‘Future Of The Sport’: ATP Tour ‘Record Sponsorships, Revenue Growth’ In ’24
Friday, August 23, 2024 at 04:28PM By Barry Janoff
August 23, 2024: With the most lucrative U.S. Open Grand Slam in tennis history as its backdrop, the ATP Tour said it has experienced “record sponsorship revenues for the 2024 season,” including nine new global partners and multiple partnership renewals.
The ATP Tour said its "unprecedented commercial success reflects its focus on strategic growth under OneVision.”
The nine new global partners and multiple renewals represent a 50% year-on-year increase in sponsorship revenue and 89% increase projected by 2026 (vs. 2023), according to the ATP Tour.
“We are thrilled that leading brands are increasingly seeking to align with the ATP Tour, our globally recognized athletes and world-class tournaments,” Massimo Calvelli, ATP CEO, said via the organization.
“Our partners are committed to enhancing the promotion of the sport, attracting new fans and supporting our members and communities through ATP Serves.”
New global partners signed since 2023 include Platinum Partners Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Lexus, Yokohama as the ATP Tour’s first official tire partner, Haier, Waterdrop, LONGi Solar, Sense Arena, OFX and Fitline.
During this same period the ATP Tour renewed longtime partnerships with Infosys, Lacoste and Dunlop, along with Asti Docg.
They join global brands including the ATP Tour’s Premier Partner Emirates Airline, along with Nitto, Rolex, Nilox and Sense Arena.
The ATP and Hologic WTA Tour entered a joint licensing partnership with videogame maker Nacon and this past week released Tiebreak: The Official Game of the ATP and WTA.
Available now on multiple platforms, Tiebreak offers players a gaming experience featuring more than 120 of the sport’s current and iconic players and 90 official tournaments.
Also this past week, Fanatics division Topps released its 2024 Topps Chrome Tennis set, produced via a group licensing deal overseen by the Professional Tennis Players Assn. (co- founded by Djokovic).
The collection includes current players and such legends as Steffi Graf, Chris Evert, Bjorn Borg, Billie Jean King, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Venus Williams. (Full checklist here.)
Last November, Sky Broadcasting signed a five-year alliance with both the WTA and ATP Tours to broadcast more than 80 tournaments and 4,000-plus matches each year overseas.
The Holgoic WTA Tour has had its own banner season. Over the past year, it has signed new or extended deals including a multi-year global partnership with PIF that features the first naming partner of the WTA Rankings, Corpay and Stats Perform.
The five-year ATP Tour alliance with PIF, unveiled in February, was described as “a catalyst for growth of the global tennis landscape,” including PIF becoming the official naming partner of the ATP Rankings.
”Our strategic partnership with PIF marks a major moment for tennis,” Calvelli said at the time.
“It's a shared commitment to propel the future of the sport. With PIF's dedication to the next generation – fostering innovation and creating opportunities for all — the stage is set for a transformative new period of progress."
The ATP Tour said partners “have made significant investments into supporting the ATP Serves sustainability roadmap. Initiatives co-launched in the past 18 months include the ATP Carbon Tracker developed in collaboration with Infosys, the Nitto ATP Finals Torino Green project and LONGi Plan Get.”
In addition, this season has seen what was called "record digital and social growth" across ATP Tour social media channels.
Followers grew 7% to 9.7 million in the 12 months to June 2024, with video views up 159% and reach increasing 48% to 2.9 billion over the same period.
“Partners have benefitted from comprehensive digital, social and branded content exposure, in addition to on-site activations at tournaments in marquee cities across the globe,” according to the ATP Tour.
“Branded content collaborations with players ± a vertical introduced by ATP in 2023 — has created significant value for brand partners and new revenue streams for players.”
The ATP Tour said its OneVision strategic plan “has been the central driver of commercial success, creating new sponsorship inventory through the expansion of several ATP Masters 1000 tournaments from eight to 12-day events . . . supporting the ATP in growing the game globally for players and fans."
In total, ATP said it has doubled its annual sponsorship distributions to tournaments since 2021.
“They have bought into our OneVision strategic plan,” said Calvelli.
“This has laid the foundation for growth through more premium events, rights aggregation, and a game-changing profit-sharing agreement creating a true partnership between players and tournaments.”
The fourth and final tennis Grand Slam of the year will also be the most lucrative, with the U.S. Tennis Assn. saying that total prize money for the U.S. Open would rise to a record $75 million, a 15% increase from 2023.
All rounds played this year will see an increase in the prize money awarded from last year,
The men's and women's singles champions will see a 20% jump to $3.6 million each — marking the 51st season of equal prize money for men and women at the U.S. Open.
Last year, singles winners Djokovic and Gauff each took home $3 million out of a total $65 million.
U.S. Open Record $75 Million Prize Money, Puts Activation In Motion
ATP Tour, PIF Five-Year Alliance To Grow Tennis
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