on hard, grass and sand surfaces in parks, gardens, streets, playgrounds and beaches around the world. We had the Global Launch in May 2019 using a number of prototype AirShuttles and since then, the emphasis has been on working with leading sports manufacturers to mass produce and rollout the AirShuttle.
The project has been five years in the making, starting with a vision to develop a new outdoor shuttlecock with increased durability, stability and wind resistance to allow people to have a more positive experience of badminton outdoors. The main considerations were that it must be played with the same rackets and have good flight performance, spin response and durability. We fully acknowledge that playing badminton is not a new concept, in fact, many children’s first exposure to badminton is in an outdoor environment, but for us it’s about creating a product that is more suitable for everyone to play in an outdoor environment. Right now, we are still on our original timeline and we expect the mass production of the AirShuttle to begin at the end of 2019 with the shuttle available to the public in the first quarter of 2020. In the meantime, we have sufficient samples to continue the testing and piloting process of AirBadminton and the AirShuttle.
What are you most looking forward to in 2020, how much of a focus does the Olympics take?
Our aim is to continue the growth of badminton as forecasted in our strategic plans. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games are of course a big highlight next year, and the fact Para badminton is debuting at Tokyo 2020 is certainly a landmark occasion for our sport. It is fantastic for our players and wider badminton community to be accepted into the Paralympic Games and to be part of the programme. Japan is also a fitting backdrop to present our Olympic and Paralympic disciplines where Japan has for many years been hosting numerous tournaments being considered among the best and most prestigious tournaments by our players. Regarding the Olympics, we are very much looking forward to the badminton competition at Tokyo 2020. With Japan’s fantastic pedigree in the sport and recent successes, the atmosphere at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza will be amazing.
Both the Olympics and the Paralympics do assume a large chunk of our focus for a 12 month period with a lot of planning, preparation and coordination with the hosts taking place, but we are also very mindful of all other aspects of the organisation where we will continue to develop and grow the HSBC BWF World Tour and before Tokyo 2020 we will invite our fans to experience the crowning of new world team champions at the thrilling TOTAL BWF Thomas & Uber Cups competitions being hosted in Aarhus, Denmark, in May. All of these core tournament activities provide a great platform to promote the sport and to increase our efforts of getting more people to play more badminton.
iSportconnect’s latest Insights survey powered by Goodform will close at the end of this week and we would love to hear from as many of our iSportconnect community as possible.
Our questions take no more than five minutes to answer and once completed you will automatically be entered into a draw to win a $100 Amazon voucher.
‘Sponsorship Trends in Sport’ is our latest subject to be covered in this survey and we would love to hear from you, our iSportconnect community, to share your opinions.
Goodform will then review the results provided and create a concise report, which we will then share with all who completed the survey.
Manchester City has announced its first training kit partner, Marathonbet.
This major new partnership, for City’s men’s and women’s teams, builds on eighteen months of Marathonbet as the Club’s Official Global Betting Partner.
Marathonbet branding will be added to the training kits of City’s men’s and women’s senior teams.
The partnership was launched today at the City Football Academy as City players Sergio Aguero, Bernardo Silva, Gemma Bonner and Megan Campbell joined Pep Guardiola to unveil the new kit branding.
Since the two organisations began working together in summer 2018, Manchester City and Marathonbet have collaborated on a number of exciting fan initiatives, with Marathonbet becoming a key component of the City matchday for fans at the Etihad Stadium and those following around the world.
Most recently Marathonbet also marked its launch in Nigeria by partnering with City to bring the Club’s trophy tour, featuring all six trophies won by the men’s and women’s team last season, to fans in the country.
Omar Berrada, Chief Operating Officer at Manchester City, commented, “Launching our first training kit partner is a significant moment for Manchester City and we are delighted to be doing this with our existing partner, Marathonbet.
“The last eighteen months of partnership have been extremely positive for both organisations and we are pleased to recognise this success by expanding our relationship together.”
Natalia Zavodnik, CEO of Marathonbet, said: “It’s been a privilege to be alongside Manchester City as their Official Betting Partner during one of the most exciting chapters in the club’s recent history.
“We have been offering fans around the world the chance to benefit from our unique giveaways, competitions and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, and we are delighted to be strengthening our partnership today as Marathonbet also becomes the club’s first ever Official Training Kit Partner.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has said that the league must innovate in order to overcome the current drastic dip in television ratings suffered by it’s broadcasts.
“You’re really pushing a rock up a hill if you’ve lost 20 per cent of your [cable] audience over the last four years, especially when that young audience that we attract is disproportionately represented by that 20 per cent,” Silver said at a Sports Business Journal Conference, adding, they ahve “no choice but to innovate right now.”
