British Telecom’s (BT) new phone books will feature some of the UK’s leading athletes on the cover to celebrate two years until the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The first books are set to be distributed next week and feature BT Ambassador Ade Adepitan, who won a bronze medal as part of the wheelchair basketball team at the 2004 Paralympic Games.

Other athletes to feature on the phone books are Chris Tomlinson (World Indoor long-jump silver medalist), Lee Pearson (nine-times Paralympic equestrian gold medalist), Dame Mary Peters (Olympic gold medalist in pentathlon) and Alistair Brownlee (World Triathlon champion).

Adepitan said: “featuring sporting personalities on the cover of the phone book is a great idea and will help raise the profile of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games across the UK. I’m proud to be the face of the phone book, and my mum is looking forward to receiving her new London phone book with me on the front cover!”

CEO of BT Directories, David Grossman, added: “The phone book is still very much the quickest way to locate a friend, and essential service or a local business and gracing it with inspiring sporting personalities celebrates BT’s involvement with the London 2012 Games.

“We hope everyone gets behind the athlete that features on the front cover of their own phone book – it would be great if these inspires young hopefuls in the world of sport.”

Mixed Martial Arts promotion, BAMMA, have announced a new television broadcast deal with Asia’s premier action entertainment channel KIX, operated by Celestial Tiger Entertainment.

The deal will see BAMMA events now broadcast across Asia on KIX and KIX HD in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and the Philippines.

BAMMA’s Director, Ashley Bothwell said: “We’re really pleased to be able to confirm our deal with Celestial Tiger Entertainment. KIX is a perfect platform for BAMMA in Asia and our events will sit well amongst the channel’s core programming of combat sports, action reality and series, and action movies. We are excited about the extended audience that BAMMA shows will now reach across parts of Asia, and we look forward to working with Celestial Tiger Entertainment and KIX over 2014.”

Badminton World Federation (BWF) have announced three candidates are vying to become the next President while two people are standing for the post of Deputy President.

When nominations closed last Friday, story Dato Sri Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh (Malaysia), Dr. Justian Suhandinata (Indonesia) and Poul-Erik Hoyer (Denmark) were the nominees (listed in order of nomination dates) for the world-governing organisation’s top post for the next four years.

Nadzmi, who heads the Badminton Association of Malaysia, was put forward by his national organisation. Suhandinata, a BWF Council member, was nominated by the All Indonesia Badminton Association. Hoyer – the President of Badminton Europe – has been nominated by Badminton Denmark.

Meanwhile, current BWF Deputy President, Paisan Rangsikitpho of the USA, is seeking re-election to that post. He will be opposed by Gustavo Salazar Delgado of Peru who is a BWF Council member and the President of Badminton Pan Am.

Last November, outgoing BWF President Dr. Kang Young Joong of South Korea announced his decision not to seek a third term in office, saying “the time is right for transition now that BWF is in a stable position and on a positive path with good long-term strategies in place”.

BWF Council elections will be held at the annual general meeting on Saturday 18 May in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In total, 20 of 26 Council positions will be selected, with the Chair of the BWF Athletes’ Commission and the five continental confederations’ Vice-Presidents having previously been chosen. Additionally, Paul Kurzo has been nominated unopposed as Vice President – Para-Badminton; a post which he currently holds.

Apart from Kurzo and the nominees for President and Deputy President, 30 other persons are running for 17 places as BWF Council members.

A brand new advertising medium is being launched this month which has the potential to fundamentally change the advertising model in sport. Using smartphone technology very small areas of advertising collateral can be leverage 100’s of times over to provide major revenue streams. Not only does this media increase revenue but build a major behavioural database of advertising viewers which provides the very first totally accountable method of advertising.

The ValueBond channel, impotent as it’s known, is the brain child of serial Entrepreneur Gareth Llewelyn and has been developed from trials in the Pharmaceutical industry. Llewelyn states ‘ We are using technology that has only really merged and matured in the past 2-3 years to massively leverage the digital content  on advertising space and provide engaging and sticky campaigns for consumers.’

