China, England and Indonesia are all set to host badminton's top-three elite tournaments from 2018 to 2021 which has been labelled as Level 1 events, according to new event structure, featuring six levels, launched by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
Malaysia, which has been been hosting the World Superseries Premier events along with the three countries and Denmark, will miss out on the $1m event and will host a Level 3 event.
Also, BWF will seek a new host for the season-ending World Superseries Finals, which has been dubbed as the Level 1 event from next year. Notably, the said event will have the highest prize money of $1.5m.
With Level 1 and Level 2 tournaments having a prize money of $1m and more, five events, with $700,000 prize, have been slotted in Level 3. These tournaments will be hosted by China, Denmark, France Japan and Malaysia and top-10 shuttlers are expected to feature in the top three levels.
Seven countries - Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand - will host Level 4 events, which will have a prize money of $350,000 while Level 5 tournaments ($150,000) will be hosted by 11 countries.
Badminton's new tour structure
| Level | No of events | Host countries | Prize Money |
| Level 1 | 1 | TBD | $1.5m |
| Level 2 | 3 | China, Indonesia, England | $1m |
| Level 3 | 5 | Malaysia, China, Japan, France and Denmark | $700,000 |
| Level 4 | 7 | Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand | $350,000 |
| Level 5 | 11 | Australia, Chinese Taipei, Germany, India, Korea, Macau, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand and USA | $150,000 |
| Level 6 [Open category, members to apply for sanction] | - | - | - |
All the six levels will have distinct names and the new tour structure offers not only prize money boost to players but will help improve the popularity of badminton events, according to BWF president Poul Erik Hoyer, who also believes that improving global television coverage to help increase popularity of the tournaments.
BWF secretary general Thomas Lund conceded that it was difficult to deny Malaysia a chance to host Level 2 events for the period of three years but maintained that a lot of thought was put in to come up with the new structure.
"It's unfortunate that Malaysia didn't get the job but it was so close. We have put in a lot of thought into this new structure. There are changes in the rules, too," Lind said, at the BWF council meeting in Malaysia on Sunday, as quoted by The Star.
"The prize money has been increased at every level, making it the biggest payout for the shuttlers when the new cycle begins. It will not be known as the Superseries. We will come up with a new name during our official launch."
