When the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and Discover Sport™ announced a landmark partnership on 21 October 2025, it felt less like a distribution deal and more like the opening of a door that had been shut for too long. For the first time, African fans will have free, direct access to the BWF’s premium live tournaments and signature shows — from the World Championships to the full HSBC BWF World Tour — delivered on a single, mobile-first platform built to connect athletes, fans and local communities.
The scale of what’s being unlocked is significant. Badminton is a global sport with enormous participation and an expanding commercial footprint; BWF research and industry studies put the sport’s active fan and player numbers in the hundreds of millions worldwide, underlining why making coverage accessible matters for growth and talent development on every continent.
From streaming rights to grassroots sparks
Discover Sport’s “glocal” model — fusing global broadcast rights with local activation — is the strategic pivot that makes this partnership more than TV. It’s a two-way street: Africa gains access to the sport’s flagship competitions and storytelling (Badminton Unlimited, Badminton Weekly, World Tour events), while BWF and tournament partners gain a distribution channel into cities, schools and courts across an underserved market. The platform’s mobile-first, free-to-use design was expressly created to reach athletes and fans who’ve historically been left out of premium sports broadcasts.
“This partnership with Discover Sport™ is a bold step toward true global inclusion,” BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund said in the announcement — language that signals a strategic shift in how international federations think about rights, reach and legacy.
Why this matters for African badminton
Access to elite competition footage does more than entertain. It creates role models, coaching resources, and tactical libraries for players and coaches who previously relied on fragmented clips or expensive rights deals. For federations and clubs, free access to flagship shows and live matches translates to better scouting, more targeted talent programmes, and the ability to inspire kids who may otherwise never see the sport’s highest level.
Discover Sport’s founder, Stephen Watson, frames the move as a mission as much as business: the platform wants to deliver “access, visibility and opportunity” — not just elite streams. For federations across the continent, that promise could mean improved grassroots awareness, sponsorship prospects, and the rarest of things in sport development: consistent, daily visibility.
A homegrown hero amplified: Johanita Scholtz
The story becomes personal when you consider athletes like Johanita Scholtz — a two-time African Games champion, multiple South African national titleholder and Paris 2024 Olympian — who already embodies the pathway this deal seeks to accelerate. Scholtz’s rise from regional talent to Olympian is the kind of narrative that, when broadcast broadly and accessibly, can inspire dozens of young players to pick up racquets. Discover Sport has already featured national events like the South African Championships, where Scholtz’s performances were streamed live — a preview of what year-round access to international content now makes possible.
What fans will see (and what federations can do)
Under the agreement, Discover Sport will carry the BWF World Championships, Thomas & Uber Cup Finals, Sudirman Cup Finals, HSBC BWF World Tour Finals and the full World Tour circuit (Super 1000, 750, 500 and 300 events), alongside magazine and highlights programming. That means African viewers can watch the crescendo of the international calendar and follow players across seasons — for free. The potential ripple effects are straightforward: better fan engagement, greater youth participation, and stronger commercial interest for local federations.
A signal to other sports
If there’s a broader signal here, it’s that federations seeking meaningful continental growth may choose platforms that combine broadcast reach with grassroots activation. Discover Sport — which has been expanding partnerships across tennis, equestrian, boxing and hockey — positions itself as a plug-in solution to open markets rather than purely as a rights buyer. The BWF partnership could become a template for other global bodies looking to convert latent interest into active participation.
The small print everyone should watch
Partnerships on paper must survive execution. The real test will be whether live streams reach the devices and communities they promise, whether broadcast quality and scheduling meet local needs, and whether discoverable, locally relevant content (subtitles, commentary in regional languages, grassroots features) accompanies the high-level matches. For those outcomes, collaboration between Discover Sport, national federations, broadcasters and sponsors is essential.
The human payoff
Beyond numbers and rights, this is the kind of moment that changes career trajectories. For every Johanita Scholtz who has already broken through, there are dozens of kids who’ve never seen a world championship point played live. When they do, the effect is literal: more racquets, more coaches, more local tournaments, and — eventually — a deeper pipeline of international talent.
As Stephen Watson put it: “We invite every federation that wants to reach new audiences to partner with us. Together, we can make sport truly global, and truly inclusive.” If the first months of this partnership deliver on that sentence, African badminton won’t just watch the sport — it will help shape its future.