The ValueBond technology can be applied across many sectors including ticketing, retail, FMCG, Banking, Sport and Publishing. For example wrist bands or tickets carrying the ValueBond barcode can be scanned by a consumer’s smartphones to produce multiple campaigns pre-,  in-, and post-  event and even carry on being active many months or years after the event. Llewelyn says ‘ValueBond gives marketers a new way to engage with event goers by enhancing their experience dynamically in real time.’

There is a large data collection element to ValueBond as each interaction with the barcode leaves a rich data audit trail which marketers can use for post campaign analysis. ValueBond also incorporates a charity element, if required, so each scan of the barcode can trigger a donation from the campaign sponsor to a designated charity. This component is optional but has proved popular in sporting circles.

ValueBond is being trialled in various vertical markets and is set to be implemented in several venues in the New Year. For more information contact Gareth.llewelyn@valuebond.co.uk.

The Great Britain women’s volleyball team has undertaken a 272-mile bike ride to raise the £250,000 (US$387,000) necessary to allow them to compete in the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Funding cuts have meant the team may have to cancel training programmes, harming their chances of being competitive at the 2012 Games.

The team is due to finish the ride in London on Tuesday, two years exactly until the opening ceremony for the Games.

Coach Audrey Cooper said: “It’s no surprise to me the girls are doing this, knowing their determination and energy. They are not prepared to turn up at London 2012 under-prepared. They want to be as good as they can be at our home Olympics to make the country proud.

“We started from nothing in 2007 and we’ve improved out of sight since then. We are simply not prepared to give up now.”

Volleyball was one of eight Olympic sports to have had London 2012 funding slashed in January because of a £50 million (US$77.5 million) budget shortfall.

The PyeongChang bid team to host the 2018 Winter Games have appointed a further two vice-chairman and bid ambassador in Ki-young Uhm, price Jeong-soh Oh and Kolleen Park respectively.

Park is a musical creative director and head professor at Howon University directing and conducting many large-scale musical productions and also hosted musical television programmes.

Ki-young Uhm is a Korean television news anchor and former CEO of Korea’s MBC Broadcasting, while Jeong-soh Oh is a former minister of Korea’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs. The two new vice-chairmen takes the bids total to 10, including senior vice-chairman and Gangwon Province Governor Gwang-jae Lee.

Yang Ho Cho, PyeongChang 2018 bid committee chairman and CEO stated: “As we approach the last six months of the bid campaign, we are delighted to have the support of our new ambassador and vice-chairmen,

“Their business and political experience, and their passion for the bid, will be an asset for PyeongChang 2018’s campaign right through to the 2018 host city decision in Durban” he added.

“We welcome our new team members, and I look forward to working with them all as we progress towards important milestones next year including the candidature file submission in January, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Evaluation Commission visit in February.” The IOC will opt for PyeongChang, the German city of Munich or Annecy in France on July 6 in Durban, South Africa.

Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for economic development, Felicity Purchase, has said the city is not ready to make a bid for the 2020 Olympic Games.

South Africa’s Olympic governing body last week said it would formally oversee a bid for the 2020 Games after the country’s successful hosting of this summer’s FIFA World Cup.

However, Purchase does not believe Cape Town would be ready to host an Olympics. She said: “I do not want to be negative, but I don’t think in the short term we are ready yet to make an Olympic bid.

“We will be looking at that, and have a committee that will [consider the issue] shortly. But to be quite honest with you, I think it is premature.

“The Olympic Games would be fantastic. The reality of it is that we are not there yet.

“People that have hosted these big events say that the return on the investment is far greater for small events [held] in a regular sustainable way than for a mega-event. Yes, you achieve a lot, and there’s a lot of legacy that comes with it.

“And that is the benefit of the [FIFA] World Cup for us. But realistically, can we afford it, having to deliver all those things that are required for an Olympics, now? I can honestly say, I don’t think so.”