Virgin Bet extends title sponsorship of Ayr Gold Cup

Virgin Bet is to retain its sponsorship of the Ayr Gold Cup, Scotland’s most prestigious flat race, as part of an extended deal to maintain naming rights of the three-day Virgin Bet Ayr Gold Cup Festival which runs from Thursday September 15th through Saturday September 17th.

Ayr Racecourse and Virgin Bet, one of the UK’s fastest growing sportsbooks, today announced the renewed sponsorship deal following the success of the inaugural partnership which commenced in 2021.

Once again, the Virgin Bet Ayr Gold Cup will be the highlight of ITV Racing’s live television broadcasting on Saturday 17th September. ITV1’s coverage of the 2021 race reached 1.24m people, with a peak audience of 632k for the flagship race itself. 

In addition to the feature race, the Virgin Bet Ayr Gold Cup, the betting operator will sponsor eight other key races during the festival. As with last year, this includes Saturday’s Ayr Silver Cup, the Doonside Cup Listed Race, and the Firth of Clyde Stakes (Scotland’s only Group One race). Virgin Bet will also continue sponsorship of Thursday’s Kilkerran Cup and the Ayr Bronze Cup on Friday.

David Brown, Managing Director of Ayr Racecourse, said: “I know I speak for the entire team at Ayr in saying we are delighted Virgin Bet have renewed their sponsorship of the Virgin Bet Ayr Gold Cup Festival.

“Virgin Bet is one of the fastest growing sportsbooks in the UK and it is an honour for us that they have once again pledged their support to the biggest and richest Flat racing festival in Scotland which is also one of the most anticipated fixtures in the British racing calendar. 

“Sponsorship has never been as important to racing as it is now and to attract a sponsor of this magnitude underlines the importance of this Festival.

“We look forward once again to working with the team at Virgin Bet to deliver a memorable 2022 Virgin Bet Ayr Gold Cup.”

James McKay, Sportsbook Director at Virgin Bet added: “Following the success of last year’s partnership with Ayr Racecourse, we are proud to continue our sponsorship of one of the highlights in Scotland and the UK’s racing calendars.

“Virgin Bet continues to cement itself as a leading runner in horse racing, and following the popularity of last year’s festival amongst our customers, headlined by The Virgin Bet Ayr Gold Cup, it was only natural for us to extend our partnership with one of the biggest moments in the flat-racing season.

We can’t wait to once again support British racing on what I’m sure will be a thrilling three days at the Virgin Bet Ayr Gold Cup Festival in September.”

The Wimbledon Virtual Hill: the fun cousin at a classy wedding

Anna Afolabi, a strategist at Wasserman EMEA, takes us behind the scenes for a look at their award-winning virtual hill.

It has begun. 

Celebrity owned monkeys, companies purchasing virtual real estate and luxury virtual concerts are popping up across the brandosphere. Welcome to the marketing gold rush for the world of web3.

We made our first foray into this world in 2021 (by accident) with the Wimbledon Virtual Hill, a few months before the ‘metaverse’ became popular industry jargon. We don’t refer to the Virtual Hill as a metaverse. We’ve learned it is actually more akin to a “proto-metaverse” – which is a virtual, (and more fantastical), imaginary version of the real-life environment.

Last week saw the launch of the shiny new version of the Virtual Hill, and we have learned a few key lessons along the way. 

LESSON ONE: KNOW THE VALUE YOU ARE ADDING

Wimbledon has a strong brand and fandom. From hardcore tennis fanatics to casual fans to those who simply use the competition as the “official” marker for summer. The Hill itself also has a special role for Wimbledon fans, where the poised and professional brands can let loose. It’s the fun cousin at a classy wedding.

Our brief was to give more people around the world a chance to experience the special qualities of a day on Henman Hill / Murray Mound / Radacanu Ridge – or simply, ‘The Hill’.

It was this challenge that led us down the path of a virtual experience.

Experience the hill here: https://hill.wimbledon.com

LESSON TWO: MAKE CONNECTIONS WITH AN AUDIENCE, NOT THE UNKNOWN

When any brief knocks on the door of digital experiences, it’s tempting to start with the practicalities of what we want to make. A game? A competition? A UGC generator? 

