LONDON, December 3, 2024 (WTA Press Release)
WTA Ventures, the commercial arm of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association), is on track for a strong performance in the first year of its mission to fuel the growth of professional women’s tennis.
Established in 2023 as a strategic partnership between the WTA and CVC Capital Partners, WTA Ventures expects to increase revenue by 24% in its first full year, setting a new record for the WTA’s commercial revenue. The increase follows the launch of a new strategy to accelerate commercial growth and a series of deals with media partners and sponsors, as well as the success of the first edition of the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The increase in revenue puts WTA Ventures on course to achieve its long-term goal of tripling commercial revenue over the six years between 2023 and 2029. By improving the product for fans and accelerating commercial growth, WTA Ventures will drive investment in women’s tennis for the benefit of players, tournaments, fans and everyone involved in the sport.
The WTA Ventures strategy embraces the growth opportunities created by rising interest from fans and commercial partners, building on the WTA’s platform as a trailblazer for women’s sport for more than 50 years. Led by CEO Marina Storti, the growth plans are focused on three areas of opportunity: making the WTA, its players and tournaments even more famous and impactful, engaging fans more deeply, and building collaborative partnerships.
During 2024, WTA Ventures has achieved strong progress spanning the full scope of the growth strategy. Key milestones delivered during the year include record growth in the WTA’s social and digital audience, deeper engagement with fans, and an expanded portfolio of commercial partnerships.
Record social and digital audience growth
- 26% year-on-year increase in followers of official WTA social channels to reach a total of 6.3 million at the end of October 2024, including YouTube up 125% and 430,000 TikTok followers reached within eight months of launch.
- Video views across WTA social channels up by 195% since the start of 2024, including Instagram up 400%.
- Top 20 most followed WTA players reaching 58 million followers, up 27% since the start of the year.
Deeper engagement with fans
- A new, free membership, WTA Unlocked, giving fans more ways to watch and engage with the Hologic WTA Tour including fantasy games and live streams.
- Launch of a Customer Data Platform in collaboration with the ATP to enable better insight into our fans, support personalised digital fan engagement, and to allow us to promote the Tour to a global tennis audience.
- Release of TIEBREAK: The Official Game of the ATP and WTA in collaboration with ATP and NACON, offering fans an unparalleled gaming experience.
Expanded portfolio of commercial partnerships
- A three-year partnership with the Saudi Tennis Federation to host the WTA Finals in Riyadh between 2024 and 2026, with the first edition in November 2024 attracting an attendance of 21,000 and being shown by 38 networks in more than 150 territories.
- A multi-year global partnership with PIF including naming rights to Year End World No.1 and the first-ever naming rights for the official WTA Rankings.
- Collaboration between title partner Hologic, the Gates Foundation and the WTA Foundation to launch the Global Women’s Health Fund to support better health and nutrition for women worldwide.
- Renewed commercial partnerships with Corpay, Morgan Stanley and StatsPerform, and a new year-round global partnership with Rolex.
- New media rights deals for 2024 season onwards with Sky Sports (UK & Ireland, Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland), CANAL+ (Czech Republic and Slovakia), and Youku (China).
Looking ahead to 2025, WTA Ventures has significant plans in place to keep up the strong momentum generated through its new growth strategy.
As part of the drive to make the WTA even more impactful, an exciting new brand identity will elevate the boundary-breaking spirit and energy of the WTA for fans and partners around the world. More details will be revealed in the coming months.
In addition, to build on its commercial success during 2024, WTA Ventures will further strengthen its partnership portfolio for brands wanting to align with the WTA’s global reach, inspirational players, and world-class tournaments. This will include the introduction of a new Premier Partner sponsorship package offering unparalleled access to a growing sport and fanbase.
Marina Storti, CEO of WTA Ventures, said:
“2024 has been a huge year of progress for WTA Ventures as our new growth strategy starts to deliver on the exciting opportunities for women’s tennis. To increase commercial revenue by almost a quarter in year one is a tribute to great work by the entire team that we’ve brought together. Our aim is to make women’s tennis a commercial powerhouse so that we can fuel reinvestment in the sport and help the WTA to keep championing our amazing athletes and events.
“With a global audience of more than 1 billion and an exciting generation of inspirational players, there is still so much untapped potential for commercial growth. After a successful first year, we’ve got big plans to take the next steps in 2025 with a powerful new brand identity and ever stronger collaboration with our brilliant partners.”
