The Hero Indian Super League (ISL) will be broadcast internationally to over 200 countries, outside the Indian subcontinent for the first time as part of a new deal with OneFootball. From this season, fans will be able to get closer to ISL than ever before with live matches and highlights being made available, free of charge, on the OneFootball platform.
The new international broadcast partnership will see OneFootball broadcast ISL matches and highlights throughout the 2021-22 season. All 11 Hero ISL clubs will gain access to OneFootball’s young and highly engaged audience of over 100 million monthly active users around the world. All live and on-demand footage will be available on smartphone and tablet via the OneFootball App (iOS/Android, incl. Apple AirPlay and Google Chromecast) as well as on desktop via the OneFootball Website.
ISL matches and highlights join an ever-growing list of free-to-air live matches and highlights on the OneFootball platform. In just the past few weeks OneFootball has acquired international rights to show Brazilian cup football and forged a ground-breaking partnership with the European Leagues to broadcast nine competitions across the globe.
Nikolaus von Doetinchem, VP OTT & Media Rights OneFootball said: “The Indian Super League is a young and rapidly growing competition. OneFootball will be the place for Indian football fans around the world to watch their teams from back home and for a larger international audience to discover ISL for the first time. At OneFootball we are committed to bringing fans closer to the action than ever before and with the ISL we have another amazing competition for football fans to experience.”
An ISL spokesperson said: “We are pleased to partner with OneFootball bringing another power-packed season of ISL to fans worldwide. Hero Indian Super League has consistently engaged with the young audience, creating an intrigued base of fans across the globe. Through our partnership with OneFootball, ISL will be able to continue its endeavour to appeal to the youth and globalise Indian football.”
England Netball (EN) is excited to introduce our new look, creating a fresh, confident and friendly brand identity with a new logo, to support the launch of EN’s new 10-year ‘Adventure Strategy’.
The ‘Adventure Strategy’ outlines the intention to accelerate the development and growth of the game at every level, from grassroots to the elite, elevating the visibility of the sport and leading a movement to impact lives on and beyond the court.
At the heart of its purpose, England Netball, with its proud and unique female foundations, will remain dedicated to increasing opportunities for women and girls to play the game as a priority, working tirelessly to address the gender participation gap in sport that has widened since the global pandemic. Underpinned by years of engaging with and delivering netball for female communities, the organisation pledges to understand, support and nurture women and girls more deeply at every life stage, at every age.
The organisation is also committed to opening up the sport to new audiences in every community, so netball better represents the rich diversity of the country it proudly represents, and ensures the sport continues to evolve and adapt to thrive in the future, helping to create a truly inclusive sport for all where everyone can belong, flourish and soar.
The recent partnership announcement with England Men’s and Mixed Netball Association (EMMNA) to help develop and grow male participation in the game, supports this commitment as England Netball pledges to promote difference and embrace the opportunity to make the sport a possibility within everyone’s reach.
Transforming netball for children and young people is a strategic priority to protect the future of the sport. Working with schools and policy makers to extend physical literacy within, and after the school day with a focus on netball specific provision will pave the way for greater community participation. The organisation will accelerate the expansion of its Bee Netball programme for young children, whilst supporting teens and young women to stay in the game to keep them physically active and in the game for life.
The elite game is in focus too, with the ambition for the Vitality Roses to be the best female sports team in the world, supporting the national team to consistently win on the world stage, with an outstanding talent pathway in place to fuel sustainable successes on court, and setting new standards for netball. The professionalisation of the game over the next decade is a priority, focusing on growing world-leading international and domestic competitions and events, and creating more careers in the sport.
Grounded in feedback from the Netball Family, with over 3,000 members and stakeholders consulted as part of the strategic process to understand what they wanted netball to ‘look like’ in 2031, the plan is aspirational and ambitious and sees the organisation pledge to continue to be a trailblazer for women’s sport as it embarks on its new adventure.
