The Badminton World Federation, the sport's international governing body, today announced plans for a major revamp of the Grand Prix Gold series, its third tier of competition, from 2014.
The BWF said it hopes the rebrand will have the same effect as it had on the top-tier World Superseries, which launched in 2007 but was then restructured for 2011, with a split to form an elite Premier Superseries of events.
The World Superseries has been a commercial success as it has attracted more money from television and sponsors, and the BWF Council said the time was right to address the Grand Prix Gold Series, which this year comprises 11 tournaments, including next week's Victor Korea Open will take place next week.
The BWF said: "The World Superseries has done wonders for badminton’s profile and popularity internationally. While we will continue working on improving our top-tier of events, we recognise it is also now time to rebrand and relaunch the next level of BWF events – the Grand Prix Gold series – to strengthen its brand and identity.
"Therefore, as of 2014, there will be a new-look GP Gold series, modelled along the lines of the World Superseries, as far as the collective sale of media rights and boasting similar standards of commercial and media promotion as well as television production. We want our GP Gold product to have a better, slicker 'look and feel' both on and off the court, particularly on court as there will be greater television exposure which should in turn increase the tour’s commercial value and revenue."
The federation added: "Many top players have emerged from the GP Gold circuit and we believe that holding it to higher professional, operational and commercial guidelines would help players get accustomed to what they can expect if and when they graduate to the World Superseries ranks. Additionally, it will help those countries and member associations which aspire to become part of the WSS tour to appreciate the requirements of hosting top-flight badminton – the infrastructure, experience and attitude needed."
The decision to rebrand the Grand Prix Gold Series was taken by the BWF at its Council meeting in Thailand.
In other developments, Thailand was named as the host country of the BWF World Junior Championships in 2013, and the venues for World Superseries events for the 2014 to 2017 cycle were announced.
The five Premier Superseries tournaments will be: the China Open; the All England Open; the Indonesia Open; the Denmark Open; and the Malaysia Open.
The only change from the present calendar sees Malaysia move up to become a Superseries event, replacing South Korea, which goes down a level.
Australia and Singapore missed out on Premier events but both are on the schedule for the seven-tournament Superseries, for the first time in the case of Australia.
Singapore, France, Hong Kong, India and Japan maintain their events from 2014 to 2017 but China has lost its Superseries tournament.
Bids from Taiwan and Thailand to stage a Superseries event were unsuccessful.
The Premier tournaments will each have minimum prize money of $500,000 in 2014 and 2015, rising to $550,000 in 2016 and $600,000 in 2017, compared with $350,000 in both 2011 and 2012 and $400,000 next season.
Standard Superseries prize money will start with a minimum $250,000 in 2014 and rise to $275,000 in 2015, $300,000 in 2016 and $325,000 in 2017. Prize money for the seven events in the present cycle is $200,000.
Meanwhile, the BWF Council announced it has made changes to the doubles competition format for future Olympic Games, in the wake of a scandal at London 2012 that led to the expulsion of eight female players.
At the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics, all pairs finishing second in their first-round groups will go into a second draw to determine who they face in the knockout phase. Pairs topping their groups will have fixed positions equivalent to seeded placings in the knockout stage.
The BWF said: "This will eliminate any player’s thoughts about actively trying to lose a match or matches, irrespective of other match results. Such a draw process can easily and effectively be made just after all group matches have been concluded. This will certainly optimise the competition format for the Rio Olympic Games in 2016."
Two pairs of players from South Korea and one pair each from China and Indonesia were kicked out of London 2012 for attempting to throw matches in order to avoid meeting more difficult opponents later in the competition.
Badminton at the Olympic Games had traditionally consisted of a straight knock-out tournament but the International Olympic Committee said that it had accepted the BWF's request to move to a round-robin format for London 2012 so that the world's best players could be seen more frequently by spectators. The round-robin format does, however, lead to dead rubber matches, and the temptation to manipulate the draw.