WTA Strikes $150 Mil Deal W/ Equity Firm, Aims To Narrow Pro Tennis Pay Gap

The Women’s Tennis Association has actually protected the proverbial bag in a huge method … locking down a $150 million financial investment from the personal equity firm that co-owns LaLiga, and the objective is to explode the sport and boost gamer pay!

“Obviously, the ambition is to materially grow women’s professional tennis. Grow our profile, its value, the prize money,” WTA Chairman Steve Simon stated, including, “This arrangement is certainly going to provide for us to create more investment opportunity to our players and our tournaments.”

The WTA and CVC Capital Partners formed WTA Ventures LLC. The brand-new subsidiary will supervise all sponsorship, broadcast rights, video gaming, and more.

The WTA was established by Billie Jean King in 1973. The trip has more than 50 occasions annual across the world. Unfortunately, beyond the 4 Grand Slams (U.S. Open, Wimbledon, French Open, Australian Open), cash prize is substantially lower in the ladies’s video game. Hence the collaboration.

The brand-new deal has gamers confident that with an increase of money and CVC’s connections, the video game will grow, and the cash will follow.

“This is precisely what ladies’s tennis requires and I’m thrilled for what’s to come. For so long, we’ve been promoting the sport for ladies throughout the world and it’s fantastic to have the financial investment and belief in the gamers and WTA item,” number 3 ranked gamer Jessica Pegula stated.

The child of the Buffalo Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula isn’t the only gamer pumped about the future potential customers of the WTA.

Number 1 ranked gamer Iga Swiatek likewise thinks the brand-new deal might be a video game changer.

“I am happy to be a part of the WTA, as they are devoted to innovating the sport, purchasing the gamers, and promoting all of us over the world. I’m influenced to be a part of the advancement of ladies’s tennis and constructing out the next 50 years of the WTA.”

It’s a familiar deal for Luxembourg-based CVC. A couple of years back, CVC struck a $2+ billion deal with LaLiga, the leading soccer league in Spain. Like with the WTA, the collaboration put the business in charge of sponsorship and broadcasting.