Players competing in the upcoming 2023 Billie Jean King Cup Finals, the premier women’s national teams tennis competition, will receive record prize money equivalent to the men’s Davis Cup Finals, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) governing body has announced.
The body will hand out a prize purse of $9.6 million, with this year’s world champions set to receive a record $2.4 million as part of the ITF’s Advantage All program designed to increase value for the women’s game.
The ITF said it will hand out the additional sums through its partnership with US-based insurance firm Gainbridge, the title sponsor of the competition.
The company last year replaced multinational bank BNP Paribas, which held title sponsorship rights to the competition since 2005.
The breakdown of this year’s record prize money will see the runners-up receive $1.44 million, while the semi-finalists will get $960,000, and group-stage teams will be awarded $480,000.
David Haggerty, ITF president, said: “Achieving gender parity in our sport is a key part of the ITF’s Advantage All program, and I am delighted we have been able to offer equivalent prize money with the Davis Cup Finals again this year.
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By GlobalData“We are grateful to our title sponsor Gainbridge for helping to make this possible and for its ongoing support as we continue to build on the recent growth of the women’s World Cup of Tennis.”
The Billie Jean King Cup Finals gets underway today at La Cartuja Stadium in Seville, with last year’s runners-up Australia to take on Slovenia in the first tie.
Spanish energy firm Iberdrola was last week named as a commercial partner of the Billie Jean King Cup.
Global sponsors of the event include Tory Burch, Microsoft, and Magellan.
The Billie Jean King Cup was rebranded from its previous incarnation of the Fed Cup in 2020 and this year’s finals tournament marks the 60th anniversary of the inaugural event.
The nations involved in this year’s finals are Switzerland, Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Poland, Slovenia, Spain (looking to win the event for a sixth time), and the US.
In August, TWG Global, the holding company of billionaire businessman Mark Walter, secured a 49% stake in the tournament.
The TWG investment saw the firm acquire 49% of a newly created commercial entity called Billie Jean King Cup Limited, with the new venture set up to sell sponsorship, broadcast, and other commercial rights to the competition alongside Billie Jean King Enterprises, the investment vehicle focused on women’s sports founded by King and led by her wife Ilana Kloss.