Scuderia AlphaTauri Announce Ravenol As Official Lubricant Partner

Scuderia AlphaTauri is excited to announce a multi-year deal with RAVENOL as Official Lubricant Partner.

German-based Ravensberger Schmierstoffvertrieb GmbH is well-known for developing high-performance products for the automotive sector and is an established name in the motorsport industry. Through their large portfolio including lubricants, hydraulic oils, greases and other industrial supplies they will be able to support the team in various areas from factory to flag. The RAVENOL logo will be displayed on the nose of the new AT03, as well as on the driver’s overalls and team kit.

“It is a pleasure to welcome RAVENOL to our team”, Franz Tost commented. “It is often overlooked that we, as a Formula 1 team, are not only racing our cars on track but also producing the individual components of these high-tech machines. We operate our own machine shop here in Italy and use a variety of industrial products, this means we rely on the know-how of a strong partner and RAVENOL is able to supply us with a wide range of products to help us extract the maximum performance.”

Martin Huning, Motorsport Director of Ravensberger Schmierstoffvertrieb GmbH, said: “We are looking forward to working together with Scuderia AlphaTauri and supplying them with products for the upcoming season. For us, motorsport is the perfect platform to develop our products and show their benefits in the most demanding conditions. Furthermore, it underlines our global presence, with operations in over 100 markets.

Velocity Global Becomes Official Partner Of The DP World Tour

The DP World Tour today announces that Velocity Global, the world’s leading provider of global talent solutions, has become an Official Tour Partner in a multi-year agreement. Velocity Global serves as the Official Global Work Platform of the DP World Tour.

Speaking about the partnership Rob Wellner, Chief Revenue Officer of Velocity Global said; “We are excited to become an Official Tour Partner and the Official Global Work Platform for the DP World Tour. Golf is truly a global game that spans national boundaries, leading to increased competition in an effort to find the best golf talent wherever it is. Finding and hiring top talent – anyone, anywhere – is at the heart of what Velocity Global provides to our customers. We give a competitive edge to leading companies to get ahead in the global marketplace. This partnership is a perfect embodiment of that work.”

Max Hamilton, Commercial Director of the European Tour group, added; “The DP World Tour has a truly global footprint, with 45 tournaments across 25 countries in our 2022 schedule – and in Velocity Global, we have found a partner who matches that globality. As an ever-expanding Tour, their Global Work Platform will support our business operations for DP World Tour personnel working abroad. Their footprint in golf is substantial and given our close ties to the PGA TOUR and both the LPGA and Ladies European Tour with our mixed events, Velocity Global can create synergies through its deep partnerships across golf’s biggest tours. We look forward to supporting each other in the years ahead.”

As an Official Tour Partner, Velocity Global benefits from a range of marketing opportunities to grow its brand, including on-course signage and live television branding during DP World Tour events, bespoke social media content and access to tournament hospitality services. Throughout the partnership Velocity Global and the DP World Tour will develop a multi-channel content series to showcase some of the top players in the world and share their Work from Anywhere story. Velocity Global also enjoys elevated partnership status at three of the DP World Tour’s premier tournaments each season. These are two Rolex Series tournaments – the BMW PGA Championship and the DP World Tour Championship – plus the ISPS Handa World Invitational, which is an innovative mixed gender tournament run in partnership with the LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour.

The company’s Global Work Platform enables employers to grow compliant distributed workforces in more than 185 countries. Serving as the Official Global Work Platform for the DP World Tour, this partnership will see the Tour use Velocity Global’s services to help its employees work anywhere in the world.

With this announcement, Velocity Global is now a partner of the four leading Tours in the men’s and women’s professional game – the first global tech company to have such a presence in elite golf. The company is already the Official Global Workforce Solutions Platform of the PGA TOUR, as well as the presenting sponsor of the PGA TOUR University. Last month, Velocity Global also announced a new agreement as the Official Global Work Platform of the LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour. In addition, Billy Horschel, the winner of the 2021 BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour and a six-time PGA TOUR winner, is a Velocity Global brand ambassador, along with 12th-ranked Lexi Thompson and Albane Valenzuela on the LPGA Tour. Kevin Hall, a four-time APGA Tour champion, is also a Velocity Global brand ambassador.

BLAST Enters EA SPORTS FIFA 22 Esports With Production Of 2021/22 ePremier League

BLAST to produce and deliver 2021/22 ePremier League with fans from all Premier League clubs competing for FIFA 22 glory

BLAST has announced plans to enter EA SPORTS popular football franchise, EA SPORTS FIFA 22, and will produce the 2021/22 instalment of the ePremier League.

