Cool Cats Group partners with Animoca Brands and OneFootball Labs

Cool Cats Group, the web3 company behind the iconic blue-chip NFT collection Cool Cats, Animoca Brands, the company advancing digital property rights for gaming and the open metaverse, and OneFootball Labs, a joint venture between Animoca Brands, OneFootball, and Liberty City Ventures, today announced the launch of the new collection of 4,000 “Cool Cats FC” NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. The collection offers holders an exciting opportunity to become part of the expanding Cool Cats and OneFootball community with a combination of digital and physical football-related utilities.

Staying true to the core Cool Cats ethos of positivity and inclusiveness, the “Cool Cats FC” collection aims to bring together Cool Cats lovers and football fans globally in celebration of the world’s largest football event. The collection boasts an exciting lineup of football-related rewards such as limited-edition and autographed merchandise, player meet-and-greets, VIP experiences, and more that can be earned through gamified and interactive experiences. 

Stephen Teglas, CEO of Cool Cats Group, commented: “We are excited to partner with Animoca Brands and OneFootball Labs on the innovative Cool Cats FC collection, which brings Cool Cats and Cool Pets holders together in celebration of the upcoming global football/soccer tournament season. With the opportunity to cheer on national teams and earn exciting IRL experiences and products, fans get to enjoy a truly unique experience that money cannot buy.”

Jean-Charles Gaudechon, CEO of OneFootball Labs, commented: “Cool Cats is an inspiration for us at OneFootball, the way it has built a strong community and worked with that community to create something awesome. I cannot wait for this winter, to watch France defend the trophy and see the launch of our Cool Cats FC collaboration with Animoca Brands. We’re excited to be working with such great partners on delivering something unique and culturally relevant around the biggest sporting event of the year.”

Yat Siu, executive chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands, commented: “The Cool Cats FC collection brings together the passionate decentralized community of Cool Cats with the phenomenon of global football fandom. This collaboration is a sterling opportunity to expand the Cool Cats, OneFootball, and Animoca Brands communities and drive the mass adoption of Web3.”

Cool Cats FC collection details and minting

Allowlist minting of the Cool Cats FC collection starts at 5:00 pm (EST) on 17 November 2022 and ends at 5:00 am (EST) on 19 November 2022. There will be 1,900 Cool Cats FC NFTs available for Cool Cats, Cool Pets, and winners of pre-mint giveaways at a price of 0.069 ETH. Cool Cats and Cool Pets allowlist holders can mint up to 2 NFTs on a first-come-first-serve basis and winners of pre-mint giveaways are guaranteed to mint 1 NFT.

The public minting starts from 10:00 am (EST) to 10:00 pm (EST) on 19 November 2022. There will be 1,600 Cool Cats FC NFTs available during the public mint at a price of 0.1 ETH. Each wallet can mint up to 2 NFTs during the public mint.

You can mint the Cool Cats FC at ccfc.coolcatsnft.com. Participation requires a MetaMask wallet connected to the website. 

The remaining 500 Cool Cats FC NFTs are reserved for community events and team drops. 

Member Insights: The biggest pitch battle of this World Cup? Google and Facebook vying for your attention

As we kick-off in Qatar, this month’s Digital Café David Granger looks at how the big tech players are muscling in on soccer hoping for victory on the sporting, and financial, field.

The success of the 2022 World Cup will depend on many things. Not just the football. With the politics, the timing, the investment, the climate (and some more politics), the matches seem a secondary consideration.


One claim which has been constantly touted is that this will be “…the most digital World Cup ever” – a statement verging beyond the specious as, unless we regress in technology, every World Cup is the most digital ever.


What’s interesting with Qatar is how much pre-tournament attention big tech has given the contest. The great matches of this tournament won’t necessarily England v Iran or Canada v Croatia or even the pro the hosts v those anti them… but Google v Meta.


The World Cup, perhaps even more than the Olympics, is the one event where every brand, from a company sweepstake to an oblique ad campaign, tries to cling on to the footballing bandwagon. And why? Because of that massive, engaged audience. Our 2022 digital baseline is the previous competition in Russia where, according to Google, there were three million match attendees but 5 billion views of World Cup content on YouTube. In the first 15 days of the 2018 tournament, viewership reached over 1.1 billion.


And, because of this anticipated increase in interest, the big media platforms Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Alphabet (Google and therefore YouTube) are limbering up to take on each other in the competition for fans’ attention and audience over the coming four weeks.