During COVID times in 2021, we knew we needed to start with what the audience was missing at a time when Wimbledon was without a full capacity Hill. 

Our initial qual research told us what fans really connected with. The Hill experience is a collection of smaller moments and feelings; the hustle and bustle of the crowd, the rush to save a friend a seat, or sipping drinks in the sun. This was a clear focal point, rooted in our audience’s relationship with the Hill, to build our virtual world around. 

Letting the build be led by the audience, not the tech, meant that when it came to evolving the Virtual Hill for this year, we could hone it further to suit a post-pandemic context. From a second screen, rewards-based page in 2021 – to this year’s fully-fledged interactive social experience, bringing even more of the Hill’s qualities to global fans.  

LESSON THREE: BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME

Leaping into the proto-metaverse costs money. With an eye on client budgets throughout ideation and development, digital experiences are a much easier sell when you can give assurances of strong audience reach and uptake. 

Fortunately, The All England Lawn Tennis Club  has incredible owned reach to help direct eager fans to our virtual world. Tapping into eCRM, social followings, app users and more meant we avoided the need for an expensive ad campaign. We could focus our efforts on the bells and whistles of the Hill without worrying about reaching an entirely new audience to show them what we’ve been doing.  

An eager fan base has also allowed us to integrate member-get-member and UGC mechanics into the experience to further increase organic reach and traffic. 

Connecting brands and properties with audiences through digital experiences is a fun and evolving plane. But even with new mediums, it doesn’t hurt to sense check against tried and tested marketing principles; What value are you adding? What is the audience connection point? How will we drive people to discover and engage? We believe it starts with building experiences out of audience truths.

Anna Afolabi is an Integrated Strategist at Wasserman with cross industry background in branding, research and insights, social media analytics and sponsorship & partnership consulting across brands such as The All England Club, Amazon, Microsoft and UEFA.

FIH and Simba launch first digital hockey collectibles

The NFT marketplace which came to birth thanks to the recent partnership between the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and SIMBA Chain, Inc., a blockchain company delivering real-world Web3 solutions, has delivered its very first offer of hockey digital collectibles today!

Taking advantage of the FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup Spain and Netherlands 2022, which is starting today, July 1, this first-ever series of FIH NFTs gets inspiration from the “collectible cards” concept that are traditionally associated with sports.

16 NTFs, one per participating team, will give the opportunity for fans all around the world to build their own collection from an event that is unique and highly-prestigious. In particular, those NFTs display “must have” FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup all-time statistics for every participating team!

And even more: some of the fans collecting each of the 16 NFTs – one from each country’s collection – will have the chance to receive exciting rewards like signed memorabilia from the FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup Spain and Netherlands 2022, VIP hospitality tickets for upcoming FIH events and access to exclusive discounts! Therefore, don’t wait any longer and acquire your first FIH NFTs!

The FIH NFTs are accessible to everybody, without needing any crypto understanding or experience. Fans can access the collectibles on NFTclub.hockey, purchase their favourites by creating a user account and access them once logged in.

FIH CEO Thierry Weil said: “Today’s launch of our very first NFTs marks yet another step in our ever increasing digital engagement with fans. Collectibles have always been very popular amongst sports fans and we’re hopeful that those digital ones, developed thanks to the expertise of our new partner SIMBA Market, will offer a new way for fans to enjoy and remember their best hockey memories.”

“We built SIMBA Market to enable brands like FIH to introduce their communities to NFTs without the need for any crypto understanding. This is in line with our mission to bring blockchain to the world” said Bryan Ritchie, CEO of SIMBA Chain.

Formula 1 extends agreement with The Memento Group, including rights to sell cars

Formula 1 has extended its licensing agreement with The Memento Group (TMG), the UK-based sports licensing, retail and memorabilia business, until the end of the 2025 season.

The extension sees TMG retain its licence to sell authentic, certified, and licensed Formula 1 memorabilia from current F1 teams, and now includes the rights to sell ex-F1 race cars and show cars on its website.

