The Badminton World Federation reported a surplus of $8.8m (€7.8m) in 2024 on the back of higher investment returns, “prudent” spending and its share of revenues from the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Figures released at the BWF Annual General Meeting held on Saturday in Xiamen, China show a surplus figure that was $3.3m better than the budgeted amount.
The bulk of the total income of $46.1m last year was made up of $25.4m from tournament and commercial revenues, plus $16m from the International Olympic Committee.
The BWF ascribed the higher surplus figure to “better-than-expected investment income due to higher interest rates in 2024” and “prudent spending overall in each of the major areas of activity”. Tournament operation costs were $19.4m in 2024.
The BWF’s Olympic revenue share hits the federation’s accounts every four years instead of being staggered across a cycle. As a result, deficits of $9m and $10m have been budgeted in 2025 and 2026, respectively.
At $16m, the IOC money equated to 35 per cent of the BWF’s annual revenue in 2024. Badminton’s world body incurred $800,000 of Olympic expenses and $288,000 of Paralympics expenses last year.
Tournament and commercial revenue is budgeted to increase to $29.3m this year and then $30.2m in 2026. However, tournament operation costs are projected to rise to $21.2m this year and $22m in 2026.
Last year was the second year of the 2023-26 commercial cycle with sales managed by the Infront agency.
Leading BWF sponsors signed up to 2026 include HSBC and now Etihad Airways following a recent deal. A major agreement with TotalEnergies, title sponsor of the BWF’s main competitions, runs until the end of this year.
The BWF’s pool of 14 sponsors includes the recent addition of online betting company BK8 plus the likes of Ganten, Haier, Victor and Yonex.
Infront’s eight-year agreement covering all of the BWF’s worldwide commercial rights, including media, sponsorship, digital and betting rights, began in 2018. The agency is also responsible for client servicing.
This was the first time the BWF had worked with one global agency on the sale of both media and sponsorship rights. In the previous four-year cycle, from 2014 to 2017, sponsorship rights were sold by the Singapore-based Enterprise Sports Group, while media rights were held by IMG.
According to the BWF, its competitions were shown in 110 “paid territories” last year through 28 broadcast deals. Coverage in dark markets was provided on the BWF TV YouTube channel and Olympics.com.
The YouTube channel’s subscriber total reached 3.3 million by the end of 2024, up 12.3 per cent year over year. The BWF’s new TikTok channel amassed 467,000 followers and over 400 million views in its first year of operation. Meanwhile, there were 18 million video views of badminton content on China’s Douyin during Paris 2024, the most of any international federation, according to the BWF.
At the AGM, member associations voted in Khunying Patama Leeswadtrakul of Thailand and France’s Etienne Thobois as the new BWF president and deputy president, respectively. Khunying Patama, who becomes only the second-ever female president of the BWF, succeeds Denmark’s Poul-Erik Høyer.
The BWF also confirmed Richard Vaughan as chief operating officer. Vaughan began in the role on April 1 and has joined as part of BWF succession plans that sees him replace Stuart Borrie, who has served as COO for over 17 years.