For Google this is all about data: knowing which fans are looking for what and when. That information can then be used to sell to non-football related brands and companies for them to demographic via pay-per-click ads. It’s also been noted that non-football traffic and conversations drop, considerably when games are being played – so those ads are even more important.


Their data tells us the action from the 64 games in 2018 in Russia generated 110 hours of match content, but that action was sliced, re-cut and re-shown and ended up generating 230 million hours of watchtime. That’s an impressive 26,000 years.


For Meta/Facebook/Instagram, it’s about providing access to players and football communities. 330m people follow a footballer on Instagram while 480m people follow a football related account on Facebook. They know this is another opportunity for them to take the hard-earned from brands who wouldn’t normally get traction from football.


They’ve even created a handy guide to help companies spend budget compensating for a lack of traffic during the World Cup. The (relatively) new players in the social squad, TikTok, are the ones to watch. Once that algorithm gets a sniff of your interest in football, they can serve it up all day. There is no guarantee of quality, but quantity is what TikTok does.

Twitter will be an interesting cauldron of conversation as its recent acquisition by Elon Musk could mean its sporting content may well be outweighed by the conversations from the more extreme political commentators/fanatics.

All however agree that football/soccer is no longer a 90-minute end of the week experience. It’s 24/7 – or rather the appetite for it is always-on. Like everything though it has to now be quality information or entertainment (or both) in order for fans to stick around, such is the variety of content and platforms on offer.

Spoiler Alert In the end however none of this online arm-wrestle for audiences’ attention really matters – the outcome of the 2022 World Cup has already been decided. Well, predicted. By EA Sports (LINK ) – h/t Calacus PR for the heads-up. For the past three tournaments they have successfully the outcome. For those who don’t want to know the result, look away now. It’s a win for Argentina who beat Brazil in the final. Who knows, they may be slightly more successful and certainly more scientific in their predictions than Paul the Psychic Octopus We’ll find out on December 18.

2022 Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Finals nets record number of broadcast markets

The 2022 Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Finals has announced that broadcast coverage for this year’s event will extend to a record 196 territories, the most in the event’s 59-year history.

The tournament, previously known as the Fed Cup, is taking place in Glasgow this week (November 8-13) with 12 teams – Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Italy, Kazakhstan, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and USA – competing for the women’s World Cup of Tennis.

The list of broadcast markets includes live free-to-air terrestrial coverage in eight of the event’s 12 participating nations, with live streamed coverage in more than 30 additional territories via Meta and the Billie Jean King Cup streaming platform (see table below).

The International Tennis Federation (ITF), the world governing body for tennis who run and manage the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge, was supported by leading sports marketing agency Pitch International for its international commercial rights sales.

Broadcast production of the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Finals will be led by Gravity Media who will operate 21 cameras across the two courts, featuring speciality and net cameras.

Sign up to the Advantage All Global Forum, in partnership with the ITF. Featuring two panels on the role of woman in sport hear from Billie Jean King herself along with other female visionaries and leaders here: https://share.hsforms.com/18j-5wqceSaqiy0HFyPD9pA31xsb

The tournament is also working with a new content distribution partner, Cingularity, market leaders in bespoke live video networking and production solutions. Cingularity will be hosting a hybrid solution of satellite and IP distribution workflows to service the event’s broadcasters across a cumulative total of almost 100 hours of live content across the tournament.

Commenting on the news, Tim Stemp, ITF Executive Director, Commercial, said: “We are thrilled to be delivering coverage of the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Finals in more markets than ever before. As we continue to support the development and growth of the sport from the playground to podium, as part of our Advantage All programme, we want to ensure that this historic event, and coverage of tennis in general, is reaching the widest possible audience.”

The Billie Jean King Cup is the largest annual international team competition in women’s sport and, thanks to the partnership and support of new title sponsor, Gainbridge, the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup Finals will offer record payments of $11.4 million for nations and players as part of the ITF’s Advantage All programme to drive value for the women’s game.

The ITF uses any profits from staging the World Cup of Tennis (which includes the men’s Davis Cup) as part of its 90% reinvestment back into the development of the game across all corners of the globe. More information can be found on www.billiejeankingcup.com.

Cleveland Cavaliers name Avery Dennison official embellishment partner

The Cleveland Cavaliers and Avery Dennison (NYSE:AVY), a global leader in materials science and solutions that connect the physical and digital worlds, today announced a new partnership that makes the Mentor, Ohio-based Fortune 500 company the “Official Embellishment Partner” of the NBA team.

