UEFA announce long term technology partnership with Atos

The partnership, which will run until 2030, sees Atos become UEFA’s Official Technology Partner for all men’s national team competitions.

UEFA is delighted to announce that Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, has agreed an eight-year partnership to sponsor UEFA National Team Football. 

Atos will help UEFA manage, improve, and optimise its complex technology landscape and operations with the overall aim of organising and supporting national team football events over the coming years, which include the UEFA EURO, UEFA Nations League Finals, European Qualifiers, UEFA European Under-21 Championship, and the UEFA Futsal EURO.

Guy Laurent-Epstein, UEFA marketing director said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Atos, who are committing themselves as a key partner of UEFA national men’s team football for the next eight years. The world is becoming more digitalised and with Atos onboard as our technology partner, we are ensuring we will have all the necessary technological expertise to help deliver our competitions to the millions of fans around the globe.”

Atos will be responsible for managing and securing the underlaying hybrid-cloud environment and the infrastructure required to host UEFA’s services, applications, and data. Atos will also offer its cybersecurity services, from identity and access management to advanced incident detection and response, to anticipate, monitor and remediate any potential threats in real time.

Stéphane Igolen, UEFA services and management director, added: “We are pleased to advance into a new phase of technological growth with this partnership with Atos and look forward to working alongside them.”

“Our teams will leverage their expertise in cloud, cybersecurity, integration, digital sovereignty and digital workplace services to manage and modernize UEFA’s digital backbone to deliver outstanding events for the benefit of all football fans. Today a new great sporting and technological story has begun,” said Nourdine Bihmane, co-CEO in charge of tech foundations, Atos

In addition to the activities related to the organization of UEFA events, Atos will also provide a full range of services – with state-of-the-art digital workplace, user support and network solutions – to optimize UEFA’s IT operations and improve the internal user experience. Atos will work closely with UEFA in all these areas to support its business strategy and bring efficiencies and innovation to its IT environment for the benefit of fans and the entire football family in Europe.

CAA Eleven is the exclusive marketing agency of UEFA appointed to manage commercial rights to UEFA national team football competitions, including the UEFA European Football Championship; the UEFA Nations League; the European Qualifiers; the UEFA European Under-21 Championship; and the UEFA European Futsal Championship.

WMRT announces presenting partner for Sydney finale

The World Match Racing Tour is pleased to announce the addition of Zenus Bank and PrimeXM as the two official Presenting Partners for the 2022 WMRT championship final event next week in Sydney, Australia.

The event is being co-hosted with the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and is the first time the WMRT Final has been staged in Australia. The winner of the event will be crowned official World Sailing Open Match Racing World Champion.

Founded in 2019, Zenus Bank is a U.S digital bank which gives people and businesses worldwide access to the security, freedom, and convenience of U.S. banking, as well as providing Retail, Corporate, Institutional banking and BaaS. The partnership with the World Match Racing Tour is Zenus’ first venture into sports sponsorship as it looks to raise its profile as a U.S. Retail and Corporate bank for international citizens and businesses.

“Sponsoring the World Match Racing Tour is an exciting opportunity for Zenus. The international sailing community reflects the demographics of our client base, and the commitment to excellence and teamwork also exemplifies the values we hold as a business,” said John Woods, Chief Marketing Officer at Zenus Bank.

PrimeXM, established in 2010, is an award-winning technology provider to the global financial industry, providing cutting edge aggregation software, ultra-low-latency connectivity, and institutional grade hosting solutions. Over 250 financial institutions worldwide choose PrimeXM as their trusted technology partner. The company operates from offices in Dubai, Limassol and Shanghai.

“As a global provider of technology services, we are delighted to partner with the World Match Racing Tour as the world’s longest running professional sailing series, and with its global reach and audience in the international sailing community” commented George Swann of PrimeXM Exchange Markets.

“We are very pleased to welcome Zenus Bank and PrimeXM as Presenting Partners for the WMRT Final” added WMRT Executive Director James Pleasance. “Sydney promises to deliver world class conditions next week, and we are grateful for the support of Zenus Bank and PrimeXM to help us deliver an equally world class event.”