NBA ratings have dipped drastically throughout this season, in a slightly surprising turn considering the league has never been more wide open, with any of the top 10 teams all having a realistic chance to win the title.
The competition will be held in Saudi Arabia, which has been criticised by some, but Movistar have now acquired the domestic rights to show the fixtures in Spain.
Four teams will compete in the new version of the competition, playing a semi-final and final, rather than the previous format of a two-legged tie between two teams.
The Spanish Football Federation are believed to have been seeking terms in the realm of €4 million to boradcast the fixtures.
Marathonbet Become Manchester City’s Training Kit Partner
Manchester United + Alibaba
Manchester United and Alibaba agree partnership that will bring exclusive rights to club content in China to Alibaba’s ecosystem for the first time, further extending the club’s engagement with its massive Chinese fanbase.
ICC + OPPO
The International Cricket Council announced it has extended its global partnership with leading smartphone brand OPPO through until the end of 2023.
PSG + Visit Rwanda
For three seasons, the Paris Saint-Germain community and the world will have a unique opportunity to experience Rwanda’s breath-taking beauty, creative culture, innovative environment, and modern and distinctive Made in Rwanda products through unprecedented and creative communications.
Premier League + Eurovision
Premier League Productions will use Eurovision Services as principal global distributor of the Premier League for three seasons starting with the 2019/2020 campaign.
Eurosport + Tokyo 2020
Eurosport becomes official Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 broadcaster in France
Ferrari + Hublot
Hublot will be the Title Partner of the FDA Esports Team providing vital support to the Italian squad which was set up last July.
DAZN + Copa Del Rey
DAZN announced that it has secured a deal to stream Spain’s premier domestic cup competition, the Copa Del Rey, in Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Japan.
2019’s iSportconnect Dubai Summit took place yesterday at the Dubai Sports Council, bring together key figures from the world of sport for a fantastic day of networking and learning.
Host of the day’s events, Ben Nichols, said of the event: “The fourth iSportConnect Dubai Summit proved to be a huge success. Attended by delegates from the sporting world, participants gathered in the Dubai Sports Council headquarters to hear some of the leading voices from the industry discuss topics ranging from fan engagement to sponsorship and partnerships and from big events to the ever-growing world of Esports.
“The event was headlined by a captivating discussion on Big Events, which featured World Rugby CEO Brett Gosper, the ICC’s Head of Global Events Chris Tetley and FIBA’s Director General Frank Leenders. Fresh off the back of their own respective world cups this year, all three representatives spoke of the importance of balancing their day to day governing body roles with that of being event organisers, the ever-changing expectations of host cities and partners with major events and the rise of the women’s game in their respective sports.”
Our day began with an introduction from Ben, before a very interesting opening presentation on fan engagement delivered by Heikki Rotko of Choicely, setting up the first panel.
The morning session’s first panel then followed on the similar topic of ‘Global Fan Engagement’, featuring Ali Russell, Chief Marketing Officer at Extreme E, Kinda Ibrahim, Partnerships Director, MENA at Twitter and Maite Venture, Managing Director of MENA for LaLiga, which was moderated by Mark Bishop of Vindicia.
We then moved onto the topic of Esports for our second panel, with David Jenns of Emirates Esports and Rupert Svendsen-Cook from Veloce Esports joining us to take part alongside Christian Volk, Director of eFootball and Gaming at FIFA, moderated by Mark Reed, Founder and Owner of Heaven Media.
Prior to lunch, we finished with another presentation, this time from Christophe Firth of A.T. Kearney, who delivered a presentation surrounding the changing model of sports media in “the Digital Age”.
Our guests then enjoyed a networking lunch followed by Francis Casado of 3D Digital Venue giving an excellent presentation on how their 3D visualisation technology can benefit ticketing sales for both fans and stadiums.
The first panel of the afternoon session surrounded ‘Sponsorship and the Evolution of Partnerships’, with participants Peter Thomas, Marketing Director of EMEA at Accenture, Juli Ferré, Commercial and Marketing Officer at AS Monaco and Arjoon Bose, Head of Brands Experience Creative and Partnerships, General Mills, with the panel moderated by Luis Cardenas of LaLiga.
Our final panel focussed on three of 2019’s major sporting events, the men’s world cup in rugby, cricket and basketball. Participating in this panel we had Brett Gosper, CEO of World Rugby, Frank Leenders, General Secretary of FIBA Media and Chris Tetley, Head of Global Events for the International Cricket Council. ICC Chief Executive Officer Manu Sawhney was unfortunately forced to pull out of the event, however Chris was able to join us to discuss the fantastic success of the 2019 World Cup.
And of course a massive thank you to Dubai Sports Council for providing such a magnificent location to hold the event at their headquarters and to Ben Nichols for hosting the day’s events!
