Arsenal Football Club has appointed Juliet Slot as Chief Commercial Officer.
Juliet will oversee all the club’s commercial operations. This includes commercial partnerships, ticketing, hospitality, digital experience, retail and marketing.
Her appointment follows current Chief Commercial Officer Peter Silverstone’s decision to leave the club to pursue new opportunities from the end of January.
Juliet said: “Arsenal is a club which I have long admired and I’m absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to join the Executive team and to lead a brilliant group of commercial colleagues. The Arsenal name is recognised around the world as being unique both on and off the pitch with a hugely loyal and engaged global following. I am excited to find new ways to bring existing fans closer to the club and to grow our support across the world for both our men’s and women’s teams.
“I am also looking forward to working together with our fantastic suite of partners in meeting our mutual objectives. I am thrilled to have this opportunity. My goal is to bring fans closer to the club wherever they are and help us grow.”
Juliet was Chief Commercial Officer at Ascot Racecourse from 2012 to 2020. Prior to that she worked as Managing Director at Pitch Media, Managing Director at Haymarket Network, on the London 2012 bid and at Advantage International (now trading as Octagon). She was also Sales and Marketing Director at Fulham for five years and worked at adidas for five years. She is currently a non-executive director at the British Olympic Association.
Arsenal Chief Executive Vinai Venkatesham said: “I’m delighted to welcome Juliet to the team. She brings immense experience and expertise and will be an important part of our Executive Team as we look to take the club forward. I would like to thank Peter for his positive contribution to the club and wish him every future success.”
Outlast Sports & Entertainment has been appointed by SPOTV as its exclusive representative for Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia and Taiwan to boost regional and local advertising as well as sponsorship inventory on all SPOTV platforms. These include on-air, digital, social media, on – ground and for all devices.
Outlast Sports & Entertainment will be responsible for the commercialisation of SPOTV’s content including MotoGP, tennis Grand Slams encompassing Wimbledon and US Open, The Open (golf) Championships and Asian favourites such as the V.League Japan, Korean V-League and Korean Baseball League. These are just some of the many premium sports content that will be available on SPOTV’s various platforms.
Salauddin, CEO of Outlast Sports & Entertainment said, “Outlast Sports is excited to partner with SPOTV to grow its presence in Asia. Our ambitions to build up the market in Asia are very much in line with SPOTV’s. With our experienced network and expertise that we have in the region, we are very confident in growing and establishing SPOTV as the go-to platform for top and engaging sports content.”
In the past twelve months, Outlast Sports & Entertainment has been instrumental in securing various deals with reputable clients such as the below. Their notable achievements include:
• Securing the broadcast sponsorship of Indian Premier League 2020 on Star Sports in addition to Indian National Team’s Bilateral Series 2021 sponsorship on several digital platforms namely SONYLIV
• Appointed by SMM Plus agency to exclusively represent their distribution of Asian Volleyball Confederation Events in selected Asian territories, with deals done in South Korea and Indonesia.
• Appointed to exclusively handle the full marketing and communications plan of client BK8 International
• Brokered deals with top five LA LIGA clubs for BK8 International (Athletic Bilbao, Elche, Mallorca, Valencia and Villareal)
• Activated an endorsement campaign with Football Legends – Barcelona, Milan & Brazilian Legend Rivaldo and Arsenal and French Legend Robert Pires • Working with Hyundai Motors in partnership related to Esports in SEA and 3×3 Basketball in Philippines
• Has extensive experience collaborating with several Tourism Boards in the region with relevant sports properties
“Outlast Sports & Entertainment’s impressive record reveal that they have strong ambitions and the know-how of the local markets they operated in. They not only share our vision of growing SPOTV into a premier sports platform, but their development of bespoke marketing solutions will enable all brands to interact with sports fans in this region,” said Chairman of SPOTV and CEO of Eclat Media Group Mitchell Hong.
After a successful year-long partnership over the 2020/2021 academic year, Barclays and NSE (National Student Esports), the official body for university esports in the UK and the most active grassroots gaming community in the country, have renewed their partnership. Barclays commitment to grassroots games and esports will see the bank sponsor the British University Esports Championships (BUEC) and the second Games Innovation Challenge, which will take place in 2022.
In the 2020/21 season, BUEC saw over 1,700 teams from 100 universities compete across a number of esports titles and this year’s championship, which is currently ongoing, has already seen a significant rise in numbers signing up to compete.