Ten teams from seven countries will compete for the 2022 WMRT Final and Open Match Racing World Championship. Racing will be scheduled daily 14-18 December from 1200 AEST with live results available throughout the event. For information about the event, visit wmrt.com and cyca.com.au

FIS announce acquisition of Freeride World Tour

The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) is delighted to announce that it has acquired the Freeride World Tour (FWT) and that the two organizations will join forces already for the 2022-2023 season.

The FWT is the worldwide circuit of freeride snowboarding and skiing that features the best riders in the world competing on the most challenging alpine faces across iconic ski resorts. 

By acquiring the FWT, FIS will further unite all the disciplines in skiing and snowboarding, giving them more strength and power to develop on the global stage. 

FWT will continue to run the daily operations of the tour, remaining committed to their core values of safety, performance, responsibility, inclusivity and fun. FIS will focus on the marketing and governance of the FWT, and integrating FWT into the FIS structure that follows the guidelines of recognized FIS and Olympic sports.

The FWT currently includes more than 6,000 licensed athletes from the junior level to the elite Freeride World Tour competitions. On average, five top-level events take place each season with another 200 development events.

“Integrating FWT will see FIS add one of the most exciting, dynamic winter sports competition formats to its portfolio,” said Johan Eliasch. “This is truly a win-win for all parties as FIS can bring massive growth potential to the FWT providing the chance to develop on a broader stage. FWT brings a highly professional tour that offers breathtaking action and an entirely new element of skiing and snowboarding to FIS.”

“We are thrilled to be joining forces with FIS,” said Nicolas Hale-Woods, FWT founder. “For our freeride athletes and event organizers, being under the umbrella of the largest winter International Federation, recognized by the International Olympic Committee, will give them more access to support, increased visibility and additional resources that will ultimately allow the FWT and all of its stakeholders to grow.”

“We are excited to welcome all the freeride athletes to the FIS family,” said FIS Council Member Dean Gosper. “We look forward to working with the entire FWT to ensure the development of the sport on a global scale as FIS has done with so many of the youth- oriented events of snowboard, freestyle and freeski,” said Dean Gosper. who has been appointed Executive Chairman of FWT and will work closely together with Hale-Woods.

Freeriding has experienced massive growth during the last few years. The elite-level Freeride World Tour has three development tiers, Challenger, Qualifier and Junior, allowing athletes to hone their skills and work their way up to the top level. The organization also cooperates with ski schools to share the sport with riders of all ages.

Based in Verbier (SUI), the FWT was established in 1996 with start of the Xtreme Verbier events and has since grown to include a full circuit with competitions in Europe, North America, South America and Oceania.

FIS announce Swatch as Official Partner of FIS Park and Pipe World Cup for next four years

FIS is pleased to announce that Swatch has been named the Official Partner of the FIS Park & Pipe World Cup. The agreement lasts for four years and will run through the 2025-2026 season. 

Park & Pipe is the youngest of the FIS disciplines and includes both Freeski and Snowboard. The events that fall under the Park & Pipe umbrella include Big Air, Halfpipe and Slopestyle.

Since its founding in 1983, Swatch has shaken up the watch industry. Thanks to its striking designs which always reflect the zeitgeist, Swatch remains one of the leading watch manufacturers and the most sought-after brands in the world – and has always stayed true to itself. The company surprises again and again, whether it be with regularly released new models or special collections. The revolutionary way in which Swatch thinks and acts has always been evident with its early involvement in action sports, such as BMX, longboarding and surfing. 

“I can think of no better brand that fits the values of our Park & Pipe disciplines better than Swatch,” said FIS Secretary General Michel Vion. “It is a young watch brand that took the world by storm thanks to always being unique and true to itself, much like the athletes that compete on our tours.”

