Power tool company STIHL GB has joined Leicester Tigers as an official sponsor. 

The three-year sponsorship deal was announced at the club’s pre-season press day on Thursday and Tigers will now have an extra roar behind them thanks to the multiple strands of the STIHL sponsorship. 

This includes STIHL becoming the club’s Official Garden Power Tool Supplier, with its products being used to maintain Welford Road stadium and the training ground. 

STIHL is recognised worldwide for its tough outdoor power tools, used by anyone from the home gardener to farmers, foresters and builders, and professional groundskeepers like the team at Tigers. STIHL is possibly best known as the world’s No.1 chainsaw brand but the product range now spans outdoor power tools including grass and hedge trimmers, blowers, augers, power washers and more. All uphold the STIHL reputation for strength, performance and hard-working power, making them reliable partners whatever job they do. 

The three-year sponsorship positions the iconic STIHL brand in the heart of Welford Road and supports additional facilities for fans, including a new STIHL-branded big screen in the north-east corner of the stadium. Additional plans include fan-focussed activity on matchday plus online and in-store promotions with the STIHL Dealer network.

STIHL GB head of marketing Simon Hewitt said: “Rugby has strong appeal for us, with a powerful and committed following that we believe will grow further as Britain hosts the World Cup in 2015. 

“Leicester Tigers are highly respected and their success comes from an enduring commitment to excellence and teamwork plus a serious focus on performance. That makes them a perfect match for our own brand as we share those same values both in our business practice and ultimately in our tools.

“We look forward to an exciting future with them and wish Leicester Tigers and their fans a fantastic season ahead.”    

Simon Cohen, chief executive officer of Leicester Tigers, said: “We have very strong relationships with our sponsors and we’re delighted to welcome STIHL on board. They are a leading brand with an international reach and we feel a very good fit for the Tigers. We look forward to welcoming them to Welford Road and working with them.”

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Accorhotels.com has agreed a new partnership with the French Football Federation (FFF) to sponsor France’s first national team, junior national team, women’s soccer team, the French Cup and amateur soccer.

Accor will be partnering these national teams during their trips in France and abroad, and serve as an Official Supplier to the French cups.

This partnership will also include features such as free match tickets and invitations to training sessions in Clairefontaine and special deals.

“www.accorhotels.com is proud to team up with the French Soccer Federation for the long term. We believe in the same values, in the same excellence, team spirit and performance drives that inspire Accor employees around the world every day,” said Hotel Services France CEO Christophe Alaux.

“The French Soccer Federation is delighted to be partnering the Accor Group for the next 4 years. Its international breadth and its taste for excellence will, without a doubt, build a lively partnership in the service of French soccer,” added French Soccer Federation Chairman Noël Le Graët.

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The British MotoGP will again be title sponsored by the Hertz Corporation after the car rental sponsor agreed a new deal with Dorna Sports, MotoGP’s rights holder.

The 2014 edition of the premier motorcycle racing world championship will be held at Silverstone from August 28th to August 31^st.

Michel Taride, Group President, Hertz International, said: “Our ongoing partnership with Dorna Sports and MotoGP renews our excitement year after year, fuelling our adrenalin with real top two-wheels action. Hertz British Grand Prix is a world-renowned event that perfectly matches our passion for innovation and mobility and reflects our fastest, easiest and most valued car rental brand values. This year we will also have the opportunity to engage with visitors in the Hertz Game Zone and share with them a bit of our four-wheels passion too.”

As title sponsor of the British MotoGP, Hertz will benefit from significant media exposure through a range of branding opportunities at the circuit, including at the trackside, bridge, starting point, winners’ podium backdrops, and clothing of the Paddock Girls. In addition, at this year’s event, visitors can try their hand at ‘winning the fastest lap’ of the famous Silverstone track on bike simulators placed in the Hertz Game Zone or  have their photo taken in one of the Hertz Dream Collection vehicles on display in the area. 

The move follows the successful collaboration between MotoGP rights holder Dorna Sports and Hertz, which has been the car and equipment rental supplier for the premier motorcycle racing World Championship since 2010, and first took on title sponsorship of the event in 2012.

Pau Serracata, Managing Director Commercial Area, Dorna, commented: “To have Hertz on board as title sponsor once more for the 2014 British MotoGP gives me great pleasure. It not only shows the strength of our continued collaboration, but also the benefits and advantages the sponsorship of such a popular world-renowned racing event can have. 

“With an extremely exciting season ahead, during which we will continue to use Hertz’s worldwide service for both vehicle and equipment rental, the Silverstone round is the ideal event to showcase our strong partnership.”

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English Premier League team Crystal Palace has named Sportlobster as their Official Social Media Partner.

The new partnership, store announced today, find will enable Crystal Palace and its players to engage with fans in a ground-breaking way via the dedicated online sports network.

The relationship will also provide Sportlobster with a prominent match-day presence at each of Crystal Palace’s home games, medicine together with access to behind-the-scenes content, which will be shared exclusively with fans on the Sportlobster platform. 

Since Sportlobster launched in April 2013, more than 1.6 million fans have joined the network. Clubs, teams and athletes across a wide and diverse range of sports are using the platform to engage with fans. However, this is the first official partnership that Sportlobster has established with a Premier League football club. 

Arron Shepherd, co-founder and COO of Sportlobster, said: “We made the decision to partner with Crystal Palace, because we were hugely impressed with the club’s popularity online and its innovative use of social media. We are keen to continue to attract passionate, social media-savvy sports fans to Sportlobster, and Crystal Palace’s supporters are precisely that. A partnership with the club, therefore, made great sense to us. 

“We are absolutely delighted to become the club’s official social media partner. Crystal Palace fans will now be able to access more content from the club, its players and other Palace fans, than they are able to on any other platform. With the addition of access to existing data on fixtures, results and news, fans also have the opportunity to predict the results of games and read and write blogs, all on one platform. The relationship with Crystal Palace is another major step in our journey towards becoming the ultimate network for sports fans.” 

The partnership will begin with immediate effect, as Crystal Palace begins its 2014-2015 Premier League season.

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish said: “The Club are absolutely delighted to be working in this sector in partnership with Sportlobster.The relevance and buzz of social media to the sports industry continues to grow at an incredible rate, with Sportlobster becoming the social network for passionate sports fans around the world, revolutionising the way people create and source sports content.”