The National Football League (NFL) has announced Frank Supovitz has stepped down as the NFL’s senior vice president of events to start his own event management and consulting business.

Supovitz, link who led the league’s events group for the past nine years, will depart in June. He will help run next month’s NFL Draft and the selection process for the site of Super Bowl LII.

“We will miss his leadership and expertise, which has been instrumental in raising the level of all of our events,” said Commissioner Roger Goodell. “From the Draft to Kickoff to the Super Bowl to all the other events he managed, Frank consistently delivered results that were – to use one of his favorite words – spectacular. We look forward to the opportunity to work with him again.”

“I have been honored to lead a team of dedicated professionals that work tirelessly behind the scenes to represent the NFL shield and stage its flagship events,” Supovitz said.  “I know that even more greatness is in store for America’s Game.”

A 35-year veteran of the event management business, Supovitz joined the NFL in 2005 after serving 13 years at the NHL as general manager of event marketing and group vice president of events and entertainment.

Supovitz began his professional career in events and marketing at Radio City Music Hall Productions in 1979. During his 10 years at Radio City, he managed numerous events, including serving as associate producer of the Super Bowl XXII Halftime Show in San Diego in 1988. From 1989 to 1992, Supovitz was vice president of marketing and coordinating producer of EVENTURES, a New York-based event production firm.

The Premier League of Darts have announced they will expand from eight to ten players for the new season.

The PDC have opted to change the format of the ever-growing competition with two extra places now being offered for the 15-night darting tour of the UK and Ireland.

16-time world champion Phil Taylor was already guaranteed a place along with the other top three in the world rankings – Adrian Lewis, James Wade and beaten World Championship finalist Michael van Gerwen.

Four other picks were expected, but that has now been increased to six with established Premier League stars Simon Whitlock and Raymond van Barneveld joined by Andy Hamilton after he made an impact in his debut season last year.

2011 champion Gary Anderson returns and he is joined by two new faces in the event with Wes Newton and Robert Thornton set to make their debuts in the 2013 Premier League.

“This new format for the McCoy’s Premier League Darts is going to take the tournament to a whole new level,” said PDC Chairman Barry Hearn.

“Fans across the UK and Ireland will experience five spectacular matches on each night, and all ten players have earned their spots with their achievements over the last 12 months.

“This new format will mean incredible competition both to avoid relegation and then for Play-Off places before the ninth McCoy’s Premier League champion is crowned at The O2 in May.”

The ten players will face each other once over the opening nine weeks of the tournament, over the best of 12 legs, before the bottom two players in the league table are relegated following the ninth league night in Brighton.

The remaining eight players will then face each other again over the remaining five league nights before the top four progress to the play-offs at The O2 in London on May 16.

The McCoy’s Premier League Darts will begin on Thursday February 7 at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast before travelling to Aberdeen, Bournemouth, Exeter, Nottingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow and Brighton for the first phase of the event.

The final five league nights will be held in Sheffield, Dublin, Birmingham, Liverpool and Newcastle before the top four players progress to the Play-Offs at The O2 in London on May 16.

Two Circles, treat specialists in enabling sports rights holders to drive commercial growth through customer centric marketing strategies, allergist has been tasked by the ECB to help develop a much better understanding of the needs of customers attending cricket matches.

The current economic climate, increased competition from different sports and other forms of entertainment, and most significantly from the option of staying at home and watching cricket on TV, have made it essential that the sport develops a greater understanding of its customers.  The proposition offered to the armchair fan in particular has improved significantly in recent years – new and improved technology, high definition and 3D television, super slow-mos, hawkeye and online interaction have significantly improved armchair experience providing an increased threat to attendances at matches.

Working in collaboration with the 18 First Class Counties & MCC, on behalf of the ECB, Two Circles designed and executed a major consumer insight programme. The programme ensured every cricket ticket buyer at every international and domestic Friends Life t20 fixture during 2012 was asked for feedback through an online survey, within 1 hour of play ending.

The survey was designed to gain a personal insight to what the cricket ticket buyer thought of their match day experience, and also to benchmark the cricket match day experience across all First Class Counties. Two Circles designed the experience to capture County specific feedback based on data known about the buyer.

