The 2015 ITTF World Tour is set to become the most lucrative Tour of all time, after the ITTF announced that a record $3 million prize money will be on offer for the world’s best table tennis players.
ITTF’s CEO Judit Farag stated that “with the support of our title sponsor, the Tour offers more prize money than ever, exactly 3 million US dollars, an increase of US$240,000. A first in 2015, the 3 Most Active Players on the World Tour will share a bonus award of 39,000 US dollars above the prize money they earn.
“We are happy that again five continents are included in the series and we warmly welcome two new organisers. Looking forward with great excitement to the start of the Tour next week in Hungary where the last year’s event participation record will be broken immediately with 360 entries.”
New World Tour stops in 2015 include North Korea and Bulgaria, and this year’s World Tour will touch all corners of the globe in 2015, making it a truly international tour. The tournament will be made up of 23 events in 23 countries, making it the biggest ever World Tour in ITTF history.
In addition to offering the highest prize money in history, the 2015 World Tour will also be the most viewed in history, with more events shown live throughout the world on television and all the events being shown live on ITTF’s live streaming platform.
Same as the 2014 format, this year’s ITTF World Tour will be divided into three tiers (highest first): Super (6 events), Major (6 events), Challenge (11 events). The higher the series, the more prize money, World ranking points, World Tour ranking points and higher quality of competition on offer.
The top 16 singles and top 8 doubles of the World Tour point standing will then be invited to the prestigious World Tour Grand Finals at the end of the year, a location to be announced later.
The 2015 World Tour will serve off on January 28th in Hungary.