To help realise the purpose there are six ‘destinations’ in the strategy, underpinned by 14 ‘game-changers’ that form the actions the organisation will take to bring it to life. A ‘moral compass’ provides a framework of beliefs and values designed to hold the organisation true to its purpose, with seven distinctive ideals that will help guide the workforce, volunteer community, partners and wider Netball Family on the journey.
The strategy is supported by a fresh new look for England Netball, with a new brand identity and logo. Inspired by insights and feedback from the Netball Family and beyond, England Netball has created a confident yet friendly brand identity to clothe them for their journey ahead.
Fran Connolly, CEO of England Netball, said: “This is an exciting day for the organisation as we launch our new ‘Adventure Strategy’, which is driven by a clear and unwavering purpose to inspire growth across the whole sport.
“Going into next year, a year like no other for netball in this country, we will not only be preparing to defend our Commonwealth Games Gold on home soil, but we will also begin to accelerate this ambitious and game changing plan for the sport for the next decade and beyond.
“It is our goal that by 2031 netball in England offers a true game for life, with an offer for all communities supported at every life stage and every life age, to be the sport of choice for women and girls for years to come.
“We also want to see the professional environments and structures in place in the elite game to top the world rankings in every sense and provide many more careers in the sport.
“We have taken learnings from the last decade to inform the next, and I want to thank the Netball Family for helping to co-create our adventure, with each and every element of the strategy rooted in feedback and insight from our communities.
“As an organisation we are setting out on a journey to realise our goals and continue to reimagine and reinvent ourselves to stay relevant to communities, connecting with our audiences more powerfully than ever before, to grow and develop the game at all levels for years to come.”
Where it all began
Conversations surrounding EN’s re-brand began after the Vitality Roses won gold at the Commonwealth Games in 2018. This moment signified a fantastic point to utilise the sport’s momentum and build a stronger platform and identity for EN across the world.
In March 2019, EN conducted research with several different groups of people inside and outside of the Netball Family to help develop our new identity and how it clothes us for the next decade.
We asked people to take a good look at our logo and identity and tell us what it meant to them.
The rebrand brief
Once we carried out the research and collated the results, we thought very hard about what we wanted our new brand identity to be and how we wanted to be portrayed internally and externally.
We wanted to be different and stand out from other governing bodies and sporting organisations. We wanted to have a premium look and feel, whilst ensuring we appeal to all ages, and be brave and bold, whilst being true to ourselves.
When COVID-19 came along we pressed paused, instead investing all our time and efforts in protecting the sport at all levels of the game during the pandemic.
But now we are ready to launch our fresh new look, alongside unveiling our exciting ‘Adventure Strategy’ – a 10-year plan with the ambition to accelerate the growth and development of the sport at every level.
The logo
We are a game for life for so many and a world-leading game at that. Our brand identity reflects our role, place and 10-year ‘Adventure Strategy’ ambition.
We believe our new logo is fresh, confident, and friendly.
Our identity moves us beyond a traditional governing body of a world of red, white and blue. Our inner dot shows us to be agile and flexible and introduces us to different experiences, through colour.
The inner dot is personal. We don’t define what it is, we allow you to interpret. It could be a ball; it could be a playing experience. For those working for EN, it could be their contribution to our game and organisation. Visually it sits off centre reflecting our place in the lives of our community.
As endless innovators, the base stroke of the N steps out beyond the ring, into a life wider than our sport name suggests.
The logo in a circle represents the individual embraced by the netball community and, as guardians of our sport, it symbolises our keep safe ring.
The logo spells out the word ONE. We are ONE Netball Family.
A New EN Identity
To further embody our fresh and modern look and more widely support the new ‘Adventure Strategy’, we have refreshed our website and social media channels.
Across all platforms, EN now has a fresh look and feel, using fun tapestries and personal illustrations to embody the community feel and inclusivity that’s central to our sport.
We commissioned an illustrator from New York called Abbey Lossing to produce our very own EN illustrations.
We believe the illustrations add another layer of identity, softening images and making us more accessible.