A special auction is currently underway until 5 July 2022 which will feature, for the first time, a fully operational and ready-to-race Formula 1 car – the 1990 Leyton House CG901. The car competed in the 1990 FIA Formula One World Championship™, securing a 2nd place in the French Grand Prix, and is expected to fetch in excess of £795,000.

F1 Race Cars, a dedicated section on the F1 Authentics online platform, has been revamped, becoming the dedicated marketplace for all former F1 race car and show car transactions. A diverse collection is available, from heritage show cars to restored former race cars and replicas of current cars. The Memento Group has been licensed to operate the F1 Authentics website since 2019, and the four- season extension will continue to see authentic Formula 1 memorabilia, from the past and the present, available to fans via the online shop and auction platform.

Brandon Snow, Managing Director, Commercial, Formula 1, said: “Since 2019 we have entrusted The Memento Group to help us create and operate a safe and secure online platform for Formula 1 fans to browse, discover and purchase authentic, certified, F1 memorabilia. Over the past three years our partnership has gone from strength to strength. With F1 Authentics, we have delivered the ultimate motorsport memorabilia destination for all fans of our sport, and the exciting inclusion of former race and show cars expands on the already impressive offering. We look forward to continuing this journey and offering our fans more opportunities to own their own unique piece of Formula 1 history.”

Barry Gough, Founder and CEO of The Memento Group, said: “We are delighted to extend our partnership with Formula 1 for another four exciting seasons and what better way to mark this than offering, for the very first time on F1 Authentics a fully operational, ready to race, F1 race car!

“We have worked tirelessly with our partners at Formula 1 to create the ultimate destination for fans of the sport and this contract is recognition for what we have achieved to date and this auction demonstrates how we can enhance further our support of the world’s greatest motorsport in the future. We look forward to taking this to the next level with the continued support of F1, the Teams and of course, fans all around the world.”

BT remains home of UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Conference League until 2027

BT Sport will remain the home of top flight European football until 2027, it was confirmed today.  BT have secured the rights to the majority of the UEFA Champions League games, plus all the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Europa Conference League exclusively live, for a further three seasons, including highlights and in-match clips.  BT Sport will continue to make the finals available for all to watch. 

BT Sport will show the new format of the three European competitions from 2024, with 12 more teams, more matches than ever before, plus the introduction of an additional “knockout-playoff” round. 

In each competition, 36 teams will play in a single league format, with those finishing 1-8 progressing to the Round of 16, teams placed 9-24 contesting the additional knockout round, and the bottom 12 teams exiting the competition and no longer dropping down into the UEL and UECL respectively, introducing more jeopardy and must-win knock out matches. 

The expanded qualification system opens up the possibility of a fifth English team in the UCL and guarantees Scottish participation in the UCL and UEL. 

Last season the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League were a huge success on BT Sport with a 37 per cent increase in UEFA Champions League viewer hours, the final between Liverpool and Real Madrid available for all to watch in the UK, and a record breaking 12.6m people tuning in across all platforms.   

Marc Allera, Chief Executive of BT’s Consumer Division, said “BT Sport continues to be the home of the UEFA Club Competitions until 2027 and we are extremely proud to have the privilege of twelve years of broadcasting one of the most exciting competitions in the world.  It is fantastic news for our viewers that from 2024 we will be able to show more games than ever before live and exclusive on BT Sport.” 

Guy-Laurent Epstein, UEFA Marketing Director, said: “We are delighted to be extending our partnership with BT until 2027. BT has been a long-standing UEFA club competition partner since 2015, where it has applied industry leading broadcast expertise to European club football. Throughout 2024-27 BT will broadcast more live matches than ever before, which will be supplemented by its exceptional array of original programming.”

The costs of the rights awarded to BT Sport is c. £305m per annum.  BT expects to pay a deposit of c.£61m in July 2022.  Following the move of BT Sport into the Joint Venture being created by BT Group plc and Warner Bros. Discovery, which is expected to be complete by the end of 2022, the JV would pay the rights costs of c. £305m per annum less the deposit.  The planned JV is subject to customary closing conditions, including CMA approval.

