After serving up a hugely successful first season on Twitter, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) announces today that it has renewed its collaboration with the platform and will be live streaming the 2019 ITTF Challenge Series to a global audience on Twitter.

ITTF’s broadcasts of the 2018 Challenge Series on Twitter helped the sport increase its worldwide reach, with more than 22 million video views of match action. Additionally, tweets from @ittfworld during the 2018 season received over 70 million impressions, and the account increased its follower numbers by more than 30,000.

The 2019 Challenge Series comprises of a total 16 events held across Asia, Africa, Middle East, Europe, South and North America. Six of these events form part of the brand new Challenge Plus Series, where higher prize money and World Ranking points are attracting more of the sport’s top players than ever before.

Live streams of all Challenges Series matches will be available to logged-in and logged-out users on Twitter and connected devices via @ittfworld. Twitter will also feature additional premium highlights from each event. Both the live streams and highlight clips on Twitter will be available to content sponsors to include short pre-roll ads.

“There has always been a passionate community and highly engaged conversation about table tennis on Twitter. In 2018 we were able to make a huge racket by combining the power of this conversation with the live and premium video action direct from the courts by generating more than 22 million views of @ittfworld content on Twitter. Table tennis’ popularity will only continue to grow, and we’re excited to work with ITTF to take the sport to the next level on Twitter in 2019.”

Maurizio Barbieri, Twitter’s SEA Head of Sports Partnerships

“Twitter and table tennis are providing a winning formula and the key to this, quite rightly, is content. By increasing and enhancing the live streaming and highlights package of the 2019 Challenge Series, we are giving followers more and more of what they want to consume and engage with. Off the back of the impressive numbers generated on Twitter during the 2018 Challenge Series, we can’t wait to take table tennis to the next level in 2019 and raise the appeal of our sport to a wider global audience.”

Matthew Pound, ITTF Marketing Director

The 2019 ITTF Challenge Series live stream schedule on Twitter is as follows:

Challenge Plus Series:

• Oman Open, Muscat: 20-24 March, Qualification 20-21 March
• Pyongyang Open, Pyongyang: 24-28 July, Qualification 24-25 July
• Nigeria Open, Lagos: 7-11 August, Qualification 7-8 August
• Paraguay Open, Asuncion: 10-14 September, Qualification 10-11 September
• Canada Open, Markham: 4-8 December, Qualification 4-5 December
• (already streamed) Portugal Open, Lisbon: 13-17 February, Qualification 13-14 February

Challenge Series:

• Spanish Open, Guadalajara: 20-24 March, Qualification 20-21 March
• Serbia Open, Belgrade: 1-5 May, Qualification 1-2 May
• Slovenia Open, Otočec: 8-12 May, Qualification 8-9 May
• Croatia Open, Zagreb: 14-18 May, Qualification 14-15 May
• Thailand Open, Bangkok: 22-26 May, Qualification 22-23 May
• Mexico Open, Cancun: 16-20 October, Qualification 16-17 October
• Polish Open, Władysławowo: 16-20 October, Qualification 16-17 October
• Belarus Open, Minsk: 30 October – 3 November, Qualification 30-31 October
• Morocco Open, Agadir: 30 October – 3 November, Qualification 30-31 October
• Indonesia Open, Jogjakarta: 13-17 November, Qualification 13-14 November

About Twitter

Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) is what’s happening in the world and what people are talking about right now. From breaking news and entertainment to sports, politics, and everyday interests, see every side of the story. Join the open conversation. Watch live streaming events. Available in more than 40 languages around the world, the service can be accessed via twitter.com, an array of mobile devices, Twitter Lite (mobile.twitter.com), and SMS. For more information, please visit about.twitter.com, follow @Twitter and the South East Asia blog; and download both the Twitter and Periscope apps at twitter.com/download and periscope.tv.

About ITTF

The International Table Tennis Federation is the global governing body of Table Tennis. Affiliated to six Continental and 226 National Associations, the ITTF coordinates over 100 international events per year and has long been represented at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. In accordance with its Strategic Plan, the ITTF is fully committed to growing the sport in five key areas: Organisation & Governance, High Performance & Development, International Events, Promotion and Revenue. Find out more about the International Table Tennis Federation at ITTF.com.