Arctic Open will be part of the BWF World Tour from 2027 to 2030. BWF announced the hosts of the World Tour and together with Infront, reported that the sport is entering its most transformative era yet. BWF and Infront want to drive global growth and build a sport that speaks to the next generation.

BWF will make major changes, for example regarding competition structures, commercial activity and the player and fan experience. A few significant concrete changes are that the number of TV-produced badminton matches will double and the annual prize pool will be up to US$26.9 million.

The president of Badminton Management, Peter von Bruun, commented on the impact of BWF's policies on the Arctic Open as follows:

“BWF has spent the past couple of years working to develop the World Tour events to ensure that badminton remains competitive among global sports. The reforms are welcome, but they also place significant demands on organizers. We estimate that the Arctic Open’s event budget will increase by more than 200,000 euros starting in 2027. However, the events will become even more impressive, which should serve the expectations of the demanding Finnish sports audience.”

Arctic Open has previously been part of the BWF World Tour, and Finland will continue as one of the host countries on the renewed tour. The BWF’s changes will be reflected concretely in the Arctic Open as well, since the tournament’s prize money will increase to 560,000 dollars from the previous 500,000 dollars, and the event held at Energia Arena will see a significant boost in television coverage.

“We see the Arctic Open as the most important way to sustain our federation’s operations and resources in the future, especially as state subsidies are trending downward. Badminton is growing rapidly in Asia, and we believe that the strong visibility the Arctic Open receives in Asian TV broadcasts offers excellent opportunities to build valuable partnerships around the event. The first three tournaments (2023–25) have already shown that the event can be organized profitably, thanks to the very strong volunteer spirit within the badminton community,” Peter von Bruun commented on the Arctic Open’s impact on Finnish badminton.

From 2027 onward, we will see 36 tournaments within a six-tier structure. Arctic Open will again be a Super 500 tournament as well as Australia, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

The new tour structure will consist of a unified six levels:

1. World Tour Finals (The host for the BWF World Tour Finals will be announced at a later date)
2. Super 1000 (five tournaments, prize money $2,000,000)
3. Super 750 (five tournaments, prize money $1,100,000)
4. Super 500 (nine tournaments, prize money $560,000)
5. Super 300 (eight tournaments, prize money $290,000)
6. Super 100 (eight tournaments, prize money $140,000)

Watch a video and learn more!

Picture: Jere Kokko