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Dubai: A top-level official from the title sponsors believes the ongoing Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships will reap handsome returns for the bank in the long run.
"Honestly, we do not think about the returns. We wanted an event that would show our involvement in the community that we serve," Paul Idzik, Group Chief Operating Officer for Barclays told Gulf News.
Idzik has travelled from the UK to attend the two-week-long tournament. In September last year, Dubai Duty Free - owners and organisers of the tournaments - signed a $9 million (Dh33 million) agreement with Barclays that saw the bank become the title sponsor of the event until 2010.
Major endorsement
For Barclays, also the title sponsors of the English Premiership League, this is the first foray into professional tennis sponsorship globally. This move is also seen as a major endorsement of this tournament which began in 1993 and has since then grown into a fortnight of world-class tennis.
"We are here for the long haul. We are not worried about the short-term returns," Idzik said.
The sponsorship also weaves in well with the moving of the bank's headquarters to Dubai to cover the Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Middle East regions. "This tournament is a world-class brand and we believe that backing such an event will show our involvement with the community we serve," he said.
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