Industry Shorts: Team GB, Crystal Palace, ITF

Team GB and Paralympics GB will see increased funding from the government ahead of the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

The Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS), will increase its funding of the teams by £23.4 million to £77.4 million a year to aid preparation for Paris.

The news comes as Team GB won 65 medals – including 22 gold – at Tokyo 2020, and will see money provided in addition to National Lottery funding. Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics hopefuls will also benefit from the funding.

Crystal Palace have announced mixed reality company Facebank as its new sleeve partner for the 2021/22 season.

The deal will see the Facebank logo appear on the sleeves of the club’s playing shirts and its branding will also be displayed in the Arthur Wait and Holmesdale stands at Selhurst Park, on pitch-surrounding LED boards, and on the club’s website and app.

The company is owned by John Textor, who was recently named as an investor and Director at the Premier League club, after buying shares reportedly worth £87.5 million in the club.

The ITF has announced an increase in tennis participation globally, revealing the statistic in its ITF Global Tennis Report 2021.

The report assesses the impact of the pandemic on tennis participation, and shows that despite restrictions across the world, the sport has continued to grow.

It indicates that there are more than 87 million players within the 41 nations that contributed to the report, an increase of 4.5% in these countries compared with the 2019 report which was based on data collected from 195 nations.

In 2020, the LTA – the governing body for tennis in Great Britain – saw a 327% increase in court bookings once initial lockdown restrictions were eased and outdoor sport returned over the summer. The organisation says participation continues to grow, as a result of increased interest in the outdoor sport, which has been sustained throughout its Play Your Way campaign, which aims to ‘open’ the sport up to new audiences.