adidas agree first major badminton sponsorship deal - London Grand Prix showcase event

BADMINTON England have announce a new partnership with adidas for the highly anticipated London Grand Prix, which sees some of the world's best players return to London as part of the Badminton World Federation's (BWF) Grand Prix Gold event series.

Over 200 million people play badminton worldwide and the London Grand Prix hopes to give more access to badminton fans based in the UK, enabling them to watch and enjoy more of the world's elite players live in action on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, a location synonymous with success.

The partnership also sees adidas confirmed as the first partner of the new Smash Up programme that is set to be launched into secondary schools and local communities across the country in the summer as part of BADMINTON England's drive to get the nation playing badminton.

Adrian Christy, Chief Executive of BADMINTON England said of the new partnership: "We are extremely proud that such a strong global brand as adidas has chosen BADMINTON England as one of its first strategic badminton partnerships.

"Since the World Championships in London in 2011 and the Olympic Games a year later, we have been determined to create a lasting legacy in the capital for the fans who came out in their thousands to be part of such historic events.

"I am also delighted that adidas has agreed to extend its partnership into grass roots badminton. We already enjoy more than 4m people playing badminton every year but we want to push on even further. We have a strong focus on exciting more secondary age young people to play and adidas is a great fit with that age group.

"These are exciting times for English badminton but we know we cannot achieve our ambitions without great partnerships and I am delighted to have secured this partnership with adidas."

Stuart Beattie, Managing Director for adidas badminton in the UK, commented: "When BADMINTON England approached us with the concept of developing a new, innovative style of tournament we were delighted to enter into a partnership to deliver the London Grand Prix. The tournament will engage and inspire the audience with a spectacle of speed and power and in combination with our commitment to the Smash Up programme will support adidas to become part of the wider badminton community.

"In 2013 adidas launch into badminton in the UK and globally and the London Grand Prix will showcase to the world the passion adidas has for our great sport of badminton. adidas is all in for the London Grand Prix!"

The news is the second major announcement for BADMINTON England in less than a week, after it had plans to build a new £22m world-class facility unanimously accepted by Milton Keynes Council.