The Badminton World Federation has introduced a new six-tier structure with increased prize money in its top four events.
The revamped series will commence next year and will run until 2021.
The series will boast one event in Level 1 – which is the season’s finals with a total prize money of US$1.5 (RM 6.65 mil) million up for grabs.
Level 2 tournaments will have three events to be held in China, England and Indonesia, with a minimum prize money of US$1mil (RM4.43mil) to be won.
However, Malaysia was only selected to host Level 3 tournaments alongside China, Denmark, France and Japan. Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand will stage Level 4 events; while Australia, Chinese Taipei, Germany, India, Korea, Macau, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand and USA have been awarded Level 5 events.
Details of this new, revamped structure were announced following a BWF Council meeting in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
“Our tournaments have grown in stature and appeal significantly in recent years and, with each cycle, we evaluate progress and assess how we can improve our events,” said BWF President Poul-Erik Hoyer.
“We have determined the time is right for badminton to soar even higher and our key goals are to showcase our sport at a high level of presentation and competitiveness, to increase television coverage for the sport and to increase the star quality and popularity of the top players globally through increased television coverage.”
According to BWF, the revamped structure will help to strengthen brand awareness, thus helping to increase exposure and commercial revenues.
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