All 20 clubs will be represented in the tournament, with fans competing for the chance to win silverware for their favourite clubs and take home a share of the £100,000 prize pool.

For the latest instalment of the ePL, BLAST has co-created a brand-new online format and has planned an elevated live event experience for players and fans ahead of March’s ePL Grand Final.

Players of all abilities were able to register for the tournament and compete for a place in the Club Playoffs by participating in a series of online open qualification tournaments on both Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X & S consoles between November and January. 

This year’s competition sees the return of a live ePremier League Grand Final, where the two best players from all 20 Premier League clubs will battle it out on 26 and 27 March, teaming up on their respective consoles to crown the winning club. 

BLAST will utilise its experience in using industry-leading production and technology along with expertise in hosting tournaments in popular gaming titles to provide an innovative and engaging experience for the EA SPORTS FIFA 22 community and Premier League fans to enjoy. 

Leo Matlock, MD of Development at BLAST, said: “We’re thrilled to team up with the world’s most renowned football league, and help them create, develop and deliver this season’s ePremier League. We’re excited at the prospect of engaging with fans from all 20 clubs as they compete to represent their favourite team at the live Grand Finals.”

Women’s Sport Trust Reveals 2021 Was a Record-Breaking Year For Women’s Sport

Today, leading women’s sports charity, the Women’s Sport Trust (WST) reveals its latest research into the visibility of women’s sport*.

Almost 33 million (32.9m) people watched domestic women’s sport in 2021, beating all previous years. The main drivers for this growth were The Hundred and the FA Women’s Super League which brought in almost 11 million new viewers to women’s sport.

5.9 million new viewers to the WSL had not watched any other women’s sport in 2021 prior to the start of the season. Of the 4.9m new viewers to The Hundred, 3.5m (71%) have gone on to watch other women’s sport, with football and tennis the most popular choices.

It was The Hundred that attracted most people’s interest with cricket achieving 41% of total viewing hours, compared to football with 39%, although it is only midway through the WSL season and their new broadcasting agreement with BBC Sport and Sky Sports.

Interestingly, 25% of viewers who watched England women’s cricket or the Women’s Hundred last year did not watch any men’s cricket on TV in 2021. The research revealed that there were 2.7 million viewers for women’s cricket only, with 27% of those under the age of 35 (in comparison to 25% of viewers who just watched men’s cricket being under the age of 35). 6.2 million people watched live WSL broadcast matches in 2021 without watching a Premier League game on TV, while 1.5 million people watched live W Series coverage without watching live F1.

The research, conducted by Futures Sport and Entertainment, looks at the UK’s media exposure and consumption of women’s sport, men’s sport and mixed sport. It details how this has changed throughout 2021 and predicts record-breaking audiences for 2022.

Contrary to the current trend of declining TV viewing hours, women’s sport is actually growing across both free-to-air and Pay-TV channels. However, it’s free-to-air that really makes an impact to the total audience as it brought 19 million new viewers to women’s sport.

The report also found that there are significant opportunities for growth for women’s sport for pay-TV broadcasters. 28% of viewers (2.9 million) who watched women’s sport on free-to-air but not Pay TV in 2021, have watched sport Pay-TV channels this year, implying they likely have a subscription to sports Pay-TV channels, while 79% of females watched women’s sport on free-to-air only.

Tammy Parlour, CEO and Co-Founder of the Women’s Sport Trust, said: “The importance of free-to-air, alongside Pay-TV coverage, in bringing new audiences to women’s sport should not be underestimated. Domestic competitions such as The Hundred and the Women’s Super League are the perfect gateway to viewing more women’s sport and I look forward to seeing the impact other major international events this year will have on future viewing figures. We know how important these major events are in growing viewership figures but we want this growth to be sustainable, driving greater habit amongst audiences, to ensure women’s sport continues to be visible, viable and unstoppable.”

“This report also highlights the need to consider how decision makers can help facilitate the growth of women’s sport by considering its strategy of how to use digital channels to reach new audiences, as Sky Sports have done with their netball coverage on YouTube, and use social media to build fandom around both athletes and teams.

“And be it enhancing the scheduling of women’s sport, to give more prominent broadcast slots and better onward journeys for viewers, including signposting to other women’s sport content, or reducing some of the barriers faced by the media in trying to tell women’s sport stories, this report highlights significant opportunities for growth in the coming years.”

