CSI Conclude North One Sport Acquisition

The company formerly tasked with promoting the Wolrd Rally Championship (WRC), North One Sport, has been taken over by sports marketing firm Convers Sports Initiatives (CSI).

The acquisition of North One Sport by CSI was allowed through parent company North One Television, which snapped up the WRC’s commercial rights holding company in 2007 and will continue to produce all WRC programming.

In 2009, North One Sport was appointed to look after the WRC’s commercial and media rights on a long-term deal to run until 2020. Alongside the WRC, North One Sport manages the media distribution and content delivery on behalf of the Isle of Man TT, the Velux 5 Oceans Race and the Clipper Round the World yacht race.

Based in London, CSI is part of the Convers Group headed by Russian entrepreneur and investor Vladimir Antonov, who stated: “Convers Sports’ acquisition of North One Sport starts a new page in the history of the WRC.

“Our team will use all the resources available to us to continue to excite fans with one of the best racing challenges in the world,” he added. “Our company plans to invest substantial resources to improve the promotion of the WRC and bring the quality of competition to even higher levels. This will benefit both participants and spectators in the long run.”

North One Sport’s CEO Simon Long added: “In some ways it’s business as usual for North One Sport. The vision remains the same and we have continuity in that the great team of individuals that work for us will continue to do so.”