Burnley FC Strengthens Off-Field Management Team With Four New Appointments

Burnley Football Club has strengthened its off-field management and operations team with key appointments in four newly created positions.

The new roles are headlined by the appointment of Russell Ball as the club’s Head of Matchday Operations, reporting to Executive Chairman Alan Pace and overseeing the club’s interaction with supporters, commercial partners, and the local community at Turf Moor.

Ball, who has over 25 years of board-level experience in real estate, has acted as an advisor to Burnley FC’s owners ALK Capital since taking over the club in December 2020. He has personally overseen stadium improvements including the multimillion-pound investment in new hospitality facilities within the North Stand and the continued introduction of state-of-the-art technology at Turf Moor. He will commence his new role immediately and play a key role in the board’s vision to modernise and improve the Turf Moor matchday experience, whilst retaining its unique atmosphere.

The club’s commitment to improving the supporter experience for all fans is also boosted by the appointment of Harriet Harbidge as Burnley FC’s first-ever Fan Experience Manager.

Harbidge, who is from the local area and a graduate of the University of Central Lancashire, will lead all existing supporter services functions and joins the club from Premier League champions Manchester City. She previously served as Burnley FC’s Supporter Liaison Officer from 2016 to 2019.

As part of the continued efforts to professionalise women’s football at the club, Burnley FC Women is also proud to announce the appointment of Lola Ogunbote as its first Business Lead, overseeing all aspects of Burnley FC Women, including personnel, budgets, and day-to-day football club operations.

Ogunbote joins the Clarets whilst serving as the Executive Director of Goals for Girls, a US Non-Profit that unites girls through football to lead community change. A qualified FA coach, she previously worked in China as the Director of Football at Beijing Royal School and was an international community coach for Arsenal FC in Australia, South Africa, and Mozambique.

The club also welcomes Gurpri Bains as its Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Lead, further strengthening Burnley’s FC’s One Club for All ethos.

Bains will be responsible for the coordination and implementation of the club’s EDI strategy and arrives at Burnley from the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. With a mixed skillset and background in arts participation and community engagement, she is also an FA qualified coach and has previous experience in football with the Aston Villa Foundation.

Alan Pace, Chairman of Burnley FC, said: “I am delighted to complete these four key appointments, as the next stage in our long-term growth plan for the club.

“I look forward to working with Russell, Harriet, Lola and Gurpri as part of our expanding management and operations team at Turf Moor. This is an exciting time to join the club as we continue moving forward both on and off the pitch.”

Applied Nutrition Signs Two-Year Deal With Fulham Football Club

Fulham FC is pleased to announce Applied Nutrition as its Official Sports Nutrition Supplier.

The UK’s fastest growing sports nutrition brand will be used by the men’s first team, women’s team and academy sides to fuel pre-match preparations and assist with recovery. 

The products supplied to Fulham will include several of Applied’s ‘Informed Sport’ registered products such as ‘Critical Whey’ Protein, ‘Recovery’, Velocity gels and ‘Critical Mass’ along with it’s new ‘Endurance’ range which is aimed at endurance and professional athletes. 

As the Club’s Official Sports Nutrition Supplier, the Applied Nutrition brand will feature within the stadium on matchdays and across the Club’s digital platforms.

Available in over 70 countries worldwide, Applied Nutrition products are produced at a full in-house manufacturing facility to ensure the highest levels of quality and trust.

Fulham FC’s’ Nutritionist, Matthew Westmoreland commented:

“It’s our aim to provide our players with the best possible platform to excel and we are doing exactly that with our new partnership with Applied Nutrition. They will support us by providing a wide range of great tasting and fully certified nutrition products that will be available to our men’s, women’s and academy team players to aid recovery and improve performance.”

Applied Nutrition COO, Steven Granite added:

“Applied Nutrition are delighted to become the Official Sports Nutrition Supplier of such a prestigious club as Fulham. They’re doing great in the league this year under Marco Silva and we’re looking forward to working with the performance team to keep the players fueled and further develop our offering in the professional sports market. Our range of Informed Sports tested products continues to grow and appeals to more and more professional athletes and teams across the world.” 

Last week, Fulham also announced a partnership with UTL Group for the next three seasons.

As part of the deal the Club will work with UTL Group to help streamline and improve its business processes around printing.

UTL Group has engaged their partner Epson, to upgrade Fulham FC’s portfolio of print equipment both at the Club’s Motspur Park training facility and stadium, Craven Cottage. Epson was chosen because of their productivity, resilience, and focus on sustainability.

