Mobivity Holdings Corporation, an award-winning provider of patented mobile marketing technologies and solutions, has announced a partnership with Florida Citrus Sports to cover four bowl games over the next two years.

During each game Mobivity will work with Florida Citrus Sports to encourage fan engagement for both the Capital One Bowl and the Russell Athletic Bowl, allowing fans to interact with Florida Citrus Sports using their patented mobile marketing platform, as well as in-stadium HD graphics for live polling and interaction during sporting events.

Michael Falato, Senior VP of Sales and Business Development for Mobivity, stated, “We couldn’t be more excited about working with the Florida Citrus and Tangerine Sports Associations. College-aged individuals are some of the most active in the mobile world, and we’re looking forward to seeing heightened engagement and fan interaction for the Capitol One and Russell Athletic Bowl games.

Mobivity will be developing and managing two real-time HD video board graphics for each of the two bowl games over the two-year contract. Mobivity’s patented and award-winning Display technology will allow Florida Citrus Sports to engage fans during each event through high-definition graphics that will display polls, voting, and contests aimed to increase fan engagement before, during, and after events.

“We are always looking to enhance the fan experience at our games, and Mobivity’s services help us to stay proactive in the mobile space,” said Steven Hogan, CEO of Florida Citrus Sports. “Fans are now accustomed to using cell phones to interact during a sporting event, and together with Mobivity we can give them this opportunity.”

Japanese athletic equipment company ASICS Europe has continued its growth across the continent by increasing sales by 13.2 per cent between January and September 2011. 

Running footwear sales rose 21 per cent and running apparel 25 per cent. The company also enjoyed significant revenue increases in tennis and indoor sports.

By country, recipe ASICS said Austria, Benelux, UK and Germany enjoyed solid growth. Scandinavia, France, Spain and Poland provided significant double-digit growth, while Russia just missed out on posting triple growth figures.

The release of its latest financial results follows the successful launch of ASICS’ ‘Made of Sport’ advertising campaign, which has been supported by the largest media spend in the company’s history, and the launch of the new 33 collection into the natural running market. 

ASICS has also recently re-signed as title sponsor of the Paris and New York City marathons and announced the signing of Samantha Stosur as its global tennis ambassador. 

Alistair Cameron, CEO of ASICS Europe, said: “During 2011 ASICS Europe has invested heavily, laying strong foundations for future growth that will continue to strengthen our premium sports performance position.” 

“Significant investment has been made in a centrally managed retail organisation; a strengthened performance footwear team; a fully operational apparel design, development and product marketing team; the complete separation of a new, fully integrated business unit focusing on Onitsuka Tiger; and our most impactful and best received media campaign ever. 

“Despite the economic challenges in our region, ASICS Europe is set to continue to outperform the market place as the trusted premium brand.”

drugs helvetica, sans-serif;”>West Ham United FC initial deal to have the Olympic Stadium after London 2012 has folded after mounting concerns about legal challenges over the bidding process, the British government said today.

West Ham had not signed any contracts with the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) meaning the $760 million stadium will instead remain in public ownership after the Olympics and be rented out to the winner of a new bidding process.

The battle for control of the stadium has been fiercely disputed since West Ham was selected ahead of London rival Tottenham in February to be the preferred long-term tenant.

British sports minister Hugh Robertson said: “The action we have taken today is about removing the uncertainty—the process had become bogged down in legal paralysis. We know there is huge interest in the stadium out there from private operators and football clubs and crucially we remove any uncertainty.

“This is not a white elephant stadium where no one wants it, we have had two big clubs fighting tooth and nail to get it.”

London’s High Court had approved Tottenham’s request to mount a full legal challenge against the decision by West Ham’s local authority to provide a $63 million loan to fund the second-tier club’s move into the stadium.

Fourth-tier east London club Leyton Orient was also challenging the decision, while an anonymous complaint to the European Commission about the apparent use of Newham Council funds by West Ham fueled concerns that the legal disputes could drag on for years.

Robertson also said the Olympic Park Legacy Company received a letter from Newham on Monday saying that “because of the uncertainty they no longer wanted to proceed.”

“That was the straw that broke the camel’s back and we thought it better to stop it dead in it tracks now,” Robertson said.

But West Ham said it will bid again under the new terms that could be more financially favorable for the east London club, which was relegated from the Premier League in May.