Meanwhile, the Games Innovation Challenge, a games development competition for students across the UK to test their skills and creativity, is expanding in its second year, to allow even more students to take part across a wider range of categories, with applications opening in January.
Previously, the competition was only eligible for university students, however going forward, the competition is open to college students aged 16 and over. Plus, five new award categories have been introduced for 2022 which are Gameplay, Design, Social Impact, and two platform awards which are the Unity Choice Award and the Epic Choice Award where the best games developed on the respective platforms will be selected.
Starting in January, participants will have nine weeks to create the most innovative games with the chance to win across the five categories for a part of the prize pool totalling £5,000. The winner for the best game overall will receive £2,500.
For the Gameplay Award, the games will be judged on the most original concept, excellent storytelling and enjoyable gameplay. Design elements will be judged from sound, art style, graphics, and technical quality to win the Design Award. As for the Social Impact category, purpose must be at the heart of the game and could tackle difficult issues such as promoting environmental sustainability or considering accessibility.
A panel of gaming and esports industry experts will be judging the entries on the five categories and the overall innovation of each submission.
Teams can be formed of students from different universities or colleges and can also contain non-students. However, to participate in the challenge, the majority of the team and the project lead must be enrolled at a university or college. Any platform and prebuilt assets can be used, provided that they have the permission or license to do so.
Alex Coulson, Managing Director, NSE, said:
“We’re so pleased to renew our partnership with Barclays and to see the Games Innovation Challenge return after such a successful competition earlier this year. The expansion to include college students is especially exciting and will add to a pool of an already talented group of students.
“We’re grateful to have Barclays’ support to give opportunities to champion and develop the diverse student community. The games submitted in the 2021 challenge surpassed our expectations and we can’t wait to see what games are designed next year.”
David Gowans, Head of Games and Esports, Barclays, added:
“We are excited to continue our partnership with NSE. The success of the first Games Innovation Challenge helped to highlight the calibre of future developer talent the UK has to offer. Continuing to work with NSE on its second iteration, with the prospect of bringing in a wider range of participants, gives us an even greater opportunity to continue our support of the growing games and esports industries, from the grassroots up.”
LIVENow bolsters their ever-increasing sports line up by adding Cricket Australia’s 2021/22 Big Bash League, the men’s Twenty20 cricket competition.
Following Australia’s T20 World Cup victory, the upcoming BBL11 tournament will be the most competitive yet, with 8 teams competing from Sunday 5th December and throughout the winter. Australian cricket fans can purchase pay-per-view Passes for 2.99 or a Season Pass for £24.99 exclusively from LIVENow.
Head of Sport, Peter Leible comments, “We’re delighted to add to our live sports programming this winter to include Cricket Australia’s men’s Big Bash League tournament. We’re pleased to give cricket fans who live abroad easy access to watch these matches from wherever they call home.”
Alistair Dobson, Cricket Australia’s ‘General Manager – Big Bash Leagues’ said, “We’re delighted to welcome LIVENow on board to stream the BBL|11 season across a host of Asian and European countries. The BBL is one of the world’s best T20 Leagues and we hope our fans enjoy tuning in from wherever they are.”
LIVENow’s Australian cricket coverage builds on the service’s fast-growing portfolio of sports rights. In Singapore, LIVENow were the exclusive home for EURO 2020 this summer and are bringing fans live pay-per-view coverage from the English Premier League throughout 2021/22.
LIVENow also distributed EURO 2020 in the Philippines and streamed the Emirates FA Cup, Italy’s Serie B and Serie C. They also stream RIZIN mixed martial arts and European Football League across various international markets.
Last night, SBC held their North America Awards in New York, recognising the achievements of operators, affiliates and suppliers from all the major disciplines including payments, marketing, platform providers and data.
SBC is the largest news publisher in the betting and gaming industry, dedicated to developing the betting and gaming industries, and a major event company, hosting some of the world’s leading sports betting industry events.
The SBC Awards recognize the achievements of operators, affiliates and suppliers from all the major disciplines including payments, marketing, platform providers and data.
“Content automation is something that is becoming increasingly necessary for many organisations, as the need for regular, high-quality content is at an all time high.”
SBC play a major role in the gambling industry and were hosting their latest awards to recognise the leaders in the sector and those who are making waves throughout it.
GTG network, members of iSportConnect’s community, were a nominee at this week’s SBC North America Awards in the ‘Rising Star In Sports Betting & Casino’ category.
Alongside the company competing for the award were strong competitors who are also making strong moves and helping the overall betting industry to keep taking forward-thinking, progressive options.
