The International Table Tennis Federation has teamed up with sports marketing company Seca to deliver virtual reality coverage of this weekend’s World Tour Grand Finals event in Doha, Qatar.
The event, which began yesterday (Thursday) and runs until Sunday, will serve as a test project, with the ITTF and Seca planning to roll out the VR initiative at a number of key tournaments in 2017.
The VR coverage will eventually allow fans to watch matches from any position inside the venue, including from the perspective of the umpire or coach.
ITTF president Thomas Weikert said: “Table tennis was the (subject of the) first ever video game, with Pong being released in 1972, so we are very excited to again be a leader in digital innovation. Due to China being such a strong market for table tennis, we are confident that Seca, which is based in China are the best partners to move into this new frontier.”
Seca holds exclusive mobile and internet rights in China to a number of ITTF events through an agreement that is set to commence in 2017.