Karen Brady, West Ham vice-chairman said: “Uncertainty caused by the anonymous complaint to the European Commission and ongoing legal challenges have put the Olympic legacy at risk and certainly a stadium, as we envisioned it, may not be in place by 2014 due as a direct result of the legal delay,” Brady said. 

“Therefore we would welcome a move by OPLC and government to end that uncertainty and allow a football and athletics stadium to be in place by 2014 under a new process. 

“If the speculation is true, West Ham will look to become a tenant of the stadium while Newham will aim to help deliver the legacy.

“Our bid is the only one that will secure the sporting and community legacy promise of the Olympic Stadium – an amazing year-round home for football, athletics and community events of which the nation could be proud.”

Some $55 million has already been earmarked under the Olympic budget to downsize the stadium from an 80,000- to a 60,000-seat facility after the games.

One certainty is that the running track will remain in the stadium regardless of the outcome, with London bidding to host the 2017 world athletics championships.

“It’s fantastic for UK Athletics and it is a bold and decisive move by the legacy company,” UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner said.

West Ham had planned to retain the running track after leaving Upton Park, but Tottenham proposed knocking down most of the stadium and building a 60,000-seat, soccer-only venue on the same site without any athletics legacy. With London bidding for the 2017 Athletics World Championships centering around the stadium, the track is essential to the bid

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and FIFA President Sepp Blatter are set to have a major meeting today in Brussels, Belgium to discuss a disagreement over a bill in the country’s Congress that could restrict the revenue of world football’s governing body.

Brazilian newspaper Estado de São Paulo reported that the two would meet to diffuse tensions over restrictions on FIFA which would be created by the new regulations.

Brazil’s Sports Minister Orlando Silva was quoted by the paper as saying that they would meet in Belgium, and indicated that Rousseff is willing to compromise with Blatter.

The bill stipulates penalties of two or three months for those found guilty of infringing trademarks or selling pirate goods, which the paper says FIFA believe to be too lenient, whilst Brazil also want local broadcasters to have limited access to show matches during the tournament, another sticking point with non-rights holders barred from screening World Cup games.

Another issue which will likely be debated is a measure Rousseff has proposed for students and pensioners will be able to attend games for half the price of normal admission costs, which FIFA is thought to be unhappy with.

The relationship between FIFA and Brazil has changed since Rousseff’s election in January, when she replaced the football-loving President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

When winning the right to host the World Cup under his leadership, Brazil agreed to FIFA requirements placed on it in the contract it signed at the time, but Rousseff is determined not to have legislation imposed on her Government.

Tensions between Brazil 2014 organisers and FIFA have already been risen as a result of the slow pace of preparations for the World Cup.

The original announcement of host cities was delayed and left to FIFA after Organising Committee chief Ricardo Teixeira refused to make the decision and passed on the responsibility.

Since then, delays in the construction of stadia have threatened to put preparations at risk, with some stadiums not even seeing work beginning until this year.

Already the Itaquera in São Paulo, scheduled to host the first match of the tournament and on which construction began just months ago, has been taken off the list for the 2013 Confederations Cup, the dry run ahead of the World Cup, while the iconic Maracanã is still not a certainty to make that tournament.

Upgrading infrastructure also remains well behind schedule, with officials facing a race against time to increase airport capacity in time for 2014.

Rousseff is also planning to introduce significant tax breaks for telecoms companies who invest in new networks in time for the 2014 World Cup in a bid to ensure communications to do not break down during the tournament, Reuters reported.

Analysts had warned that Brazil’s networks were at risk of collapse during the World Cup without significant work.

FIFA is pressuring Brazil’s congress to pass a bill announcing the schedule of games for the World Cup by the time of its congress on October 20, but there are growing fears this deadline could be missed

Sporting Park will host the opening four matches in the 2014 CONCACAF Women’s Championship on Oct. 15 and 16, U.S. Soccer announced on Thursday.

“This tournament provides fans with another opportunity to see some of the best women’s soccer players in the world compete on the international level,” said U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati.

“We look forward to an exciting World Cup qualifying round played in the United States at some of the best stadiums in the world in front of passionate football fans,” said CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb.

The tournament will feature eight countries from North America, Central America and the Caribbean region vying for berths in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup next summer. As host of the Women’s World Cup, Canada has secured its berth, so the 2014 CONCACAF Women’s Championship will include the USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala and four teams to be determined at the CFU Women’s Caribbean Cup from Aug. 19-26.