The research also highlighted that women’s sport still needs to address building greater habit and repeat viewership. When looking at the % of viewers, based on 3-minute reach, who watched a property on more than one occasion, women’s sport lags behind men’s sport at present.

45% of the Women’s Hundred audience watched the competition on television on more than one occasion, in comparison to 35% during the 2021/2022 WSL season so far (vs 31% during the WSL season in 2020/21). This compares to 55% for the Men’s Hundred, 57% for Premiership Rugby during the 2020/21 season and 87% for the Premier League last season.

Other highlights from the research include:

  • Interest in female athletes is driving interest in sport in general but this is mostly led by individuals rather than teams
    • Emma Raducanu featured in four of the top ten most visited women’s sport stories on Sky Sports’ website in 2021. In September 2021, there were 8 million UK Google searches for Raducanu, in comparison to just 250 back in May.
    • Peak searches in a week for Fallon Sherrock in the past few years have been higher than for any man in darts
  • The importance of using different platforms to attract different audiences:
    • Broadcasting: the audience on Sky Sports YouTube Netball Live channel (74% female vs 26% male, 32% aged from 25-34), which achieves average watch times in excess of 27 minutes, is very different to the Sky Sports TV audience (26% female vs 74% male)
    • Followers and engagement: Chelsea’s women’s Instagram interactions in 2021 were higher than 12 of the men’s teams that play in the Premier League in the 2021-22 season and achieved a 77% year-on-year increase in growth. Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd’s women’s teams’ instagram accounts all had more interactions in 2021 than seven of the Instagram accounts dedicated to men’s Premier League teams
  • Major events continue to be of interest to a female audience
    • Major mixed events attract the highest % of females watching. Wimbledon and the Tokyo Paralympic Games both had the highest % of female viewers from major events with 57%, closely followed by the Tokyo Olympic Games with 52% of females
    • Major events drove digital interest from females – female web consumption reached a peak of 35% during the summer on Sky Sports.

*Women’s sport covers female specific properties, such as the FA WSL, The Women’s Hundred and the Netball Superleague. Men’s sport covers male specific properties, such as EPL, The Men’s Hundred and Formula 1. All other events, where both male and female athletes/teams are involved, are categorised as mixed, e.g., the Olympics and Wimbledon.

Include Summit: One Month To Go – Join Denise Lewis, Anton Ferdinand, Judy Murray, Sanjay Bhandari And Many More

The Include Summit, The UK’s No.1 Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Summit for Sport, will be taking place in Birmingham in one month’s time.

The Include Summit is the UK’s largest conference focussed on equality, diversity and inclusion in sport. The Include Summit is a chance to hear from leading voices across the sector, to attend expert workshops, and to connect with others who are passionate about driving change.

When: Tuesday 8th – Wednesday 9th March 2022
Where: Unique Venues Birmingham, Centenary Square, Birmingham City Centre, B1 2EP

Agenda

Here is the full agenda for each of the Summit’s days – https://includesummit.com/agenda/

Find out more about the Include Summit and to get tickets, head to their website – https://includesummit.com/#speaker-sec

Cazoo To Become New Main Sponsor Of Real Sociedad

Cazoo, Europe’s leading online car retailer, which makes buying a used car as simple and seamless as ordering any other product online, is delighted to announce today that it has signed a multi-year agreement to become the main partner and new shirt sponsor of Spanish football club, Real Sociedad, from the start of next season.

Cazoo, which currently sponsors both Everton and Aston Villa in the Premier League, will see its branding on the front of the Real Sociedad shirt, throughout the Reale Arena, on all official club merchandise, across the club’s website and on all media backdrops featured on televised football coverage.

The partnership with Real Sociedad, currently in 7th place in LaLiga, will take effect from 1st July 2022 and will form part of an extensive marketing campaign by Cazoo when it launches in Spain in the first half of 2022 as it continues to rollout across Europe, following its recent launches in both France and Germany and its acquisition of Barcelona-based Swipcar.

Cazoo owns and reconditions its cars to the highest standard before offering them for delivery in just a few days and has thousands of cars available at any time. With customers able to purchase a car entirely online and have it delivered directly to their door, Cazoo has been referred to as the ‘Amazon of the used car market’.

Cazoo was founded in 2018 by renowned British entrepreneur Alex Chesterman and has already sold over 50,000 cars in the UK since its launch as consumers have embraced the selection, value, transparency and convenience of buying used cars fully online. Cazoo has grown its team to over 3,800 across the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Portugal.