AC Milan announce kit extension with Puma

Global sports company PUMA and AC Milan have announced a long-term extension of their partnership, which was first established in 2018. PUMA will continue as the Principal Partner of AC Milan, the Global Technical Supplier, and the Official Licensed Partner.

AC Milan recently returned to the top of Italian football with the youngest team in modern history to win the Scudetto and is also one of the youngest teams in Europe. As part of the extension PUMA will become the official naming partner of AC Milan’s core in Vismara Center, the base of the Club’s future talents and women’s team. “PUMA House of Football” will become a home for performance development that will see investment in the next generation of youth players at Milan and help support women’s football. The center will also be home to brand and community activations, hosting partnership events and key initiatives in the city.


PUMA and AC Milan are two of the most innovative and progressive brands in football. The partnership is built on the foundations of performance and sustainability through innovative apparel and environmentally friendly products, football culture, fashion, youth development and continued investment in women’s football.

Under the new terms, PUMA will continue to supply performance apparel for the men’s, women’s, and youth teams, and utilize the style, fashion, and culture of Milan to develop performance and off-pitch lifestyle product that taps into the unique Milanese style. This will see both brands continue to collaborate beyond the pitch on innovative and fashionable collections that connect with football culture and reinforce Milan’s global footprint. “This is a fantastic next step for our partnership with AC Milan, two brands with a focus on diversity, inclusivity, innovation, performance and football culture,” said Bjørn Gulden, Chief Executive Officer, PUMA.

“Our aim is to drive performance innovation and lifestyle apparel on and off pitch. We want to continue to be two of the most sustainable brands in football and support women’s football. This partnership will also see PUMA invest in the Vismara Performance Center. This will be a special place to develop future stars at AC Milan and bring both our brands closer together.”

“We are immensely proud to continue on this journey with our long-standing partner PUMA, our Principal Partner since 2018. Over the years, working side by side with PUMA has allowed us to build a solid and authentic partnership based on performance, football culture and shared values, always with a progressive approach,” commented Ivan Gazidis, AC Milan CEO. “We are excited to start this new chapter in our relationship, which will focus strongly on the development of women’s football and the next generation of talent, both of which are perfectly aligned with our vision for the Club.”

Waze becomes official partner of the Tour de France

Waze, the world’s largest community-based traffic and navigation app, today announced a three-year sponsorship and partnership with the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, as the prestigious cycling race returns for its 109th year. The Tour is the latest event to join more than 300 event producers around the world as a Waze Global Event Partner, harnessing the power of Waze to make travelling to and from the Tours as seamless as possible for fans, while minimising the impact of traffic for all travellers on the road.

In a first-of-its kind collaboration, Waze is the Tour’s Official Traffic Manager, providing its tools, data and insights to drivers, athletes, fans and more. Ahead of the start line, Waze’s community of volunteer map editors will update the maps with 4,000KM of road closures, the start and finish points, temporary car parks and live traffic speeds, ensuring drivers can navigate event traffic.

Waze will also become an official event sponsor, supporting logistics and branding four safety vehicles and a guest car in the Tour’s famous ‘caravan’: a procession of vehicles that precedes the riders onto the track at each stage, from Copenhagen to Paris and from Paris to the Super Planche des Belles Filles.

“This year, the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift will cover 4,357 km of roads. Each stage requires safety measures and traffic adjustments. Waze’s acclaimed expertise is an invaluable asset for the Tour de France experience for spectators and professionals who follow us on a daily basis. They will have better guidance to reach the points of passage of the Tour’s champions. This partnership will bring spectators closer to the race,” said Julien Goupil, Media & Partnerships Director of Amaury Sport Organisation.

“Waze is dedicated to being the most helpful and trusted resource for drivers around the world, so the opportunity to partner with one of the most famous global sporting events was an obvious choice,” said Harris Beber, CMO, Waze. “Community is our superpower, so from Copenhagen to the Champs-Élysées, followers of the Tour can feel assured Waze will help them navigate every stage.”

“After contributing to Waze for eight years, it’s an honour to be extending the app’s usefulness across the four countries and 21 stages of the Tour de France and the 8 stages of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2022,” said Christophe Lautier, Waze Map Editor Champ. “Our group of over 30 map editors will work closely with the Waze team to improve fans’ experiences throughout the Tour, arming them with the real-time insights they need to follow the action and outsmart traffic along the way.” 