Through their iSportGenius data service, GTG collate over 20,000 statistics per sporting event, but also have two key products that are crucial and becoming more in-demand for the industry and other sectors.
While data is of course critical (GTG hold partnerships with some major names in this space, two notable ones being DraftKings, PaddyPower and Barstool Sportsbook, as well as many others) they also service gamification and, more recently, content automation.
Content automation is something that is becoming increasingly necessary for many organisations, as the need for regular, high-quality content is at an all time high.
This content offering now extends to entirely automated feature length articles, to assist publishers with a next generation journalistic solution. GTG also helps publishers by producing automated preview videos as well as short videos containing their data facts.
“Words like relationship and engagement are key, whether you’re a sportsbook, a sports media company, a team, a league, or anyone else in the sports ecosystem, you want to be generating additional engagement with your customers, fans and followers.”
As Nathan Rothschild, Co-Founder & Partner of GTG Network recently explained in an interview with iSportConnect, they have developed proprietary text scanning technology which automatically recognizes keywords in an article to deliver contextual content and, where desired, sports betting CTAs.
“We’re now producing entirely automated feature length articles of 500+ words, which is the result of a heap of work over a number of years,” Nathan adds.
“That’s underpinned, not just by robotic type words strung together, but by the most interesting insights in sport as it relates to data and the fact we can then expand that out into a journalistic solution, that’s a huge part of the future.”
The company also offers highly bespoke products which focus on customer and fan engagement, delivering prediction, arcade, trivia and bracket games across many different formats (web, app and in-venue).
Through the creation of these alternative games it provides an offering and a way to interact with those who may not be looking to actually wager money on these platforms, but still giving the companies a chance to engage with a wider audience.
Nathan states: “Words like relationship and engagement are key, whether you’re a sportsbook, a sports media company, a team, a league, or anyone else in the sports ecosystem, you want to be generating additional engagement with your customers, fans and followers.”
“There’s quite a significant opportunity for advertising, but ultimately the ability to drive additional traffic to a digital destination and also create new monetisation streams is where I see the role of our arcade games.”
Premiership Rugby and Gallagher have today announced a multi-year renewal of their existing partnership.
Gallagher, one of the world’s largest insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services companies, has reaffirmed its commitment to the sport as the official title partner to elite rugby’s most competitive league. The partnership extension builds on its first four years of a successful sponsorship that has delivered year-on-year increases in brand awareness and business value.
Grassroots engagement has also been central to Gallagher’s partnership alongside its support of the professional game, including its sponsorship of Project Rugby. Run in conjunction with Premiership Rugby and England Rugby, this ground-breaking community inclusion programme – which is set to welcome its milestone 70,000th participant – continues to break down barriers to participation in the sport and increase the accessibility of rugby to young people from under-represented groups and parts of society.
Having established itself as a professional sports competition of global relevance and reach, Gallagher Premiership Rugby now enjoys an international audience of more than 150 million households across 135 different territories, mirroring Gallagher’s own global footprint. In the UK, TV audiences watching Gallagher Premiership Rugby have grown strongly. BT Sport saw a 16% rise in the average audience last season – a level of growth that has continued into the 2021-22 campaign.
Christopher E. Mead, Chief Marketing Officer of Gallagher, said: “Gallagher Premiership Rugby is a league like no other; its combination of high-octane action and intense competition continue to attract an ever larger audience both in the UK and around the globe. That has taken the Gallagher brand into millions of new homes and businesses, created a better understanding of what we do and how we can help individuals and organisations manage personal and commercial risk. Through this new agreement, we look forward to strengthening a natural partnership between two increasingly globally-known and fast-growing franchises with shared values and ethical codes.
“Committing to extend our role as title partner will allow us to build on the fantastic awareness already generated by the partnership, deepen our connections with the communities surrounding the 13 Gallagher Premiership Rugby clubs and help us support local business partners with specialist advice and products tailored to their individual needs. Being able to welcome fans, including our own Gallagher colleagues and clients, back into stadiums has been brilliant and given us a powerful reminder of how sport can bring people and communities together.”
Mark Brittain, Chief Commercial Officer of Premiership Rugby, said: “Gallagher Premiership Rugby has never been more compelling and exciting as it is today and together, with Gallagher, we have found new ways to keep fans engaged, expand our audience and attract ever greater numbers, as we have continued to work together to grow the game. We’re delighted to have renewed our partnership and look forward to building on the last four years for the benefit of everyone involved in club rugby.
