Scottish Rugby (SRU) has appointed Essentially Group, a division of CSM Sport & Entertainment (CSM), as its sole and exclusive global commercial agency.

It will be tasked with sourcing and negotiating key partnerships, including principle partner to the Scotland national team; and title sponsorship for Scotland’s autumn tests from next season (2013/2014) onwards. 

Commercially Scottish Rugby has continued to grow from strength to strength, recently announcing a new kit manufacturing deal with Macron; the biggest sponsorship in its history and also welcoming on board renowned Scottish brands such as The Famous Grouse and Tennent Caledonian Brewers plus global brand Unilever with its Dove Men + Care range.

Dominic McKay, Scottish Rugby’s Director of Commercial Operations, Communications and Public Affairs, said: “We are beginning to make progress in terms of our on-field displays; and though we are still building, we certainly feel that we are headed in the right direction at the moment after our RBS 6 Nations Championship, which included victories over Italy and Ireland.

“A big part of us achieving our goals revolved around identifying a global agency with the reputation and drive to succeed and we believe that in Essentially we have found the best in the market.”

Mike Vandrau, Head of Sales of Essentially, said: “Scottish Rugby is in a really exciting place at the moment and it enjoys a huge global fan base that truly identifies with the shirt and the players.This is a great opportunity for brands to come on board, with a team that is fully focussed on achieving its goals; and in doing so access major broadcast and press coverage in both the UK and international marketplace, in the build-up to the 2015 Rugby World Cup.”

“We are delighted to be appointed as the exclusive agency to Scottish Rugby and look forward to working with the team at Murrayfield to deliver what is a fantastic opportunity.”

Read Scottish Rugby CEO’s interview with iSportconnect here>>

The International Rugby Board has welcomed the United Arab Emirates Rugby Federation (UAERF) as a Full Member Union after Council approved its application during its meeting in Dublin today.

The UAERF became an Associate Member of the IRB earlier this year following the disbandment of the Arabian Gulf RFU and has been fast-tracked through to Full Membership following significant advances, treat which has including assuming a leadership role in what is a strategically important region for the development of Rugby.

The IRB is committed to the development of Rugby in West Asia and this is a major milestone for the Game in that part of the world. The UAERF has shown itself to be an accomplished host for competitions, remedy it has strong support from its National Olympic Committee, a sound structure that has already led to good participation growth, particularly among the local Emirati population.

IRB Chairman Bernard Lapasset said: “We are delighted to be welcoming UAE as a Full Member of the IRB. These are very exciting times for our sport with unprecedented growth and interest around the world. Today’s announcement certainly underlines Rugby’s ability to reach out to new communities and countries in every region.”

“As home to 60 per cent of the global population and 80 per cent of the world’s young people, Asia is a strategically important region for the IRB. Working in collaboration with the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) we are currently investing over US$3 million annually in development, high performance and tournament programmes across the region and we will ensure that UAE has the structures in place to flourish and grow on the world stage.”

The UAERF actively participates in ARFU events and has met the IRB criteria for a Full Member. It is a well-structured organisation with full-time administrators. It has 1,300 adult licensed players and a further 4,600 underage players. At domestic level, UAERF runs a seven-team annual domestic 15-a-side premiership and an eight-team conference competition.

The UAERF national 15-a-side team played in the HSBC Asian 5 Nations Top 5, finishing third in 2011. The UAERF continues to host tournaments successfully. Since the 2012 Annual Meeting of IRB Council, the UAE Under 19 national team has participated in an ARFU tournament.

ARFU fully supported the UAERF’s application for Full Member status. At its 2012 Annual Meeting, IRB Council agreed that the UAERF be admitted into Associate Membership. Council further agreed that subject to satisfactory progress and given its earlier decision relating to the former AGRFU that the UAERF may be considered for IRB Full Membership at the interim meeting 2012.

Meanwhile, the IRB Council has granted the Hellenic Federation of Rugby (Greece) IRB Full Member status on a probationary basis.

Despite not meeting all membership criteria owing to the certain unique circumstances in Greece, special dispensation was given for a 12-month probationary period. This was granted to allow the Union every possible opportunity to bolster domestic competition and development programmes.

The FIRA-AER Regional Association will report back to the IRB Council regarding progress at its May 2013 Annual Meeting.

The United Arab Emirates Rugby Federation and the Hellenic Federation of Rugby take the number of Full Member Unions to 100. Including Associate Members there are 118 Unions in membership of the IRB.

Tiger Woods has reached a unique feat by becoming the first golfer to reach the $100 million mark on the PGA Tour for career earnings.

Woods finished third in the Deutsche Bank Championship on Monday to earn $544,000 and push his career total to $100,350,700. Next on the list is Phil Mickelson – more than $30 million behind at $66,805,498 after finishing fourth at the TPC Boston.

“The purse increase helps,” Woods said after a final-round 66 left him two strokes behind winner Rory McIlroy in the second week of the four-tournament FedEx Cup playoff. “I won fewer tournaments than Sam Snead has, but obviously he was in a different era. It’s just that we happened to time it up right and happened to play well when the purses really had a nice spike up.”

Snead, the career leader with 82 PGA Tour victories, earned just $620,126 in a career that started in 1937. His biggest prize was $28,000 for a second-place finish in Milwaukee in 1968, and for most of his prime he played in tournaments with a total purse – that’s all the payouts combined – of less than $100,000.

Woods has won 74 tournaments, second all-time, including 38 times with a first prize of $1 million or more. His winnings come out to an average of $362,276.89 for each of his 277 career starts.

But it’s not just good timing: Prize money skyrocketed on the PGA Tour after Woods went pro and brought huge crowds and television audiences to the sport.

“It was nice to have a nice start to my career, and I won some majors early,” he said. “I think we got some interest in the game of golf. A lot more youth, that’s for sure.”

NBA uniforms are set to have new spaces for advertising the NBA Board of Governors have confirmed.

Commissioner David Stern said the league is looking to add possibly $100 million in revenue by permitting small advertising patches on uniforms starting in the 2013-14 season.

“The view is, that the teams would need a significant time; one, to sell the patch; and number two, for Adidas to manufacture the uniforms, because the patch that would be on the players’ uniforms would also appear on the jerseys at retail,” said Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver, who is handling the uniform change.

Silver said there are revenue projections from European soccer teams that the NBA could use.

Zak Brown founder and CEO of Just Marketing International (JMI), the global leader in motorsport marketing that manages over $300 million in annual motorsports investments has claimed in his exclusive iSportconnect column that sponsors realise the effect a fatality can have on the sport.

JMI’s clients participate in all major motorsports series including Formula 1, NASCAR and IndyCar.

The column, Sponsors Understand the Tragic Risks in Motorsport, details the impact of recent tragedies on motorsport and sponsorship as well as providing comment on other recent events in motorsports.

Brown believes deaths in motorsport reinforces the need for rigorous safety procedures

“The infrequency of fatalities in motorsports, due to huge safety and technological advances, means on the rare occasion they occur it leaves us stunned. History tells us incidents like these accelerate the safety agenda as we saw in the aftermath of Dale Earnhardt in NASCAR and Ayrton Senna in Formula One, ” said Brown.

Go to Sponsors Understand the Tragic Risks in Motorsport to read Zak Brown’s full story on recent motorsport events