Deuce or Advantage ?

Leipzig, Jan 12th, 2022

Prof. Dr. Christina Kleinau | Business Ethics (Winter 2022)
Group 10: Damanpreet Singh, Joshua Mathias, Harivinayak Menon, Harshita Srivastava, Yiming Wan
Agenda

1. Introduction

2. Story and Stakeholders

3. Levels of the Game

4. Ethical Challenges & Subconscious Biases

5. Looking Forward...

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Story & Stakeholders
Gender Inequalities in Professional Tennis: It’s a Man’s World

 For our use case, the main stakeholders are the

Sponsors representatives from the ITF (International Tennis
Federation) & the WTA (Women's Tennis
Sports Authority
Rep. Association) Player's Council .

 Spectators or the audiences, Sponsors for the

Women’s Team
Spectators Rep. matches and the Media personnel.

 The representative from WTA Player's Council

approaches the ITF Gender Equality Committee with
Media a few questions.

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 3 LEVELS OF THE GAME

THE GAME – International Tennis Federation (ITF)

• A federation depends on profitability to run. The profitability

depends on its viewers and that decides revenue distribution
• Every player irrespective of gender deserves an equal opportunity
Understanding
from the grassroots level to being a pro

• The ITF’s Advantage All strategy says ‘gender equality is not an

option, it’s our collective obligation’
• The Gender Equality in Tennis Committee set up by ITF focuses

Rules on issues related to gender equality and empowerment

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Gender Pay Gap
Equal Pay for Equal Play?

The Forbes' top 100 list of this year's

most earning athletes features only
one woman, Serena Williams. 

She comes at 51st place, after five

male players.,

Pay disparity is industry-specific. For

instance, compare earnings of male and
female models from the fashion
industry.

Equal opportunity begins with equal pay

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MEDIA VISIBILITY
Prime TV spots, Better Locations (Centre court), More Air-time

Women have received step-child

treatment for media exposure. Why,
and how can we change this?

Men's games bring in more viewership, hence

they get prime slots. We could market women's
games more, and based on viewership, give
them more prime-time space.

Media exposure attracts sponsors and encourages the next generation of players

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SPONSORSHIP & SUPPORT
Expanding the sponsorship pool

Big brands have largely sponsored

men. 
Is this biased? Or is there more to it,
and how can we change status quo? 

Men have a longer career and can help

advertisers reach wider audience. Sponsors
feel that their investment will yield returns
for longer. 

Marketing the sport to women-centric brands

could tap sponsorship potential at every level
of tennis. 

Sponsors bring in additional exposure and revenue streams that can aid sport development

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INFRASTRUCTURE & FACILITIES
Access to Health centers, Fitness coaches

Young girls are not able to continue playing

tennis due to lack of access to infrastructure
and facilities at the grassroot level. ITF has
not focused on this.

As compared to their male counterparts,

most young female athletes are unwilling
to invest in Professional sports after
certain age.

Hence, there is a higher dropout rate in
women.

Infrastructure and access is essential to equal opportunity

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 PRACTICAL SYLLOGISM

LOOKING FORWARD…
Making the most of what we have. Investing in the future. Looking for a Win-Win.

Values • Gender Equality: equal access, pay and means to become a tennis professional

• Profitability for the ITF is driven by revenue from Fans, Sponsors and TV
• Advertising revenue and viewership for Women's Tennis is lower than that for their
Situational
conditions  male counterparts
• Equal pay is only possible if it is economically viable
• Men’s matches last longer and the effort is higher 

• Identifying advertisement and sponsorship opportunities for female athletes which

Investments can lead to untapped revenue streams (e.g., Clothing, Accessories etc.)

• Working with the women's game from the grassroot level to professional tennis
players; developing role models/ambassadors for the game.

The Golden Rule.

Invest in the conditions of social cooperation for mutual advantage
“How can an economy achieve full potential if it
ignores, sidelines, or fails to invest in half its
population?”