The six-year deal, which renames the Tour the ‘Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’, is the largest and most comprehensive sponsorship in the history of tennis and of women’s professional sport.
It is Sony Ericsson’s first global sponsorship, and associates one of the world’s leading innovators in the mobile handset industry with the world’s leading professional sport for women.
Sony Ericsson will become the global title sponsor of the WTA Tour and of the season-ending, globally televised WTA Tour Championships held each November and featuring the world’s top eight singles players and top doubles teams.
It will also enjoy on-court presence at the many WTA Tour tournaments throughout the season.
Said Miles Flint, president of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications: “Together with the WTA Tour we are exploring a range of opportunities that can integrate technology, design, music, sport and fashion into a compelling entertainment proposition for consumers.”
Dee Dutta, global head of marketing for Sony Ericsson, said the company was speaking to the International Tennis Federation, tournaments and players about how best to introduce its technology to the game. He told SportBusiness.com: “For example, the 90-second changeover between sets, instead of people just waving flags they might be able to make use of SMS-technology and image-technology to bring alive the whole experience.”
There are also plans for chair umpires to use Sony Ericsson hand-held devices for scoring, replacing the traditional pencil and paper.
Larry Scott, CEO of the WTA Tour, said: “This partnership will take women’s tennis to a new level of global popularity by immersing new technology and significantly enhancing the entertainment value of our sport.”