The colours in the illustrations are from our EN colour palette, adding fun and a playful element.
The illustrations can be used alone or overlayed on imagery and they are a good way of linking brand and strategy as each destination has its own illustration.
Clothed with our new brand identity, we want to create moments, events and experiences that create a sense of belonging and give people a feeling that they are part of something much bigger than themselves.
EN’s new adventure is here, and we can’t wait to start this journey, together.
Ever since Facebook opted to change the name of its parent company to Meta in recent weeks, the world has been buzzing with discussions about the metaverse and how it is going to soon be affecting our everyday life.
Its impact on the business of sport has been one of the under the radar discussion points for many tasked with looking at the tech challenges that the industry is going to be facing in the coming years.
It is a question with no certain answer, but it is sure to transform the industry moving forwards. With brands such as Nike recently applying for a ‘virtual goods’ trademark, this illustrates just how seriously these major organisations are taking this.
“Although virtual reality is another key component of the metaverse, it is a more singular exploration and journey versus AR which is social and global in its delivery and experience.” – Alen Paul Silverrstieen to Proactive.
In a recent conversation with Proactive, Alen Paul Silverrstieen, CEO & President of ImagineAR, discussed the role that augmented reality will play in this growth.
“AR is considered a cornerstone of the upcoming metaverse hypergrowth by delivering interactive and activations by overlaying digital content through your mobile phone. This content would be specific to a GPS location for the individual to directly engage,” Silverrstieen explained.
Innovations like augmented reality, virtual reality and non fungible tokens are taking the world into a far more digital space, but Silverrstieen told Proactive that there is a key differentiating factor between AR and VR.
“Although virtual reality is another key component of the metaverse, it is a more singular exploration and journey versus AR which is social and global in its delivery and experience,” he commented.
“Participants will engage with the metaverse via virtual reality or augmented reality headsets – with some predicting that AR, rather than VR, so that the metaverse becomes an overlay to enhance our real world experiences, will become the dominant form.”
Sports teams are now more regularly trying to find ways to utilise this new technology in order to enhance their fan engagement.
One of the ways they are looking at doing this is with new visual innovations, such as the Carolina Panthers using technology to place a Panther around Bank of America stadium.
Organisations such as ImagineAR are using different methods, by making AR technology available at a much more simple level for clubs who may otherwise have difficulties and teams that aren’t big enough to fully embrace this technology.
“AR should be part of every company’s strategy today and beyond as the metaverse grows globally and digital interaction and engagement drives revenue,” Silverrstieen added. “Companies should be looking today at leveraging mobile augmented reality to engage their audience and grow new market opportunities to build a foundation for their ultimate metaverse strategy.”
“AR is a requirement for companies to become active participants in the metaverse. Although ImagineAR has focused on the sports and entertainment marketplace, we expect to expand into other vertical markets including retail, healthcare, education and any other AR opportunity.”
iSportConnect will be holding a Virtual Round Table on Tuesday, December 7th at 2pm GMT looking at: The Next Chapter of the Internet: Engaging with the Metaverse via Augmented Reality.
This is an open event for limited attendees, if you would like to register interest to join the discussion, please email bethany@isportconnect.com
Global integrated marketing agency, CSM Sport & Entertainment, has today announced two new senior hires to bolster its Creative team in the UK.
Alex Kemp and Charlotte Monks have joined the business, bringing with them a wealth of experience that will enhance the creative offering at CSM. The appointments underline the agency’s continued commitment to investing in the growth of its Creative department, which contributes to much of the extraordinary work being delivered by the agency.
Kemp joins CSM as Head of Creative, having previously worked in various freelance Creative Director roles for the likes of Universal Music Group, Saatchi & Saatchi and AMV BBDO. Kemp also worked as Global Head of Creative at Joe & The Juice, leading the brand on its journey into the lifestyle sector.
A keen visual storyteller, Kemp has directed both films and music videos, alongside developing award-winning brand campaigns. He brings a deep-rooted passion for creativity and his role will focus on ensuring CSM’s creative thinking is bolder and braver than ever before. With a significant number of new wins in 2021, Kemp will make sure originality and extraordinary creative thought sits at the heart of all future client campaigns.
