Beyond Formula 1: Singapore’s year-round sports tourism strategy
The Singapore Smash’s tourism boost was spread to RWS. But bridging both venues – which serve different purposes – was tough for Kin Global, which co-manages the event with WTT, the commercial and event arm of the International Table Tennis Federation.
The key challenge, says Chai, was “engineering a coherent, singular event experience across both venues that are geographically and conceptually distinct”.
Production standards – from branding to broadcast requirements – also had to be kept consistent across multiple stakeholders: WTT, RWS, SportSG, the Singapore Table Tennis Association and The Kallang.
Meanwhile, strict accreditation rules made it hard to bring local vendors inside the OCBC Arena itself. Instead, Kin Global opened a “fan zone” outside where local companies could offer food and beverage, merchandise, entertainment, and interactive experiences.
Still, Kin Global intends to keep owning and organising events, and wants to acquire sports IPs. Says Chai: “While there is financial risk, owning sports IP brings significant long-term upside that a pure delivery model cannot.”
The company is starting with events that have a clear commercial rationale and are likely to gain high traction, such as the inaugural Professional Pickleball Association Asia 500 Singapore Open this July.