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96 WORLD RUGBY YEAR IN REVIEW 2015Rugby World Cup 2015 was a pivotal moment in time as World Rugby continues to drive a long-term global investment strategy.FINANCING THE GLOBAL GAME IN 2015Rugby World Cup is the commercial and financial vehicle that drives World Rugby’s investment in the global game. Rugby World Cup 2015 in England, the eighth edition, proved to be the most successful tournament ever from a financial perspective; delivered in the European market, it returned a surplus of approximately £150 million* to World Rugby, a 63 per cent increase on its predecessor in New Zealand.Rugby World Cup – rugby’s financial engineRugby World Cup provides approximately 90 per cent of World Rugby’s revenues from broadcast, sponsorship and other Other sources of incomeOn top of RWC income, World Rugby negotiates broadcast and sponsorship income agreements for other properties, tournaments and events. The most prominent of these properties is now the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series; for the 2015-16 season, World Rugby has centralised the majority of the commercial income, including licencing, merchandising and hospitality (note that the host union collects and retains ticket income). The growth of the tournament over time, in particular the phenomenal success commercial rights for the 10 men’s and five women’s tournaments, including renewing and enhancing our title sponsorship with HSBC, the global banking and financial services company. World Rugby is currently investigating how best to grow and source prominent streams of income from all of our properties.In addition, World Rugby uses its reserves from time to time to of recent editions, has enabled investment at all levels, from grassroots participation to elite high performance. As the graph shows, individual tournament surpluses have trebled since the turn of the millennium. smooth investment levels and help fund core game investment programmes. Prudent cost reduction in recent years as RWC surpluses have fluctuated has also generated greater cost efficiency. It should be noted that World Rugby only retains necessary levels of reserves, in the unlikely event of RWC not taking place due to unforeseen circumstances.1601401201008060402002011New Zealand1987New Zealand1418476412292150GBP SURPLUS (£m)TOURNAMENT YEAR AND VENUERugby World Cup Financial Results 1987-20151991 England1995 South Africa1999 Wales2003 Australia2007 France2015 England*FINANCIAL REPORT | FINANCING THE GLOBAL GAMEINCOME GENERATION 2015* Subject to audit at time of print