Kemp said: “I’m thrilled to be joining such a dynamic agency. I’m clearly no stranger to agency life, but there is a unique spirit and energy at CSM which appealed to me. I can’t wait to bring my creative influences to the table, help carve out effective campaign ideas and lead the team forwards in delivering unparalleled creative work for the world’s biggest brands.”
Working alongside Kemp, Charlotte Monks joins as Head of Creative Services, arriving at CSM from her previous role as Head of Shoots and Production at Boden. Prior to that, she worked as Head of Creative Services at M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment. Taking on a new role for the business, Monks will focus on processes, resource planning and building an unrivalled team of the brightest creative minds.
Monks said: “It’s a hugely exciting time to be joining CSM. Alex and I are fortunate to be coming into a team that already provides a great service. The focus now will be on identifying how we can improve that service and building the best possible Creative team to ensure we stand out from our competitors.”
Sarah Dawson – Managing Director said: “We are delighted to have Charlotte and Alex join CSM. Our clients have always benefited from the inhouse creative resource we currently offer; however, it was the right time to make these appointments on the back of an encouraging year of new business. The experience they bring enhances the current creative offering here in London, which will help us develop and deliver extraordinary campaigns for many of the industry’s most incredible partnerships.”
Basketball fans in France will now be able to watch the men’s and women’s national teams in the sport’s biggest tournaments free-to-air, FIBA and France Télévisions have announced. France Télévisions will show the national team games through to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023.
A new agreement has been reached that includes the rights to show not only the World Cup, which will be played in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia from August 25 to September 10 in 2023, but also the Qualifiers for the event, beginning this week when France host Montenegro this Friday, November 26 and visit Hungary on Monday, November 29.
The deal also gives France Télévisions the rights to the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022, which will be staged in Sydney, Australia, from September 22 to October 1, as well as its Qualifiers tournaments from February 10 to 13, 2022, with France playing in Belgrade against China, Nigeria and Mali. Additionally, France Télévisions will show the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2023.
Games are to be shared between three free-to-air channels: France 2, France 3 and France 4. France 2 and France 3 are two of the top three channels in the country by audience share.
France’s men are among the elite teams in international basketball after finishing third at the last two FIBA Basketball World Cups, including the 2019 event in China. This past summer, France claimed the Olympic silver medal after playing the United States in a thrilling Final in Tokyo.
The French women’s team has also been flying high with its latest success, the Olympic bronze medal in Japan. Before that, Les Bleues reached the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket Final for the fifth consecutive time in Valencia, Spain.
Furthermore, France Télévisions is the free-to-air home of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in France, with the broadcaster investing significantly in supporting French national teams.
France Télévisions will manage the production of the six home games which France is due to play as part of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers.
Frank Leenders, Director General of FIBA Media and Marketing Services, said: “We are thrilled to announce this partnership and achieve such outstanding visibility of our events for all French basketball fans in the coming years. We thank the France Télévisions Group for their commitment to national team basketball, which reflects in the strong track record and popularity of the French national teams on the international stage.”
Laurent-Eric Le Lay, Sports Director of France Télévisions said: “The France Télévisions Group is pleased to announce this agreement with FIBA, which will allow the French women’s and men’s basketball teams to be broadcast free-to-air up until the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. With this partnership, we reaffirm our desire to support French Olympic sports by offering fans the power of the France Télévisions Group antennas.
“Following the Tokyo Olympic Games where our French national basketball teams performed exceptionally well, this is a new step leading up to the next Games in Paris, to promote basketball in France and to excite all fans of the sport.”
The Premier League and Castrol have announced a new partnership starting in January 2022.
Building on its previous successful football sponsorships of the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championships, Castrol will collaborate with the Premier League to engage fans in the United Kingdom and across the globe in Castrol’s key markets including China, the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian) countries, the Middle East and Europe.