“In what has undoubtedly been a testing period for the sports industry, Gallagher has proved itself to be a strong ally and responsive partner ready to meet head-on the challenges the global pandemic levelled at the rugby community.”
AC Milan is continuing its growth path in the digital world and is reinforcing its presence in the Chinese market by launching its official channel on Kuaishou, one of the most popular platforms for short videos and live streaming in China.
Kuaishou was founded in 2011 and it is an app that allows users to share moments of their daily life in the form of short videos or live streams, during which the streamer can interact with its viewers. Kuaishou is currently the most-downloaded app in China and has already gathered over 573 million users per month.
Via their new Kuaishou channel, AC Milan will publish content ranging from exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, videos from the past and present to local and global fan-related content, all in short-form video formats and through live streaming.
Kuaishou will become a strategic asset to increase localised merchandising and social commerce in China, allowing for more locally-oriented collaborations with opinion leaders and influencers. As part of the launch, AC Milan will host a jersey giveaway, which will be promoted on the app with a video and will put a shirt signed by Olivier Giroud up for grabs.
Launching on the Kuaishou platform allows AC Milan to continue with its modernisation and digitalization process, which began with the arrival of the new ownership in 2018. Since then, the Club has opened channels on the most popular social media platforms to be able to communicate more effectively with the over 500 million AC Milan fans worldwide. In the last year alone, AC Milan has in fact become the most-followed Italian football club on Twitch with over 76,000 followers. In addition, the Club launched the new “The Studios: Milan Media House” – an innovative hub for the production and sharing of media content – which represents a big step in the evolution of AC Milan as a media company. The new Studios allow the Club to reinforce the emotional link with its consumer base and engage new users thanks to increasingly relevant content adapted to the various platforms.
Kuaishou will provide the Club with a new fan engagement tool in a key market for AC Milan, in which the Rossoneri already have a strong digital and physical presence, with a new office that opened in Shanghai earlier in the year. With Kuaishou, the Club is now present on eight social media platforms in China, with over 3.8 million followers across all of them. Earlier this year, AC Milan was also found to be the best-regarded Italian football brand in China by international analysis and research group YouGov.
The Rugby Football League (RFL), a newly formed US company, has today launched the first-ever US Rugby Sevens Major League, which will see the world’s best international male players battle it out against the best US players for record-breaking prize money.
Kicking off in October 2022 in Las Vegas, the RFL, aspires to create a truly new fan experience combining the energy of Rugby Sevens events with the excitement of betting, in a new, immersive and integrating offering. Fans at home and in the Stadium will have never seen before access to live betting markets, in-running stats, insights and expert advice throughout each game. The RFL will work with leading betting tech providers to deliver this ground-breaking betting proposition, taking advantage of new innovations and gamification developments – #racetrackrugby.
The inaugural RFL event will feature the top 12 international teams pitted against 4 US Team Franchises to win their share of the $1,000,000 prize money. From 2023, the RFL will expand to up to 17 tournaments in major US cities and will feature up to 16 US Team Franchises playing with top international teams.
The RFL has assembled a team of expert professionals lead by former World Rugby Competition General Manager Philippe Bourdarias (RFL CEO) who commented: “The RFL is an amazing development for the game of Rugby in the US. There is a huge appetite for Rugby Sevens events in the US, as shown by the record breaking RWC Sevens 2018 in San Francisco and the success of the Las Vegas Sevens over the years. We feel that there is a huge growth opportunity for the RFL and Franchises with an innovative model whereby the League centralises all expenses and rights, leaving the fun side of the League (managing the teams) to the Franchisees.”
Philippe is supported by former Las Vegas Sevens organiser Rob Cornelius (COO) and former European Rugby Cup (Heineken Cup), Paddy Power and Racing Post executive Eugene Delaney (Gaming and Commercial adviser), to build and deliver this ambitious project. Backed by a US-based financial consortium, the League will be a game changing breakthrough for the development of the game in the US.
RFL Gaming and Commercial advisor, Eugene Delaney, said: “The RFL delivers a truly innovative concept with fan engagement front and foremost. We want to provide a new and unique experience for fans at the stadium and at home by working with sportsbooks to create dynamic betting offering, something not available in any of the other US Sports leagues. Our Race Track Rugby concept will enable us to leverage the fast-growing live betting market, providing sportsbooks with a fantastic opportunity for customer acquisition and engagement. Given our unique positioning, we are already in partnership talks with US and European operators.”
