ITF

TECHNOLOGY 2022 ITF Annual Review 59 At the heart of the ITF's digital transforma on is our drive to expand the reach of the ITF and connect with the global tennis community so that we can support our goal of increasing par cipa on worldwide. To make this happen, we worked on several projects in 2022 to embed vital new technology. World's largest online tennis community Digital channels offer the best opportunity for us to interact and engage directly with the worldwide tennis popula on, which according to the 2021 ITF Global Tennis Report is around 87 million people. The ITF World Tennis Number con nues to extend its reach as more na ons sign up to adopt it (see page 16). We are crea ng the world's largest online tennis community and in 2022 the so ware development focus shi ed to building out a new, consumer-facing website, worldtennisnumber.com, where individual players will be able to register and access their WTN ra ng directly, in addi on to how they interact with it via their Na onal Associa ons. The site will launch in 2023 and will enable us to connect with the wider community of recrea onal players around the world. Once live, the ITF will con nue to develop new features around WTN that help people get the most out of their tennis-playing experiences. Our ITF Academy pla orm, the online global home for tennis educa on, con nued to grow its user numbers and registered members in 2022 (see page 22). The IPIN pla orm, meanwhile, is used by more than 85,000 players to enter all ITF tournaments and we con nue to develop the service so that we can engage be er with players across our five tours. In 2022 we also enhanced and added new features to the ITF's website, i tennis.com, to amplify the online presence of the ITF tours. This included making key informa on more accessible and easier to find via a new global search feature. Data-driven communica on The WTN, ITF Academy and IPIN pla orms, through their member subscrip ons, provide us with valuable data and insight about our customers and audience, to be er understand the global tennis ecosystem. We introduced a new customer data pla orm and data warehouse in 2022 and work is ongoing to fully integrate them into all our online services. This technology centralises data from all ITF websites, mobile apps, social media, and other digital channels as well as the above pla orms, to build a clearer picture of who we interact with, and what they want. This insight will be used to inform the ITF's product development, customer service, and marke ng strategies, and we can also share it with our member Na onal Associa ons. The customer data pla orm is central to our direct-to-consumer approach. Its digital marke ng tools will enable us to offer more personalised and relevant services across our channels, and it provides analy cs to measure how effec ve our communica on is. Helping na ons transform The ITF is suppor ng our member Na onal Associa ons and affiliated Regional Associa ons to adopt and use new technology in their work to grow the game. In 2022 we set out a digital pathway that they can follow, sharing technology, knowledge and best prac ce. We gave na ons access to several ITF tools and services to help them access, manage, and use date effec vely. These include Na onal Associa on web services (supplying them with automated results and a rankings data feed), ITF Tennis ID (a global iden ty management and digital single sign-on system for anyone in tennis) and the Tennis Open Data Standards (TODS – a standard framework for easier, more efficient tennis data exchange). The ongoing development of the ITF World Tennis Number brings access for ITF na ons to other new digital services. These include the WTN Na onal Associa on Partner Portal, and the new Tournament Desk so ware developed by our partner ClubSpark which offers na ons and regions a full player, tournament, and results database plus comprehensive tournament management capabili es.

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