Two Circles worked in partnership with Futures Sport & Entertainment to deliver a balanced scorecard of results from each game within 7 days. This was accessible to the First Class Counties to enable on-going timely monitoring and action on any issues raised by customers.

Tom Johnson, Event Brand Manager at the ECB commented: “It is vital that we generate as much information and insight about our paying spectators as possible. Improving match day experience is a goal shared by the ECB and the First Class Counties. Two Circles developed a complex project that delivered the information and the results that we needed.”

Gareth Balch, Director at Two Circles said: “We were delighted to extend our role with the ECB & the First Class Counties to include attitudinal insight.  Our approach was to put the ticket buyer at the heart of our thinking & create conversations between rights-holders & customers. Cricket has huge numbers of supporters and we wanted to know and understand how we can get more of these supporters to go to watch cricket live.”

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Council has created new relays events, dubbed IAAF World Relays with the first editions taking place in Nassau, Bahamas, in May 2014 and 2015.

This new two-day competition will bring together the world’s best athletes, with a schedule that includes the traditional 4x100m and 4x400m events as well as 4x200m, 4x800m and 4x1500m, the IAAF said in a news dispatch on Saturday.

It is expected that the World Relays will be used to qualify some teams for the World Championships and Olympics.

IAAF President Lamine Diack said: “The wonderful athletics competition in London has not only reinforced the appeal of our sport but specifically the popularity of relay races.

“Spectators find the relays dramatic and exciting. We are confident that this new special event, at the beginning of the season, will really help us promote the sport further.”

He said the federation was delighted when the Bahamas stepped forward to host because the country was passionate about athletics and had a tremendous reputation in the relay races.

Bahamas struck the men’s 4 x400m Olympic gold in London on Friday night, beating the United States who settled for silver. Trinidad and Tobago took bronze.

“We have received strong support and financial guarantees from the Government of the Bahamas which will help us, together with  our partner the Bahamas to deliver an excellent and exciting product,” said Diack, a Senegalese.

The venue of the event is the 15,000 capacity Thomas A Robinson National Stadium in Nassau which will host the 2013 edition of the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) Games.

This event will be open to all IAAF Member Federations and there will be a total of approximately $1.4 million in prize money available.

The event will be broadcast around the world with the Host Broadcasting provided by the Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas.

Meydan Racecourse has launched a US $952.8million legal claim against UAE builder Arabtec and Malaysian contractor WCT over the construction of the racecourse that hosts the Dubai World Cup.

Arabtec and WCT won the contract to construct the course in September 2007.

Meydan cancelled the contract 16 months later, sale saying the contractors had failed to keep to construction timetable.

The joint venture launched an arbitration action against Meydan, alleging breach of contract. The claim currently stands US $762.3M.

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Meydan has now responded with its own civil suit in the Dubai Courts, claiming the original arbitration had expired.

WCT said the claim is “frivolous and without merit” and vowed to fight the civil suit.

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Australian gymnast Lauren Mitchell has become a Visa ambassador for the London 2012 Olympic Games joining 14 times Olympic swimming gold medallist Michael Phelps and Beijing 2008 shot put gold medal winner Valerie Adams.

Mitchell was the first female Australian athlete to claim a world gold medal at the 2011 World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam.

She also claimed two silver medals at the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships in London, as well as claiming gold medals at the 2010 Stuttgart World Cup in balance beam, floor exercise and uneven bars.

Her confirmation as a Visa ambassador makes her the first Australian to be at the front of the organisation’s Olympic Games’ marketing campaign.

Visa’s country manager in Australia, Vipin Kalra, said: “The Olympic Games begin and end with the athletes and we’re excited to have Lauren join Visa as our first Australian Olympic ambassador.”

Visa’s campaign will air later this month, entitled “Go World”, and will feature Mitchell performing her routines. Visa cardholders will be entered into a weekly draw from which they could win a trip for two to the Olympic Games in the English capital next year.

“Winning an Olympic gold medal has been a dream of mine since I was a child and it’s great to know I have got Visa and the rest of Australia behind me as I head to London,” Mitchell said.

Visa who have a long association with the Olympic Movement, made their athlete selections based on a number of criteria, including dedication to their sport, community involvement and athletic achievements.