Established as a two-way data share, Waze provides partners with real-time, anonymous, Waze-generated incident and slow-down information directly from the source: drivers themselves. The Waze Global Event Partner Programme allows partners to utilise Waze tools, data and insights to help alleviate event-day parking and traffic challenges, leading to happier fans.

Formula E announce two new major race locations

The ABB FIA Formula E World Championship will expand in Season 9 and the debut of the Gen3 race car to include more E-Prix races in more world cities with more race teams on the Formula E grid than ever before. 

The Season 9 provisional calendar was published today by Formula E and the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) following ratification by the FIA World Motor Sport Council and with the support of local ASNs (National Automobile Clubs) for each city. 

The planned schedule for next season currently features 18 races between January and July 2023 on street circuits in 13 world cities, beating the previous record of 16 races in 10 different cities this season.

Deafening cheers from the Foro Sol grandstand will greet the new Gen3 race car, the fastest, lightest, most powerful and efficient electric race car ever built, when it debuts at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez track in Mexico City on 14 January for Round 1 of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

Two major motorsport fanbases will welcome E-Prix for the first time. Round 4 of the championship will be held in Hyderabad, India, on 11 February, while fans in Brazil will see the São Paulo E-Prix on 25 March for Round 7.

Berlin remains the only city to host an E-Prix in all nine seasons of the championship, while Seoul and Jakarta will see Formula E return following inaugural races this season. The record-breaking TV audience and sold-out grandstands in Jakarta means the city will now host an expanded double-header of races next season.

Diriyah in Saudi Arabia will host the popular double-header of night races on 27 and 28 January. Monaco, Rome and London complete the schedule of named races.

Alberto Longo, Co-Founder and Chief Championship Officer, Formula E said:

“The Season 9 calendar of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship is our most expansive and dynamic racing schedule yet and I cannot wait to get started. We will continue to push the international boundaries of all-electric street racing with E-Prix in Hyderabad and São Paulo, while maintaining the hugely popular races in Diriyah, Mexico City, Berlin, Monaco, Rome and London with Jakarta and Seoul now established on the calendar. We are also working hard to include Cape Town and a race in the USA when the provisional calendar is updated later this year.”

As well as the arrival of the much-anticipated Gen3 race car – the world’s first net zero carbon race car in the world’s first net zero carbon sport – the Formula E grid will be formed from 12 teams and 24 drivers.

From next season the only place to see new arrivals McLaren Racing, Maserati and ABT go head-to-head with historic motorsport names including Porsche, Jaguar and Nissan is on the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship grid. 

Jamie Reigle, Chief Executive Officer, Formula E said:

“From Round 1 in Mexico City to the climax of Season 9 in London, the stage is set for the most successful Formula E season yet. Engineers and sustainability experts at the FIA and Formula E have worked together to build the Gen3, a race car that proves how high performance and sustainability can powerfully co-exist without compromise. We welcome Maserati back to motorsport for the first time in decades alongside McLaren Racing and the incredible roster of teams and manufacturers that makes Formula E unique. We expect Season 9 to continue our momentum of growing the global fanbase for the sport.

Footium announce partnership with Leyton Orient

We are delighted to announce that Footium will be Leyton Orient men’s official back of shorts sponsor on all three kits for the 2022/2023 season. We are really excited to partner with such a forward-thinking club, and will be working on some exciting initiatives together for the upcoming year!

The prospect of onboarding more football fans into the web3 space with this partnership is something that really excites us. Web3 can be daunting for those who aren’t into crypto and NFTs, but one of Footium’s missions has always been to bring more fans into the community. By bringing the Orient and Footium communities together through our shared love of the beautiful game, we hope to show the benefits that web3 can bring to gaming – in particular, football management gaming!

We already have a number of plans to work alongside the Club and their charity partners throughout the season and beyond. The Footium logo will feature on the O’s kit in the next FIFA game, which will be released near the end of 2022. We will be running FIFA goal of the month tournaments for both the Footium and Orient community with many different prizes on offer!