The announcement comes on the heels of the expansion of Embelex™, Avery Dennison’s suite of solutions for on-garment branding for the global team sports market. They produce digitally-connected embellishments as well as names and numbers for the world’s biggest clubs and leagues including the English Premier League, FC Barcelona, and Real Madrid. Avery Dennison also recently announced their partnership as the cutting-edge embellishment partner of the San Francisco 49ers. The partnership with the Cavs represents their first foray into the NBA, while contributing to the community that Avery Dennison, and so many of its employees, call home.

As a signature element of the partnership, the Avery Dennison logo will appear on the upper right chest of the players’ shooting shirts and warm-up jackets. For the Cavs, this marks the first time in franchise history that a partner logo has been featured on these team garments. The logos were produced and applied by Avery Dennison themselves from their Miamisburg, Ohio production location. This is also the location where they produce Embelex for sporting events and international tournaments, including the World Cup to local community events.

Avery Dennison employs over 2500 people strong across manufacturing, corporate, sales, and marketing in Ohio. Their commitment to global DE&I initiatives is also evident through the many employee resource groups (ERGs) across the organization, including the LGBTQIA+ group, UNITE, which recently supported the 8th Annual Stonewall National Tournament and Summit held here in Cleveland last summer. 

Avery Dennison will also have a presence throughout the Cavs community platforms during the 2022-23 season, including Women’s History Night, the annual Black Heritage Celebration, and the upcoming Cavs Employee Resource Group Summit. 

“Our partnership with the Cleveland Cavaliers embodies our commitment to serving as a force for good in the communities where we operate,” said Michael Barton, senior vice president and general manager, Apparel Solutions, RBIS, Avery Dennison. “In addition to providing the Cavs with innovative Embelex solutions, we are proud to jointly support important DE&I initiatives that celebrate the culturally-inclusive fabric that is at the heart of the city of Cleveland,” he added.

The partnership continues Avery Dennison’s trailblazing innovations in fan engagement through teamwear. Their digitally-connected on-garment branding technology, Embelex, enables sports teams and brands to continue engaging with fans in new and exciting ways off the playing field. The Cavs will now be part of this journey to give their loyal fans the opportunity for on-site apparel customization and personalization during home games.

Matt O’Brien, Cavalier senior vice president of global partnerships, adds, “We’re excited to add Avery Dennison, another global company with Northeast Ohio roots, to our family of partners. This agreement is tied together by threads of innovation, hometown love and goodwill in our community. The organic connection that comes with teaming up with a local company like Avery Dennison is real, and it adds a unique layer of pride as we activate this partnership through our global platform.”

Second panel for ITF Advantage All Global Forum confirmed

Portrayal Pays: Commercialising Women’s Sport

– How can you build a sustaining commercial model to grow women’s sport?
– What do sponsors want to achieve from their investments?
– What are the challenges that have to be overcome to grow a sport globally?
– What foundations need to be put in place to enable women’s sport to succeed?

Join us this coming Monday 14th 11:15 – 12:00 for the Advantage All Global Forum to learn from visionaries and organisations like Billie Jean King, Group 1001, Tunisian Tennis Federation, Tennis Kenya and Ilana Kloss, that are bringing about change in their countries, across their sports and in their businesses.

Register here for access to the livestream:  https://share.hsforms.com/18j-5wqceSaqiy0HFyPD9pA31xsb

England’s ICC T20 World Cup Final against Pakistan to be on free-to-air TV

England’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Final against Pakistan will be shown on free to air television after Sky struck a deal with Channel 4 to make the match available to the nation, enabling all the UK & Ireland to watch this sporting spectacle.

England’s bid to lift the trophy for a second time will be shown live on Sky Showcase – available in all Sky homes – and on Channel 4, Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket. All channels will broadcast Sky Sports’ coverage which includes the award-winning commentary team of Ian Ward and former England captains Nasser Hussain, Michael Atherton and Eoin Morgan.

This is the latest partnership between Sky and Channel 4 to make a key sporting moment available to the nation. Previous events include the iconic 2019 men’s super-over victory against New Zealand and the final race of the 2021 Formula 1 Championship in Abu Dhabi.

Jonathan Licht, Managing Director, Sky Sports said: “We know the importance of this game, so we are pleased to be able to share this great sporting moment with our whole nation thanks to our strong relationship with Channel 4. Whether you’re supporting England or Pakistan, this will be one to remember.”

