Lausanne, Feb 07, 2014: The GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour will be shown live throughout Europe after TMS International, the International Table Tennis Federation’s Marketing Partner, concluded a deal with Eurosport.
Eurosport will broadcast the six World Tour Super Series events and the 1-million-dollar World Tour Grand Finals. This means 131 million households in 54 countries will be able to see the world’s table tennis stars, such as ZHANG Jike, Timo BOLL, Ai FUKUHARA and DING Ning live in action.
“This is a fantastic boost for European table tennis,” stated TMS International Managing Director Anders Thunström. “Eurosport is the biggest sports channel in Europe, so getting our top World Tour events on their channel will increase our visibility in Europe dramatically”.
Apart from the 6 World Tour events and the World Tour Grand Finals, the ZEN-NOH 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships will also be on Europe’s premier channel.
The first event live on Eurosport will be the finals of the Kuwait Open on 16 February 2014, and the last two days of the Qatar Open on 22-23 February on Eurosport 2. A full schedule for these two events can be found here: http://bit.ly/1kkjB9R.
A full list of networks that have the rights for the GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour will be released in 2 week time.
The GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour will consist of 22 events in 22 countries, with the world’s best table tennis players battling out for a record USD2,739,700 of prize money and entry to the World Tour Grand Final later in the year.
The World Tour is separated into three tiers (highest first): Super (6 events) which will be broadcasted on Eurosport, Major (5 events), Challenge (11 events). The higher the series, the more prize money, World ranking points, World Tour ranking points and higher quality of competition on offer.
The 7 events to be live on Eurosport:
• GAC Group World Tour Super Series – Kuwait Open: 14-16 February 2014
• GAC Group World Tour Super Series – Qatar Open: 21-23 February 2014
• GAC Group World Tour Super Series – German Open: 28-30 March 2014
• GAC Group World Tour Super Series – China Open: date TBC
• GAC Group World Tour Super Series – Korea Open: 13-15 June 2014
• GAC Group World Tour Super Series – Japan Open: 20-22 June 2014
• GAC Group World Tour Grand Finals – Location TBC.
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