Additionally, we will be running some exciting giveaways & opportunities to win Leyton Orient match tickets, kits, Footium Clubs and more – in fact, in celebration of this partnership, we are doing a giveaway right now!

All of the team at Footium are football fans, with a number supporting EFL clubs such as Lincoln, Derby and Portsmouth. We know how important it is to support the lower leagues. The passion that these fanbases have for their club is exactly what makes football great.

George Benton, COO at Footium, said: “The entire Footium team are excited to be working with Leyton Orient on this partnership. The O’s rich history as one of the oldest clubs in England, alongside the forward-thinking and innovative nature of the staff, made the opportunity a perfect fit – it’s a good old institution!”

Josh Stephens, Head of Commercial at Leyton Orient, commented: “We are really excited to welcome Footium on board – it’s a fantastically engaging game which allows you to run your own football team and much more. Footium have some fantastic backers and players, and we are looking forward to a fun-filled partnership.”

Optus Sport secures exclusive rights for La Liga

Optus Sport has reinforced its commitment to streaming the world’s best football by securing the exclusive Australian rights for one of the biggest football leagues in the world, Spain’s LaLiga. 

The multi-year deal to stream LaLiga Santander gives Optus Sport an additional 380 matches per season from LaLiga live and on-demand, in full 1080p HD* and will also include live select matches from LaLiga SmartBank, Spanish football’s second tier, including promotion playoffs and a range of other highlights, news and review programmes. 

Optus Sport subscribers will now be able to watch even more of the biggest clubs in football and with the addition of the top 20 Spanish teams, Optus Sport welcomes the likes of Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Atletico de Madrid, Sevilla FC and many more as they join the leading English Premier League clubs, all in one place.

Optus Sport strengthens its position as the home of the world’s best players, adding the likes of Karim Benzema, Luka Modric, Thibaut Courtois, Pedri, Sergio Busquets, Joao Felix and many more. 

LaLiga has also been home to Australian football legends over the years like John Aloisi (CA Osasuna, Deportivo Alaves) and Aurelio Vidmar (CD Tenerife), and currently boasts Socceroos captain, Maty Ryan, who is on the books at Real Sociedad, and will be the new home of Awer Mabil (Cadiz CF). As the FIFA World Cup Qatar approaches, Optus Sport will be the place to keep an eye on the Socceroos No. 1. 

Commenting on the announcement that unites two of Europe’s best club competitions on Optus Sport, Optus VP TV, Content and Product Development, Clive Dickens, said, “We are delighted to announce that Optus Sport has secured these exclusive LaLiga rights here in Australia. 

The addition of Spain’s top professional league to Optus Sport’s line-up of premium rights shows our continued commitment to acquiring the world’s best football, that our customers love. We look forward to bringing an unprecedented level of LaLiga coverage to Australian fans and partnering with them to significantly expand interest in LaLiga.

Clive Dicken

Melcior Soler, LaLiga’s Audiovisual Director stated “At LaLiga we always look for best-in-class partners to deliver Spanish football to fans everywhere. Our agreement with Optus Sport ensures people in Australia will be able to enjoy LaLiga to the fullest. This is going to be even more important now to fans down under with some of Australia´s top talent represented in LaLiga clubs”. 

The LaLiga announcement follows news earlier that Optus Sport has also acquired the exclusive Australian rights to UEFA EURO 2024.

Since 2016, Optus Sport has brought the world’s best players and fixtures to Australian football fans through its live and exclusive broadcasting of the Premier League and later, the Barclays FA Women’s Super League, which Optus Sport last year secured for a further six years and two years, respectively.

The addition of LaLiga adds to Optus Sport’s formidable line-up of events with the imminent UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 this July, as well as the media rights to the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.

And there’s even more to love on Optus Sport as the home of the J.League and UEFA National Team Football including the UEFA Nations LeagueTM, all UEFA EURO 2024 qualifiers, all UEFA European qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, plus a range of international friendlies. 

The LaLiga 2022/23 season kicks off on Optus Sport the weekend of 13 and 14 August 2022.