Next League, founded by a team of digital technology experts with decades of success in the sports, media and entertainment industries, announced its launch today. Driven by the combination of growth and innovation, coupled with making investments that have lasting social impact, Next League is poised to introduce a massive shift to the traditional agency and technology services company model.
With the sweeping digital technology changes currently being introduced and the advent of Web3, Next League is positioned to meet a complex new world of connected technologies head on. Next League will provide thought leadership, product design, software and systems development and integration, and the maintenance and management of existing products and platforms, as well as new and emerging ones. The company is investing in this emerging technology landscape, which includes blockchain and the open metaverse, in addition to new and important technology advancements in sports betting and gaming.
“Technology has changed more in the last 10 years or so than in the 100 years preceding it, and it’s advancing faster than ever,” said Next League’s Co-Founder and CEO David Nugent. “To remain competitive and successful, companies must understand these changes and adapt them to their businesses. We are excited to bring our decades of experience in our target industries, track record of delivering results, and passion for innovation to the market to help our client partners exceed their goals.”
NASCAR, the top motorsport series in the United States, has already agreed to a multi-year client partnership.
“I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and working closely with the team that is leading Next League for many years,” said Tim Clark, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at NASCAR. “2022 is going to be a huge year for us as we roll out our NextGen car, among other initiatives. We look forward to partnering with the Next League team as we continue to innovate and develop new ways to engage our existing fans and reach new ones.”
Next League is focused both on the results it commits to delivering and the quality of the experience getting to that result.
“In addition to thought leadership and deep technology expertise, our value lives within the people who work for the company. We hire great people and then align them to the people and culture of our client’s organizations,” added Mike Grushin, Next League’s Co-Founder and CTO. “As is the case with NASCAR and others, this is part of the value we bring to our clients which has led to real partnerships that last many years.”
With a commitment to team (both client partners and employees), diversity (creating meaningful opportunities for women and people of color) and cause (a percentage of profits will be donated to various nonprofit causes), Next League is proud to lean into its positioning as a talent and culture-driven organization.
“Dave, Mike, and their entire team have spent many years delivering great results and the highest level of service for some of the most important sports and media properties in the world,” said Doug Perlman, Founder and CEO of Sports Media Advisors, who also sits on the Next League Advisory Board. “I know the sports ecosystem will be excited about this latest venture; it’s never been more needed than it is right now.”
Next League’s other Advisory Board members include Alysse Soll (Chair, Women in Sports Tech and Deal Co-Chair of the Harvard Business School HBS Alumni Angels), Dan Mannix (Senior Advisor, CSM North America) and Igor Ulis (Chief Digital Officer, Liberty Lending).
More information on Next League, and its positioning as part of a larger business announcement, will come in early 2022.
ParalympicsGB and adidas have renewed their partnership for a further three years in a deal that covers both the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games and the Paris 2024 Paralympic Summer Games.
The extended partnership builds on a strong history between adidas and Great Britain’s Paralympic team which dates back to the Beijing 2008 Games, when adidas first became the official kit supplier to the team.
As part of the renewal, adidas and ParalympicsGB will explore new ways to evolve the partnership to harness the growing interest in Paralympic sport and the ParalympicsGB team.
Mike Sharrock, Chief Executive of ParalympicsGB, said: “I am delighted that ParalympicsGB will continue to work closely alongside adidas for the next three years.
“Our collaborative relationship has meant that for the last 13 years the ParalympicsGB team has been empowered to perform at the highest level on the field of play while proudly wearing kit that not only looks great but incorporates the very best in innovation and technology.
“adidas’ support has enabled ParalympicsGB and our athletes to continually break down barriers and challenge stereotypes around disability, and I believe that together we can expand on this even further as we strive to ensure disability, and ParalympicsGB, remain Impossible to Ignore.”
Chris Walsh, VP Brand, adidas Northern Europe said: “At adidas we pride ourselves on crafting product that is inclusive, with creativity and innovation at its heart. We have brought those values to life in the ParalympicsGB kit designs throughout our collaboration and we are excited to continue our winning partnership.”
Penny Briscoe, ParalympicsGB Chef de Mission at Tokyo 2020, said, “Yet again adidas delivered a superb array of kit for our ParalympicsGB athletes at Tokyo 2020, putting performance across all sports – from archery to wheelchair rugby – at the heart of their thinking.
“I know the entire team in Tokyo was enormously proud to pull on their ParalympicsGB adidas kit on the biggest stage of all, the Paralympic Games. Knowing that the kit had sustainability and performance technologies at its core made it all the more exciting and I look forward to seeing what comes next.”
