Heavyweight sports marketing agency IMG has signed on as the production partner of choice for WTA Ventures, the women's top tennis tour's commercial vehicle from 2027.
Through a multi-year tie-up, IMG will lead coverage delivery for over 50 events on the WTA Tour each year – including the end-of-season WTA Finals, as well as tournaments from the WTA 1000, 500, and 250 classifications.
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It will provide a range of services – which will vary across different events – including host broadcast production, world feed production, venue connectivity, worldwide distribution, technical operations, and short-form content operations.
IMG will also be in charge of managing specialist production partners, including outside graphics providers.
This agreement adds to the existing partnership between IMG and WTA Ventures – the agency is also in charge of selling WTA broadcast rights across both the Americas and Asia-Pacific, and indeed, mid-July saw a deal unveiled in Brazil with streaming platform CazeTV.
It also helped broker the recent deal between the WTA's commercial wing and automotive heavyweight Mercedes-Benz, through which that brand is now the WTA's premier partner.
Barney Francis, IMG's chief business officer, commented: "We are incredibly excited about this new partnership with the WTA, which builds on the strength and trust of our broader relationship to help them grow even greater reach, value and impact."
In terms of recent IMG production deals, mid-June saw the agency sign on as international production partner for German men's soccer's DFB-Pokal knockout cup competition.
IMG's production rights portfolio also includes properties such as golf's DP World Tour, Ryder Cup, and Solheim Cup, Major League Soccer, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (which shares an owner, TKO, with IMG).
Marina Storti, chief executive at WTA Ventures, added: "IMG has a proven track record of delivering outstanding production across a range of sports and I am confident that, together, we can raise the bar yet further in how tennis is covered, to the benefit of our broadcast and commercial partners, players, tournaments, and fans.”
WTA Ventures, which oversees the commercial and media rights operations of the women's tennis tour, was established in March 2023 as part of a strategic partnership between the organisation and the CVC Capital Partners fund.
