ITF

2023 ITF Annual Review 59 For tennis to exist for future genera ons, and for the sport to thrive, it must reach new people. Digital technology offers us fresh ways to find new audiences, and we're in the process of transforming our technology and digital approach and helping our member na ons to do the same. The ITF is developing new digital services, enhancing our use of data, increasing our reach, and forging deeper emo onal connec ons via digital channels. We're developing a more direct rela onship with players and fans, and crea ng unique content and services for our diverse mix of tennis consumers. We're also suppor ng and working with our Na onal Associa ons to enhance their own digital capabili es by providing them with access to data and new digital services. Vast online tennis community The ITF World Tennis Number (WTN) is an important technology project for the ITF. As well as providing a universal measure of players' tennis-playing ability (see page 16), the WTN will help us build and support a vast online global cohort of tennis players of all ages and levels, enable interac on among them, and engage with them in ways that increase par cipa on. In 2023, we made significant progress in expanding the WTN around the world. Website registra on at worldtennisnumber.com was opened to some exis ng ITF and Na onal Associa on players, and this is being extended to a much wider player audience in 2024. We also added several new features to the WTN website, including enhanced sta s cs, search tools and player watchlists, and this year we'll expand the range of player-focused features. By the end of June 2024, 46 na ons were ac vely using the WTN, with weekly ra ngs being generated for over 1.89 million players. The ITF's ambi on is to create the largest and most engaged digital community across tennis and in 2024 we're working on developing the direct-to-consumer experience of WTN across different digital pla orms such as web, mobile and social media. Our focus is on crea ng a digital product that provides a great experience and real value to recrea onal players, so that we can maximise WTN's huge poten al to grow the game. Beyond this, we're also partnering with more of our member na ons to support them in delivering WTN to their player communi es via their own digital pla orms. We plan to share insights about players provided by the WTN with our na ons to help them reach new audiences and grow their na onal membership programmes. Knowing our audience We have a new customer data pla orm which centralises the informa on of anyone who registers and interacts with the ITF across our various digital pla orms and services. As well as the WTN, these services include IPIN – used by 95,000 players to enter our tournaments – the ITF Academy (see page 22) and our ITF, Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup websites. By the end of 2023 we had a database of 250,000, with their customer data linked together by the ITF Tennis ID, our ini a ve to provide a unique digital iden ty and single sign-on service for tennis. The customer data pla orm has analy cs tools which offer us insights based on customer ac vity and provide profiles to inform our product development, customer services and marke ng strategies. The pla orm also enables us to personalise our digital interac ons and communica ons, which is more effec ve for engaging our diverse audience. Keeping pace with change Central to the ITF's digital transforma on is our move from older systems to more flexible, modular pla orms. These make future upgrades easier so that we can keep pace with technological advances and quickly pass those benefits on to users of our digital services. We also completed our five-year plan to move all ITF technology services to the Cloud, so that we can benefit from a more flexible, scalable, and cost-effec ve storage solu on. In 2023, we con nued to redevelop Baseline, our bespoke system which manages all the ITF's tennis data and tournament opera ons, moving to a new web-based pla orm and adding func onality to manage tournament applica ons online. Future phases of Baseline modernisa on will deliver further automa on that benefits the ITF and our member na ons, and provide easier ways for na ons to access ITF data. WE'RE SUPPORTING AND WORKING WITH OUR NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS TO ENHANCE THEIR OWN DIGITAL CAPABILITIES BY PROVIDING THEM WITH ACCESS TO DATA AND NEW DIGITAL SERVICES.

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