As part of the agreement Castrol will sponsor the Premier League Golden Awards programme, featuring the Golden Boot, Playmaker Award and Golden Glove, and launch new awards that enhance the existing suite of honours.
Castrol will give fans the chance to cast their vote and have their say on players, performances and key moments during the season.
Castrol intends to use the sponsorship to promote its range of electric-vehicle fluids, high-performance lubricants and its evolving service and maintenance business. Castrol’s products and services for its industrial, marine and energy customers will also be showcased.
Mandhir Singh, CEO of Castrol, said: “With our history of football sponsorship, we’re delighted to be partnering with the Premier League.
“This partnership gives us a great opportunity to showcase and market Castrol’s full range of existing and innovative new products and services to consumers and business customers. We’re looking forward to revealing some exciting new initiatives for passionate football fans across the world.”
Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters said: “We are excited to be partnering with Castrol, a business with a proud heritage of supporting some of the best-known football and sporting competitions.
“Castrol is a truly international brand and we look forward to working with them to engage Premier League fans all over the world.”
Leading Swiss Wealth Management Group, Julius Baer, continues long-standing partnership with Monaco’s only racing team
A Lasting Relationship
In the run-up to Formula E’s eighth season, ROKiT Venturi Racing is delighted to announce an extension to its existing relationship with the leading Swiss wealth management group, Julius Baer.
Testimony to the success of the collaboration in extending this long-standing partnership, ROKiT Venturi Racing will celebrate its fourth season working in collaboration with Julius Baer in the pending 2021/22 campaign with an even broader partnership activation then before.
To the Past, Present and Future
ROKiT Venturi Racing’s relationship with the Swiss firm was first forged in Season 5, however, Julius Baer’s involvement in Formula E stretches back to the series’ inaugural season in 2014.
As one of the World Championship’s founding partners, Julius Baer’s ongoing relationship with ROKiT Venturi Racing is founded upon heritage with the team being the first manufacturer to commit to Formula E in December 2013.
The extension of this long-standing partnership will not only complement but enhance Julius Baer’s central Formula E Partnership as it benefits from the allure, prestige and upward trajectory of the team.
Julius Baer will also continue its journey of empowerment and sustainability as a partner of ROKiT Venturi Racing – a leader and champion of inclusion and gender diversity in motorsport.
As part of this collaboration, Julius Baer branding will feature on ROKiT Venturi Racing’s Season 8 challenger and in the garage with a newly created bespoke Julius Baer VIP area. As the world slowly returns to normal the partnership will also provide a perfect platform for exclusive guest experiences and activations, both at the circuit and away from the track.
In Their Words
Susie Wolff, ROKiT Venturi Racing Team Principal
“Season 7 was our most successful season yet and with such a strong driver line-up for Season 8 we’re delighted that Julius Baer have once again demonstrated their faith in us as an innovative platform for their brand. We share a pioneering spirit and we are both committed to expediting social and environmental change. Season 8 will see a new dimension to the partnership with increased branding and long awaited, fully immersive event experiences and we’re looking forward to sharing what promises to be another action packed race season in 2022.”
Marco Parroni, Head Global Sponsoring and Partnerships, Julius Baer
“We are excited to continue and grow our team partnership with Venturi. With Susie Wolff and Jerome D’Ambrosio the team is under strong leadership and we are convinced will lead the team to future success on and off the track. It is also great to see that Lucas di Grassi will be joining Edoardo Mortara for the driver line-up next season. Lucas has been instrumental in the development of the Formula E Championship and introduced Julius Baer to Formula E back in 2014.”
Super League is pleased to announce a landmark deal which will see Channel 4 broadcast Betfred Super League matches in 2022. This initial two-year partnership will see matches broadcast free-to-air for the first time in the competition’s 26-year history.
Channel 4 will broadcast 10 live games each season, starting with eight-time Champions Leeds Rhinos hosting Warrington Wolves on Saturday 12 February (1230). The remaining nine games will be spread across the season and will include two end of season Play-Off fixtures.