All eight countries, including the U.S. Women’s National Team, will kick off their qualifying campaigns in Kansas City, Kansas with their first of three group stage matches. Sporting Park will host international doubleheaders on back-to-back nights beginning with Group A on Oct. 15 and followed by Group B on Oct. 16.

The full tournament schedule, including opponents and kickoff times, will be set at the Final Draw on Sept. 5 in Miami. Ticket information will be made available in the near future.

The full tournament schedule, including opponents and kickoff times, will be set at the Final Draw on Sept. 5 in Miami. Ticket information will be made available in the near future.

Tennis Canada have appointed Kelly D. Murumets as President and Chief Executive Officer of the organization.

She succeeds Michael S. Downey who left Tennis Canada in December after nearly ten years to become chief executive of the Lawn Tennis Association in Great Britain. She will take up the position on March 3, 2014.

Ms. Murumets has been President and Chief Executive Officer of ParticipACTION, the national voice of physical activity and sport participation in Canada, since 2007. Prior to joining ParticipACTION, she was a senior executive with two publicly-listed companies in Canada and the U.S. and a partner in a management consulting firm. She holds a Masters of Social Work from Wilfrid Laurier University and an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business.

“I am extremely grateful to be given the opportunity to build on Michael Downey’s legacy and be part of the team that will strive to take Tennis Canada and the sport of tennis in Canada to new heights,” said

Kelly Murumets. “The sport in this country is just in the early stages of success with unlimited potential to continue achieving major results and bring an increase in national popularity.”

“Kelly Murumets comes into this position with a tremendous amount of experience, both as a businessperson and as an inspirational leader,” said John LeBoutillier, Chair, Tennis Canada Board of Directors. “We are more than confident that she can build on the strong foundation that is in place at Tennis Canada and continue to grow the sport to heights never before seen across the country.”

A referendum is set to be held whether Oslo will bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games as part of a budget compromise.

Carl I Hagen, head of the Progress Party’s bloc on Oslo City Council, said taxpayers in Oslo should be allowed to vote on bidding for the Olympics. Although referenda are not common in Norway, with most of the major decisions left to elected politicians, Hagen’s demand for an Olympic referendum was met to help get the city’s budget approved.

City officials have set aside NOK five million to cover the cost of asking Oslo residents whether they really want to host an Olympics in 2022, with all the new construction it will entail. Some say it will provide the incentive Oslo needs to improve public transport, build new sports facilities, and housing. Others are concerned about the debt it may leave, with future use or need for all the Olympic facilities unclear.

The referendum will be held in connection with national elections being held next fall after Oslo City Council is due to officially decide in July whether to apply for the state funding guarantee needed to host the Games.

A general plan for where arenas and athletes’ housing will be constructed is due in March. Meanwhile city officials have already approved the millions needed to carry out all the preliminary work needed for a prospective application.

The deadline for host cities applying to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the 2022 Games is March 2014, candidates will be selected in July 2014 and the host city elected July 2015.

Venyu, a leading provider of business continuity, cloud-based virtualization and battle-tested data recovery solutions, today announced the New Orleans Hornets as their newest customer protecting critical data leveraging a replicated hotsite created by Venyu.

Leveraging Venyu’s backup portfolio, the Hornets now have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place to guard against data loss.

“When people think of protecting business-critical data, basketball isn’t necessarily the first thing that comes to mind,” said Tod Caflisch, Vice President of IT at the New Orleans Hornets. “However, protection of data is critical to the survival of our organization — it’s data that drives our business.”

For the organization, collecting and storing information is essential to the day-to-day operations of the business. In addition to the standard e-mail and files, data is used for team logs and scouting materials as well as the real-time funneling of player statistics to various websites.

“We always have to keep the data going,” continued Caflisch. “Whether it’s providing real-time statistics of player performance during the game or dynamically communicating video for scouting, we’d be lost if we didn’t have the right plan in place to backup this critical information.”

The team was initially faced with gaps in their business continuity plan and backed up their data via tape. They soon found that tape didn’t provide the peace-of-mind that information could be recovered quickly in the event of an IT outage.

Caflisch continued, “Tape just wasn’t doing it. Sure we had backup, but we didn’t have a business continuity plan in place to recover the needed data if there was a serious problem. More specifically, if we couldn’t get in the building because of a natural disaster, I’d have no way of initiating recovery.”

Companies such as the New Orleans Hornets leverage Venyu’s business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) solutions to ensure rapid data recovery in the time of disaster or IT disruptions. The tested business continuity and disaster recovery platform replicates all data and systems in Venyu’s secure data centers. This hotsite enables quick and efficient failover of primary systems in the event of disaster.