“Action sports is our playground and we are proud to be the Official Partner of the FIS Park & Pipe World Cup tours,” said Alain Villard, Swatch CEO. “It’s a great fit for us to support the FIS Freeski and Snowboard disciplines, where extremeness meets creativity for spectacular events on the winter sports calendar.”

Swatch also has a stable of professional athletes as part of their Proteam that span across skiing, snowboard, mountain biking and freeriding, to name a few. Familiar faces to the FIS family include Snowboard Big Air World Champion and Olympian athlete Laurie Blouin and Snowboarder and Olympian athlete, two-time Halfpipe World Championship bronze medallist and professional musician Pat Burgener. 

ITF announce calendar for first part of 2023 with record prize money for women’s competitions

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is continuing its drive for gender parity in tennis with today’s announcement of the Q1 (1 January to 30 March) calendar of events on the ITF World Tennis Tour.  

The schedule offers 114 tournaments (up 15 on 2022) and a record $3.3m for professional female players, as well as a new W40 level of competition worth $40,000 in prize money. The creation of this category will increase the total number of tournaments in 2023 above the $15,000 and $25,000 entry category to 150 tournaments. 

The ITF has also revealed today that total prize money on the 2023 ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour will increase by 10% to a record $16.5m.  

There will be 16 W40 events in total in Q1 with host nations including Estonia, France, Portugal, Tunisia, Mexico and India. The number of W60 events will also be increased from 14 in 2022 to 18 in 2023. The $3.3m total prize money on offer in Q1 represents a 25% increase on the same period in 2022 and a 50% increase on 2019. Players will also benefit from the requirement to provide complimentary hospitality at W100 and W80 levels from 2023 onwards. 

The move is part of the ITF’s ‘Advantage All’ commitment to develop and maintain tennis as an equal advantage sport for all. 

The new Q1 calendar also features over 100 events for men at M15 and M25 level, with over $2m prize money on offer for the first time. 

The ITF World Tennis Tour features 75% of the world’s professional tennis tournaments. It is a fundamental pillar of the professional game globally and acts as a pathway between the ITF Junior World Tennis Tour and the WTA (women) / ATP (men) Tour. 

The results of ITF tournaments are incorporated into a player’s WTA or ATP Ranking, which enables professionals to progress through to the elite levels of women’s or men’s professional tennis. 

The ITF has been investing significantly to achieve gender parity in the professional events that act as the main artery for the top level of the game, according to Mary Pierce, a member of the ITF’s Board of Directors and Chair of the ITF Women’s Player Panel.

She said: “The ITF is committed to gender equality and inclusion in general at all levels of the game and on a global basis. We’ve put a lot of focus on this through our Advantage All commitment designed to develop tennis as an equal opportunities sport. That‘s been driving a lot of investment, decisions and action in the professional game, including the creation of the W40 category of tournaments announced today. 

“We’ve also worked hard to structure a calendar of opportunities for men and women on the ITF World Tennis Tour that makes playing and touring easier to schedule and more cost-effective for our professional players, coaches and families.” 

Capital Block appointed official web3 agency of Debreceni VSC

Capital Block, the leading web3 agency for the sports and entertainment markets, can today share that it has been appointed by Debreceni VSC (DVSC), the Hungarian football club, as its official web3 agency.

The club is now gearing up to offer revolutionary new web3 products that enable fans to get closer to their club than ever before.

As a result of this partnership, DVSC has become the first Hungarian football club to signal its intentions in web3. Capital Block will be responsible for advising and implementing DVSC’s ventures into the web3 space, which could include Token launches, NFTs, and a push into the Metaverse.

DVSC alongside Capital Block will soon be making further announcements of potential launches of web3 products. All the products and launches will be owned by DVSC, rather than outsourced to a third party provider, allowing maximum autonomy when it comes to decision making.

Capital Block has a strong track record in developing successful web3 products that enable football fans to get closer to their club, and already works with major football clubs like AS Monaco in France, Legia Warsaw in Poland, and Galatasaray in Turkey.

Capital Block ran Galatasaray’s first ever NFT drop, which sold out in under one minute.