Ian Katz, Chief Content Officer, Channel 4 said: “We are thrilled that Channel 4 and Sky have struck this deal to make another great national sporting moment available on free to air television to audiences across the UK. As the days draw in, some thrilling international cricket from the southern hemisphere should offer some welcome cheer.”

England, led by Jos Buttler, secured their place in the final after beating India earlier today by 10 wickets. Pakistan swept past New Zealand winning their semi-final by seven wickets. The Final comes from the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia and coverage starts at 7am (GMT) on Sunday.

Sky and Channel 4 have developed a strong partnership over many years which has benefitted UK sports fans, enabling them to enjoy free to air coverage as a result of the two broadcasters working closely together. Other deals have included live coverage of last year’s Formula 1 season finale which saw Max Verstappen snatch the championship from Lewis Hamilton in the most dramatic of circumstances and England’s historic win of the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2019.

Other events made available to all include:

  • England Women’s cricket defeat to Australia earlier this year (Sky Pick, Sky Showcase, Sky Sports YouTube)
  • FIFA World Cup Qualifier between Wales & Ukraine (shared with STV, S4C and ITV)
  • Momentous women’s boxing event, headlined by Claressa Shields v Savannah Marshall (Sky Showcase and livestreams of undercard)

World Wheelchair Curling Champions awarded to Korea

The World Wheelchair Curling Championship and World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2024 will be held in the Gangneung Curling Centre, in Gangneung, Korea in March 2024.
 
The World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2024 will be held from 2–9 March and will be followed by the World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2024 from 10–16 March.
 
The Gangneung Curling Centre is a 3,500-seater multi-purpose venue that played host to the curling competitions of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games as well as several World Curling Federation championships.
 
The venue will host the upcoming World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2023 and the curling competition of the Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympic Games.
 
Eeva Roethlisberger, World Curling Federation Head of Competitions said, “We are thrilled to take our two major wheelchair championships in the 2023–2024 season to Gangnueng in Korea. We have held a number of events in Gangneung in recent years and each championship has been hugely successful.
 
“We are returning to a venue and city we know very well and we are certain that the organisers will once again provide a fantastic platform for our wheelchair athletes.”
 
Kyungsun Yoon, Korea Para Curling Association President said, “I am delighted to host the World Wheelchair Curling Championship and World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2024 in Korea. Our organisation will prepare these events to be the best events in the world. Furthermore, I hope that interest in wheelchair curling will increase through those events and wheelchair curling will become as popular as able-bodied curling.”
 

Bernoulli Locke launch fan-owned Sail GP team

Bernoulli | Locke, a member-based community creating new immersive partnerships and experiences using innovative Web3 structures, today announced they are launching a SailGP fan-owned racing team across Bermuda and the Caribbean. Using a DAO structure and built on the NEAR Protocol, this team is expected to open new opportunities in sports ownership and fan engagement.

The team’s territory combines the Caribbean and Bermuda, an internationally recognized sailing and business destination, providing the team with a diverse, culturally vibrant and historic sailing region with sufficient sailing talent and resources to mount a competitive SailGP team.

Founded by Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts, SailGP is widely becoming recognized as the most exciting race on water. The global, purpose-led league for professional sailing teams is raced in identical high-performance foiling 50-foot catamarans. The competition pits the world’s best sailing athletes against each other on a global stage. 

This new team hopes to be the tenth team in the league and participate in Season 4. SailGP Season 4 will comprise 14 events at iconic destinations around the globe and kick-off June 17-18, 2023 with the United States Sail Grand Prix | Chicago at Navy Pier, and include one event held in Bermuda in May 2024.

A Decentralized Autonomous Organization, or DAO, is a blockchain-based form of organization with governance managed transparently by its community. It is anticipated that interested fans that qualify will be able to purchase tokens, if and when offered by the DAO, that provide governance rights in the DAO, including the right to vote on important matters related to the team. The sports team’s owners will be able to vote on decisions ranging from the team name and flag, athlete selection, boat livery, fan benefits and access, sponsorship, management, team business decisions and more. 

SailGP CEO Russell Coutts said: “Last month we shared that we had updated our SailGP Participation Agreement to allow a DAO owned team to join the league, and now we are very excited to see David Palmer and his team of founders at Bernoulli | Locke forming a team under these amended rules. David and his team have a unique marketing and operational background building global membership-based communities – demonstrating the expertize required to launch and assist in operating a fan-owned team facilitated by a DAO.