“At Venyu, protecting data is what we do. Our customers need to know their key information is protected in the event of an outage or disaster. Time and again, we’ve proven to be the market’s ‘go-to’ solution to keep businesses running,” said Scott Thompson, Chief Executive Officer, Venyu.

With the Venyu system in place, the team was able to more effectively implement a solid business continuity growth path. Moving forward, the team is planning on transitioning more systems to Venyu. Caflisch estimates the move could potentially save them as much as several hundred thousand dollars: “Venyu is a great group with an outstanding business continuity offering. With a proven ability to protect our core data; we definitely plan to stick with them.”

Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Sport have announced that Team GB Boxing star Scott Cardle has signed promotional terms with the company.

Commonwealth champion Cardle who recently turned professional will campaign at Lightweight and make his professional debut on the undercard of Kell Brook’s Welterweight showdown with Matthew Hatton at the Motorpoint Arena Sheffield on March 17, live on Sky Sports.

“I’m over the moon to be turning pro and joining Matchroom Sport,“ said Cardle. “It’s been a long time coming, I’ve been training in the gym for four months now just itching to get it sorted, so I’m delighted that I’ve signed with Eddie and we have the first date to aim for.

“Eddie seems as excited as me and he’s showing a lot of faith in me by putting me on the Kell Brook undercard – and I’ll repay that faith. I already feel really settled with Eddie and Matchroom so it’s a great start.

“After coming out of the shock loss to French Champion Alexis Vastine, I really thought I would be going to the Olympics, so it took me a good few weeks to get over it. But I’ve got the love back now and I’m back to the way I want to be and I feel like I’m going to settle into the pro game straight away.”

Cardle joins Matchroom Sport’s growing stable alongside two-time WBC Super-Middleweight champion Carl Froch, unbeaten Welterweight star Kell Brook, World Middleweight title challenger and former undefeated European champion Darren Barker, former World Light Welterweight champion and current European Lightweight champion Gavin Rees, World Light Welterweight title challenger and former unbeaten European champion Paul McCloskey, unbeaten Commonwealth Super Bantamweight king Carl Frampton, former British Welterweight champion Lee Purdy and fellow rising stars, Erick Ochieng, John Ryder, Ryan Aston and Tommy Ghent.

Promoter Eddie Hearn added: “I’m delighted to have secured the signature of Scott and welcome him to our growing team of quality fighters. Scott has a great pedigree through his GB experiences having represented our country at elite level throughout the World. He has impressed me with his ability, focus, hard work and determination and is exactly the kind of fighter we want on our team. I can’t wait for his debut on March 17th and I know that we and our broadcast partner Sky Sports will make a big fuss of his career and progress.”

Matchroom Sport is a sports event promotions company founded by Leyton Orient chairman Barry Hearn.

Ukraine unveiled its Kiev’s Olympic Stadium on Satuday with the structure being the showpiece venue for UEFA Euro 2012 even after plagued development.

Colombian pop star Shakira headlined an opening event that drew 60, doctor 000 spectators to the venue, unhealthy which will host five games at next summer’s tournament, here including the final itself. The road to Saturday’s re-opening has been far from smooth however with the project dogged by construction delays and accusations of corruption. Work was initially scheduled to be completed in June, while costs have soared from a projected Eur110 million ($149.3m) when development commenced three years ago to Eur585 million ($794.2m).

UEFA president Michel Platini even threaten to strip the tournament from Ukraine in April 2010. But Platini’s opinion changed last month when he stated that only “some little problems” remain to be ironed out before Ukraine is ready to stage Euro 2012, praising the “tremendous” progress that had been made over the past year. However, the Olympic Stadium project has continued to prove controversial with opposition figures in the country claiming a lack of transparency in financial arrangements and criticising the cost of the redevelopment.

Their was a clear indication of dissaproval on Saturday as AFP reported Ukraine’s President, Viktor Yanukovych, was jeered as he spoke at the ceremony. “Today the whole country is celebrating,” said Yanukovych. “The new stadium is a gift to all our people, especially the children among whom there are champions of the future. The successful reconstruction of the NSK Olimpiyskiy has become the leading project for Ukraine’s image. I have no doubts that, at Euro 2012, Kiev and Ukraine will welcome visitors from many European states to the very highest standards.”

The new 68,000-seat Olympic Stadium will stage its first football match on November 11 as Ukraine takes on Germany in a friendly.