Cazoo has been one of the fastest growing businesses in Europe over the past two years, pioneering the shift to online car buying, and recently listed on the NYSE in August, raising over $800m to build out its brand and infrastructure as it looks to continue to transform the car buying and selling experience across the UK and Europe.

Alex Chesterman, Founder & CEO of Cazoo said:

“We are very excited to be partnering with Real Sociedad. Just like us, they are a very ambitious club driven by results and have a passionate following and fan base across Spain and we are looking forward to engaging with the fans and local community and delivering the best car buying experience in Spain in 2022.”

Jokin Aperribay, Real Sociedad Club President said:

“We are looking forward to partnering with Cazoo next season. They have ambitious and exciting plans to continue growing in our market. We are pleased to be able to help Cazoo be close to our fans and make them aware of their innovative formula that is making them so successful”.

Eclat Media Group Selects Tata Communications To Bring Global Sports To Pan-Asian Viewers

Eclat’s new sports channels, SPOTV and SPOTV2 will now remotely produce and distribute language-customised commentary with Tata Communications Media Ecosystem.

Tata Communications, a global digital ecosystem enabler, and Eclat Media Group, a premier broadcaster of global sports content, today announce the expansion of Eclat’s sports content broadcasting to viewers across Asian countries, including Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. This new agreement powers Eclat Media Group’s newly launched channels, SPOTV and SPOTV2 to broadcast 4000+ hours of content annually.

Tata Communications Media Ecosystem, coupled with Video Connect and Satellite Uplink services, will allow commentators of SPOTV and SPOTV2 to overlay commentary in their local language, which is added to the viewers’ video feeds for relevant regions. Fans across Asia will now be able to watch their favourite global sports in their preferred language commentary, thereby expanding the reach of content to millions of new potential viewers.

Lee Choong Khay (CK), CEO of SPOTV, said:

“It is our pleasure to have Tata Communications, a global digital ecosystem enabler, as our valuable network partner. As we expand the distribution of our content pan-region, we aim to focus on growing localised and relevant content for the individual markets. With this exciting partnership, SPOTV and SPOTV2 can achieve seamless localisation and delivery of our premium sports contents to fans across Asia.”

Dhaval Ponda, Global Head of Media & Entertainment Services, Tata Communications, said:

“Sports viewership has dramatically shifted over the years with technology playing a key role in evolving the at-home viewing experience.” He adds, “By joining forces with Eclat Media Group, we aim to give sports fans across Asia an enhanced experience to enjoy their favourite global and local sports – be it motorsports, tennis, baseball or volleyball. Our world class media infrastructure coupled with Eclat’s ambition to be the pioneer in providing language-customised sports content to fans in each country is driving the transformation of sports consumption pan- Asia.”

Eclat Media Group has recently launched two new channels – SPOTV and SPOTV2 – across multiple Southeast Asia and select East Asia territories such as Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Macau, Mongolia, and the Philippines. The channels broadcast content such as tennis Grand Slam tournaments Wimbledon and US Open, motorsport championships MotoGP and WorldSBK, World Table Tennis and Badminton World Federation events, as well as popular Asian sports including the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) League, Korean Basketball League (KBL), V-League (volleyball) and V.League (Japan) competition.

Tata Communications Media & Entertainment Services offer a comprehensive suite of solutions for global media value chain workflow including contribution, processing and distribution. With an infrastructure spanning the world that allows end-to-end content delivery at scale, the company enables over 9,000 live events, 700 TV channels and 60,000 hours of live content, reaching over 2 billion sports fans globally. To learn further about Tata Communications Media & Entertainment Services, please visit – https://www.tatacommunications.com/media-entertainment/.

Serie A’s YouTube Channel To Show Every League Match In MENA Until The End Of The Season

Lega Serie A’s Arabic-language YouTube channel is becoming more and more attractive. Starting from matchday 24, all ten Serie A matches will be broadcast, only in the MENA region, until the end of the season. Of these, nine will be commented from IBC in Lissone and one directly from Riyadh (Saudi Arabia).

One match for each matchday will also see the creation of a pre- and post-match studio directly at the stadium and in Arabic: the first major event will be the Derby di Milano Inter- AC Milan on Saturday 5 February at 6 pm. This will be followed by Napoli-Inter on Saturday 12 February at 6 pm and Juventus-Torino on Friday 18 February at 8.45 pm.

