Ittf Launches New Structure As Le Floc’h Comes On Board

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has launched World Table Tennis (WTT), the sport’s new commercial vehicle.

The federation says that the move will ‘drive table tennis forward in the modern era’, and will see prize money doubled, the launch of a new women’s tour and a new focus on TV production and the creation of compelling content stories.

As part of the shake-up, former FIFA Chief Commercial Officer Philippe Le Floc’h has joined the organisation as Senior Commercial Strategy Consultant and will advise on WTT leadership and commercial strategy to boost the sport.

He will provide strategy on the overall ‘master plan’, event structure, media and digital rights, commercial contracts, commercial structure, sponsorship structure, and public relations, communications and brand, as well as attending key WTT meetings and events.

He said: “From the minute I heard about this project, it excited me. It is very rare that an international federation is so forward-thinking about the way it runs its commercial business. That is why I decided to get involved in this ground-breaking journey. I have high hopes for what this new business model can achieve and I believe that WTT will become a case study for all the other international federations. I look forward to using my years of experience to help WTT become a success and position table tennis among the global sporting elite.”

Meanwhile, WTT will introduce a brand new event structure. New ‘Grand Smash’ marquee events take place four times a year, and will see between the top 64 men and 64 women compete a prize pot of up to $3 million

Across the rest of the year, the new WTT Series will have a prize fund of $8 million across the WTT Champions Series and showpiece WTT Cup Finals, while the Star Contender and Contender Series offer opportunities for up and coming athletes to climb the ladder of professional table tennis.

“Through World Table Tennis, we are endeavouring to build a platform that really benefits our athletes and fans, enabling better structured events and higher prize money,” said Steve Dainton, CEO, ITTF. 

“Lots of time and resources have gone into this, as it’s a huge project that will revolutionise our sport for good. The professionalisation of our core top products is something that had been missing in our sport. This is a great moment for table tennis, and we cannot wait to enter our new era upon overcoming the unforeseen challenges of 2020.”

Thomas Weikert, President, ITTF, added: “We are committed to following our new strategy. We must be transparent, uphold good governance and make sure that all of our stakeholders can follow our steps forward. We want players to be more satisfied by prize money and events themselves, while we also want to support our members by making more money to reinvest into the development of our key stakeholders.”