“Professional sport is about building a passionate fanbase, and as a tech-forward global league – SailGP has leaned into Web3 to further develop the future of fandom. We look at the fan-owned team as the ultimate implementation of a loyalty program, and this new Caribbean & Bermuda team will redefine the fan experience and team ownership model. It is a testament to the value of our relationship with NEAR that a decentralized team can be created to ultimately provide control of a team to a passionate community of fans.”

The Caribbean & Bermudian team will bring together a community focused on racing, the sport of sailing, excitement and passion for the region as well as those who see the opportunity of decentralized community owned and operated sports teams. 

Fans can take the first step to getting involved now in this historic new DAO fan-owned team by indicating initial interest at FanVest.io. The opportunity to participate is expected to be available to a limited number of individuals and institutions meeting financial and other applicable requirements.

In addition, it is expected that fans will be able to own a seasonal membership pass (through purchasing and holding an NFT) that provides pass holders access to the community as well as governance but not equity.

David Palmer, Bernoulli | Locke Founder and CEO explains: “With our partners, we are delighted to bring a new and exciting level of engagement and participation for sports team owners and fans and add a new participant in SailGP. Our goal is to have a vibrant community of owners and fans jointly sharing the incredible journey of establishing and operating a competitive global racing team. Palmer continued, “Using the NEAR Protocol and the unique structure of the DAO we have established, we believe that we can achieve our goals with transparency and legal compliance, enabling the participation of an international community sharing a common sports interest and passion. We look forward to meeting the other teams on the water at the first race next season!”

“This historic partnership elevates fandom to a completely new level and creates a blueprint for building a successful use case for Web3,” said Marieke Flament, CEO of the NEAR Foundation. “Launching this fan owned team breaks down the hierarchy of sport, giving enthusiastic spectators the chance to play an active role in shaping the future of competitive sailing by democratizing access to the sport and allowing fans to collectively own and manage a team like never before.” 

Deadline for UK Sponsorship Awards approaching

The UK Sponsorship Awards are one of the most prestigious in the industry. They aim to celebrate innovative, inspirational and transformational campaigns, partnerships and teamwork.

The awards are taking place at the London Marriott Hotel in Grosvenor Square on March 23rd.

The early bird deadline is on December 9th, with the final deadline on January 16th.

There are 33 categories include Sports Sponsorship, Best Football Sponsorship, Grass Roots Sponsorship, Best Digital Activation, Best Esports or Gaming Sponsorship.

Brands, agencies, rights holders, charities and other sponsorship stakeholders can now enter their work by registering here.

“2022’s Awards event was a roaring success, with our friends and colleagues turning out in force to celebrate the creativity and commercial acumen of their hard-working teams,” says UKSA CEO Rosemary Sarginson.

“Seeing so many talented individuals under one roof was a visceral reminder that sponsorship is a people business which thrives on face to face interaction. So for myself and the UKSA team, it’s exciting to be starting work on this latest awards cycle.” 

If you have any queries feel free to email Rosemary and the team here: info@sponsorship-awards.co.uk

BBC and ITV to share free-to-air rights for 2024 and 2028 Euros

The men’s European Championship will remain on free-to-air TV, with the BBC and ITV sharing rights for the 2024 and 2028 tournaments.

Germany will host a 24-team tournament in 2024, although the hosts and format for 2028 have yet to be announced.

The BBC and ITV will split the rights to each tournament equally and both broadcasters will show the finals.

Italy are the European champions, having defeated England in the final at Wembley in 2021.

“The BBC has proven time and again that we have the ability to bring the biggest sporting events to the widest audience,” said Barbara Slater, director of BBC Sport.

“The previous Uefa European Championships were a huge success so we’re delighted that we’ve completed this deal for the next two tournaments that we hope will provide even more memorable moments for viewers.”

ITV director of Sport Niall Sloane said: “This deal keeps the Euros available on free-to-air television for viewers for the coming years. 

“Having delivered the biggest ever UK single channel football audience of 27.6 million at last year’s Euros, for England’s semi-final victory over Denmark, we’re looking forward to bringing to the widest audiences the very best coverage of tournaments that have such broad appeal.”

Uefa said a global audience of 328 million tuned in to watch the Euro 2020 final as England lost on penalties.

The UK audience peaked at almost 31 million for the match, which was shown on the BBC and ITV.