The pre and post-match coverage of the Milan derby will be conducted by Ghazy M M Elamry, with former Inter and AC Milan player Francesco Coco. For the occasion, the big match Inter- AC Milan will not only be broadcast in Arabic but also in English.

Lega Serie A CEO Luigi De Siervo said: “Given the steady growth of Lega Serie A’s YouTube channel, which is the number one football league channel in the world in terms of subscribers, we have decided, in agreement with the clubs, to further exploit its potential in the MENA region, which has always had many fans of our league.

“Thanks to the technical possibilities offered by the new IBC in Lissone we will offer spectators the full Serie A spectacle and a great pre and post match event for a big match in every round of the championship, starting with the Derby of Milan. We are confident that this major production effort will bring further international value to our brand and allow us to increase our fan base in a very important area”.

UEFA Appoints TEAM Marketing And Relevent Sports Group As Marketing And Sales Partner For 2024-2027 Club Competitions

The UEFA Executive Committee has today appointed TEAM Marketing as its global sales partner to market the commercial rights for its men’s club competitions, including the flagship UEFA Champions League, for the 2024-27 cycle. Relevent Sports Group has also been appointed to sell the media rights specifically in the United States for the same period.

The new format of UEFA club competitions post-2024 carries significant commercial opportunities and this was reflected in the quality of the bids received during a comprehensive tender process conducted together with the European Club Association (ECA) over the last few months.

TEAM Marketing will provide creative and sales support in the global marketing and sale of the commercial rights, including media, sponsorship and licensing rights, together with the provision of account management and associated services for the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Europa Conference League, UEFA Super Cup and, the UEFA Youth League for the 2024-27 cycle.

Relevent Sports Group will be solely responsible for the sale of the media rights of these competitions in the United States.

These deals will guarantee increased revenues for participating clubs and bigger solidarity payments for those teams who have not qualified to take part in European club competitions, as well as providing UEFA with significant funding to invest in the development of the sport at all levels across the continent.

Commenting on the agreement, UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin said: “We are pleased to have seen such high-level interest from renowned parties and are delighted that the agreements reached with TEAM Marketing and Relevent Sports Group will allow further distribution of revenues to clubs across Europe at such a crucial time when financial stability is needed.

“Both companies delivered a compelling vision for European club football and we are convinced that the world’s best club football competition – the UEFA Champions League – and our other men’s club competitions will continue to go from strength to strength. I would also like to thank the European Club Association for the great cooperation during this highly intense bid process.”

McLaren Racing And Castore Launch 2022 Fanwear And Replica Team Kit Range

McLaren Racing and Official Partner Castore, the premium British sportswear brand, today announced the launch of the 2022 team replica apparel range, featuring replica versions of the all-new official McLaren Formula 1 team apparel.

The range will be added to throughout the 2022 season, with the release of various performance, fanwear and limited-edition collections designed and produced by Castore.

Accompanied by a launch film featuring McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, the range marks the beginning of What It Takes, a 2022 Formula 1 season-long campaign showcasing the synergies between two brands who pride themselves on challenging convention in the pursuit of improvement. 

The range features hero products including driver fanwear t-shirts with the team logo and respective LN4 and DR3 tags, and a fanwear hoody with brushed interior for warmth. The McLaren Racing x Castore replica range will mirror the kit worn by Lando and Daniel throughout the 2022 Formula 1 season. 

The McLaren Racing x Castore range will be available to purchase from Friday 11 February on a new end-to-end ecommerce platform provided by Castore at mclarenstore.com.

Lindsey Eckhouse, Director of Licensing, ecommerce & esports, McLaren Racing, said:

“We’re delighted to be working with Castore to launch our new fanwear and replica team kit for the 2022 F1 season. Castore have truly embraced McLaren’s appreciation of bold and brave design, creating a range that we believe our fans are going to love.

“The What It Takes campaign marks a perfect union of McLaren’s Fearlessly Forward team ethos with Castore’s Better Never Stops, and we’re excited to move into a new era together pushing the boundaries and striving for innovation.”

Tom Beahon, Co-founder, Castore said:

“With an ethos of ‘Better Never Stops’, Castore was created to push the boundaries of technical sportswear and do what it takes to push athletes and teams forward. This ambition is clearly echoed by our partner McLaren Racing. F1 is the perfect place for Castore to showcase our beliefs and we are thrilled to be taking these bold next steps in automotive alongside a brand and partner that shares our demand for excellence and unwavering commitment to innovation.”