Capital Block says that web3 is still considerably untapped by European football clubs. Even though more football clubs are announcing their involvement in web3 projects, the continent is still some way behind markets like the US.

Tim Mangnall, CEO of Capital Block, continues: “We’ll now get straight to work developing innovative web3 products that bring fans closer to DVSC, and ensuring that DVSC remains at the forefront of innovation in Hungarian football. Watch this space!”

“Our focus will initially be on helping DVSC fans understand web3 and the real-world opportunities it can bring them, before launching a suite of web3 products.”

DVSC press secretary Tóth Csaba Zsolt comments: “We can’t wait to get started with Capital Block, who are Europe’s leading experts when it comes to the intersection of web3 and sports. We were so impressed at their plans to keep our brilliant DVSC fans at the heart of this project, and we can’t wait to share our plans very soon.”

Looking back on our Leadership Masterclass

Yesterday we hosted our final event of 2022 at the offices of Withersworldwide.

The Leadership Masterclass brought together senior people from all over the sports industry and had some excellent insights from some of the biggest leaders in the space.

The day was bookended by two keynote sessions, the first from Vinai Venkatesham, CEO of Arsenal and closed by Alejandro Agag, Chairman of Formula E and CEO of Extreme E. Both were very open and shared their insights on a whole range of topics related to leadership from growing a new sport to guiding a leading sports organisation through the pandemic. Neither of them held back when the questions flooded in at the end of their sessions – some incredibly open and honest answers surprised the audience. When you have the chairman of a Premier League club and people in C-suite positions from all across sport, it was great to hear them challenge our speakers.

Between the two keynote sessions there was a panel on leading in a digital age. The panel was made up of Lenah Ueltzen-Gabell, Group MD of Wasserman Europe, Aidan Cooney, CEO of InCrowd and Wouter Sleijffers, CEO of EXCEL ESPORTS. A whole range of topics were discussed from how leadership has changed as a result of the pandemic to the impact the evolution of technology has had. It was really interesting to see how each of them took different approaches to the same problems. The challenge of the WFH and office balance was hotly debated.

A key aspect of our events is giving people plenty of time to network in a relaxed environment helped by some excellent food and drink. We try to make the space feel a bit like a big living room, just without someone trying to find the TV remote. There was a fabulous buzz in the networking space and great to see some engaging conversations.

All this took place before lunch was served, leaving those with busy schedules plenty of time to get back to the office for the rest of the day.

We have exciting plans for 2023, so keep your eyes peeled and we look forward to seeing you then.

Rhodri Jones appointed first MD of Rugby League Commercial

Rhodri Jones has been appointed the first Managing Director of Rugby League Commercial, as the sport continues to refresh its corporate and leadership structure.

RL Commercial was set up in 2022, as part of the realignment agreed by the Rugby Football League and Super League Europe, to drive Rugby League’s commercial development – which has included the launch of a 12-year strategic partnership with IMG.

Jones, who has been the Chief Commercial Officer of Super League Europe since 2018, will begin in the new role on January 1 – as per the timetable outlined during the realignment process earlier this year.

 His appointment follows confirmation of an inaugural independent RL Commercial Board led by Frank Slevin, as Chair, and including IMG Media’s Head of Sport Ed Mallaburn, the RFL Chair Simon Johnson, Anna Chanduvi, Peter Hutton and Jonathan Murphy.

Frank Slevin said: “I am delighted that following a comprehensive global search, the first Managing Director for RL Commercial has come from within the sport, providing vital continuity during a period of rapid change. 

“Rhodri has both a deep knowledge of the sport and the respect of key stakeholders, including our longstanding commercial partners.  

“Rhodri will lead a team drawn from the ranks of the RFL and Super League and the Board looks forward to working with him and his leadership team on driving forward with the commercial strategy for the sport and the partnership with IMG.”

Rhodri Jones said: “It is a huge honour for me to take up the Managing Director position at Rugby League Commercial and I would like to thank the interview panel for showing their faith in me.