The 2021 Betfred Super League season saw record viewing figures with more games than ever attracting over 200,000 live viewers. By offering sports fans the opportunity to watch games via a free-to-air broadcaster, these figures will continue to show significant growth in 2022.
Ken Davy, Super League chairman, said: “We are delighted to be able to confirm a brand-new broadcast partnership with Channel 4. They have a great track record of showing some of the best sporting competitions.
“The opportunity to offer live Betfred Super League action to fans on a free-to-air platform across the whole season is fantastic and one that we hope will continue to serve our current fans, as well as attract many new fans to the sport.
“I must thank our principal broadcast partner, Sky Sports, without whose support this partnership would not have been possible.”
Peter Andrews, Channel 4 Head of Sport, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be bringing Super League to free to air television for the first time in its history, it’s fantastic news for Rugby League fans and it’s a really special addition to Channel 4’s sports portfolio particularly since it’s one of our first major partnerships since moving to our new National HQ building at the Majestic in Leeds.”
Adobe and Major League Baseball, North America’s most historic professional sports league, today announced a major expansion of their partnership to reimagine fan engagement and continue to bring America’s favorite pastime to the next generation of fans – powered across Adobe Experience Cloud, Adobe Creative Cloud, and Adobe Sign.
The partnership will empower MLB to bring new personalized, seamless experiences to its millions of fans. Fans will feel a part of the ballpark atmosphere from wherever they enjoy baseball – be it at home, on the go, or at the park itself. The league and its Clubs will be able to collaborate more seamlessly with advanced tools for signing contracts, sharing creative assets and engaging directly with their fans.
New, fan-friendly features can include personalized promotions and notifications tailored to individual fans – at the ballpark potentially highlighting which entrances will offer the fastest journey to their seats, VIP parking promotions or discounts on grab-and-go concessions. Fans who live outside their favorite team’s locale will also be able to receive alerts when their favorite club or player is in town or get free trials for MLB.TV so they can watch games from the comfort of their couch or on the go.
MLB will be able to drive greater efficiency and fully digitize workflows that require an individual’s consent, approval or signature, such as player agreements and vendor contracts. As an added benefit, this is projected to save thousands of reams of paper every year – all powered by Adobe Document Cloud, including Adobe Sign. MLB and MLB Network, which already rely on Adobe Creative Cloud to create and deliver rich content on television and online, will be able to streamline content creation in the future and more seamlessly manage creative workflows.
“MLB has long been a global leader in digital experiences among sports leagues, with a fan-first orientation across the web, mobile apps, and social media,” said Anil Chakravarthy, Adobe executive vice president and general manager, Digital Experience Business and Worldwide Field Operations. “The expansion of the partnership will allow MLB to bring some truly personalized experiences to fans, made possible by millions of fan profiles built in real time.”
“We’ve gone out of our way to create digital tools to improve the fan experience,” said Chris Marinak, Chief Operations and Strategy Officer, Major League Baseball. “We’re bringing personalized experiences and information to fans so that they feel like we know who they are, who their favorite team is and who their favorite players are. Adobe’s breadth of enterprise applications allows us to deliver what fans want, where they want it – across dozens of channels.”
ESL Gaming has revealed an exclusive media rights agreement with Huya, the leading game live streaming platform in China.
Some of the key facts:
Following media rights agreements with ESL Gaming, Huya’s CS:GO and Dota 2 market share has soared since 2019.
The new contract will run with Huya directly for two consecutive years from 2022 to 2023.
ESL Gaming x Huya 2022-2023 is ESL Gaming’s first multi-year media rights deal in China.
In accordance with the agreement, Huya will hold the exclusive rights for broadcasting and distributing ESL’s Dota 2 and ESL Mobile ecosystems, as well as of the ESL Pro Tour for CS:GO and StarCraft® II in China.
Via dedicated streams, Huya will cover the tournaments in Standard Mandarin and other Chinese dialects.
