David Lampitt has been appointed the first CEO of the Tennis Data Innovations (TDI) unit, the data rights joint-venture formed by ATP Tour and ATP Media. 

Established in late 2020, the TDI will serve as the data rights distributor for ATP Tour and Challenger tournaments and will maintain certain digital streaming rights for the pro-circuit of men’s tennis.

An expert in sports commerce, Lampitt takes charge of the ATP’s new data unit having previously served as Managing Director of Sports Content and Commercial Partnerships for Sportradar.

During his executive tenure at Sportradar, Lampitt led the strategic development of the sportstech firm’s data services for commercial distribution. Lampitt secured new commercial data rights agreement with leading sports governing bodies such as Formula One, the International Cricket Council and US pro-sports NBA, MLB and NHL leagues.

Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Chairman and TDI Board member, said: “The biggest growth opportunity for tennis lies in media and data. With ATP Media already successfully dedicated to the media side of the ATP Tour, TDI was created for precisely this reason on the data side, to develop new products to enhance the fan experience and to aggregate those data products and scale revenues on behalf of our members.”

Lampitt will be responsible for overseeing the central management, product innovation, and exploitation of tennis data in a variety of downstream markets, including betting and performance analytics. 

The TDI’s strategic goals include optimising the commercial performance of all data under the unit’s control. Additionally, the organization aims to provide the ATP Tour with a commercial strategy for data use, whilst bolstering its integrity and compliance disciplines as well as the potential future integration of data assets from other tennis stakeholders.

David Lampitt commented on his appointment: “As a lifelong tennis fan, I’m delighted to be joining TDI at such an exciting juncture, as tennis looks to transform the way its data and content is leveraged across the modern game. I’m looking forward to building out the team at TDI and supporting the ATP and ATP Media’s joint mission to deliver the best experiences to tennis fans around the world.”

Mark Webster, ATP Media CEO and TDI Board member added: “This is an important new venture with huge potential upside, and we needed someone with deep understanding of the space to lead the team. We’re delighted to have attracted someone of David’s skill and experience to come on board as CEO.”