“I am very much looking forward to working with the team here, and IMG colleagues in anticipation of the start of the 2023 season.”

NFL and Genius Sports expand partnership

The National Football League and Genius Sports Limited, today announced an expansion of their partnership to connect fans with live, select NFL games through major U.S. sports betting platforms.

As part of this expanded agreement and as an added benefit of its standing as an Official Sports Betting Partner and the first Official Casino Sponsor of the NFL, Caesars Entertainment (“Caesars”) (NASDAQ: CZR), one of the largest casino-entertainment companies in the United States, will become the first sportsbook operator to provide its U.S. customers with live Watch & Bet video streams for select NFL games on their mobile phones or tablets via the Caesars Sportsbook app.

Genius Sports will leverage its machine learning and live streaming technologies to power enhanced viewing experiences for NFL fans through Watch & Bet, and the development of its augmented live video betting products.

The NFL appointed Genius Sports in April 2021 as its exclusive worldwide distributor of real-time official play-by-play statistics, proprietary Next Gen Stats (NGS) data, and the League’s official sports betting data feed to media companies and sportsbooks in regulated markets. This partnership included the rights for Genius Sports to distribute low latency video feeds to sportsbooks in key international markets, which has now been expanded to include the U.S.

As a first of its kind in the U.S., Caesars Sportsbook will offer official data-driven in-game betting opportunities and player props alongside live video streams of NFL games to give their customers access to the most compelling in-play NFL betting experience available for mobile and tablets. In addition, Caesars Sportsbook will utilize official NFL league and team marks and logos to help promote their live premium content through a fully immersive Watch & Bet live wagering experience. 

“The addition of live Watch & Bet video streaming brings the best that the NFL has to offer right into the Caesars Sportsbook app,” said Eric Hession, President of Caesars Digital. “Delivering innovative technology like this remains a key emphasis for us, so being the first U.S. sportsbook to provide customers with in-app NFL live streaming isn’t something we take lightly. We’re thankful to bring an industry-leading new feature to our sports wagering app through our partnership with Genius Sports and the NFL.”

”We’re excited to offer fans a new way to experience and engage with NFL content,” said Brent Lawton, VP NFL Media Strategy and Business Development. “Watch and Bet is an innovative step forward in our partnerships with Genius Sports and Caesars.”

“In our expanded agreement with the NFL and Caesars Entertainment, Genius Sports has created a unique solution that combines our exclusive official NFL data with live streaming content to deliver the most compelling sports betting experience available across the U.S.,” said Mark Locke, CEO of Genius Sports. “Accelerated by our long-term NFL partnership, Genius Sports continues to go from strength to strength as our innovative products enable our customers to grow their product offering and increase market share across North America.”

Genius Sports’ existing agreement with Caesars provides highly targeted programmatic marketing solutions as well as access to official data-powered in-play content for other top-tier US and global sports, including NASCAR, EPL, Argentinian and Colombian soccer, as well as Liga MX.

Arsenal announce new partnership with LABS Group

Arsenal announce new partnership today which sees LABS Group become their official Hotel and Resort Membership Partner in Asia and Europe.

LABS Group will focus on the hospitality industry, allowing hotels and resorts to create and customise timeshare programmes through their new digital marketplace, Staynex, which will launch early next year.  

Rooms from a network of resorts and hotels around the world will be available at discount prices for a set period, over a number of years, through the new system. Customers will be able to purchase a residence pass for partner hotels, in the form of an NFT (Non-Fungible Token), that gives them access to the accommodation for the specified time period at a reduced rate. 

Bernard Lau, CEO of LABS Group, said: “Partnering with Arsenal is not only an honour, but it’s also a dream come true to be associated with such a successful and historical football club. This will accelerate our vision of combining the hospitality industry with global brands, in a way that has not been done before.” 

Juliet Slot, our Chief Commercial Officer, added: “We’re delighted to welcome LABS Group to the Arsenal family as they prepare to launch this new product in the New Year. Our reach around the world is going to be an important part of them growing this new business.”