Red Bull And Honda To Collaborate On Motorsport Activities Beyond F1

While their race-winning Formula 1 partnership will come to an end at the close of this year’s World Championship, Red Bull and Honda are pleased to announce that they will race on together in the wider world of motorsport, through an exciting new collaboration.

The diversification agreement will see the Red Bull group of companies and Honda work together on a variety of motorsport activities, encompassing the transition of power unit development from Honda to Red Bull Powertrains, young driver development, marketing and branding initiatives, as well as competitive activity across a range of motorsport disciplines.

In Formula 1, Red Bull Powertrains will have the right to use Honda IP relating to the Power Unit from 2022. Whilst Honda will support Red Bull Powertrains through the assembly of power units, the provision of trackside engineering support and race operation assistance in 2022, from 2023, RBPT will take responsibility for all manufacturing and servicing of Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri’s engines. Additionally, to ensure team continuity, there will be a transfer of Honda Racing Development UK employees to Red Bull Powertrains.

Beyond Formula 1, Red Bull and Honda will continue to work together on their respective young driver programmes. The Red Bull Junior Team and Honda Formula Dream Project will partner to further grow motorsport in Japan, with the ultimate goal of promoting new generations of Japanese drivers to the highest levels of global motorsport, as has happened with Yuki Tsunoda in Formula 1.

Red Bull and Honda will also expand their cooperation to create a joint presence in various forms of motorsport, in other sports and wider activities in order to broaden the reach of both brands and in particular promote Honda’s innovative mobility products to a broader audience and help the company achieve its stated aim of achieving carbon neutrality throughout its operations.

Quote from Koji Watanabe, Chief Officer for Brand and Communication Operations, Honda Motor Co., Ltd. said: “I’m glad that we have reached an agreement with Red Bull Group covering all the details of the IP rights for the F1 Power Unit and in this way, Honda can still contribute to the motor racing world. We are now working hard to strengthen HRC’s structure, so that it can ensure our fans will be able to continue to enjoy Honda’s role in all types of motorsport.”

Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing Honda CEO and Team Principal said: “Red Bull’s collaboration with Honda has been enormously successful and while our relationship in Formula 1 is changing, neither of us wish for that to be the end of the story. We are very pleased that our ambitious and exciting Red Bull Powertrains project will be strongly supported by Honda, technically and operationally, in 2022 and this will help ensure that Red Bull’s transition to the status of chassis and power unit manufacturer is seamless. Equally as exciting is the news that our collaboration with Honda will extend to a variety of motorsport activities, from driver development to other racing disciplines and even across the wider sporting world. This stretch of Honda’s Formula 1 voyage is coming to an end but together we are embarking on a new and fascinating journey.”

Genius Sports And PointsBet Expand Partnership With Official Data, NFL And Fan Engagement Agreement

Genius Sports Limited, today announced a new supplier agreement with PointsBet Holdings Limited, a top-tier global online gaming operator, to provide its full range of official sportsbook data, content, and fan engagement solutions including for NFL, NASCAR and EPL. This new agreement builds on PointsBet and Genius Sports’ existing content and streaming partnership.

Genius Sports provides sportsbooks with end-to-end value, harnessing official data to power the full user lifecycle from player acquisition to pre-match and in-game betting through to long-term customer retention. The Company will deliver pre-game and in-play content as well as fan engagement solutions across top tier U.S. and international sports properties, including the NFL, NCAA, NASCAR, the English Premier League, Argentine, Colombian, and Mexican soccer.

In August 2021, PointsBet was selected as one of the NFL’s Approved Sportsbook Operators. Genius Sports will now provide PointsBet access to the NFL’s official play-by-play statistics, proprietary Next Gen Stats (NGS) data, and official sports betting data feed.

PointsBet, one of the fastest growing online gaming operators in the country, is a cutting-edge bookmaker originally founded in the mature sports wagering market of Australia. Currently operational in seven U.S. jurisdictions (CO, IL, IN, IA, MI, NJ, WV), the company prides itself on offering unmatched speed and ease of use across every customer touchpoint as well as the deepest slate of pre-game and in-play betting options in the world, thanks to owning and controlling its technology end to end.

While most operators outsource core functions to third parties, PointsBet is an anomaly in the sports betting space in truly owning their roadmap, avoiding any third-party technical or risk management dependencies – a point of difference that allows enhanced creativity to benefit consumer fan engagement. This includes bet types that cannot be found anywhere else, to a world-class suite of exclusive product features like “PointsBetting” and the Name-A-Bet platform, to deep Spanish language functionality, and much more.

“PointsBet is committed to providing the fastest and most comprehensive in-play betting experience, and we look forward to enhancing those capabilities by expanding our partnership with Genius Sports,” said Johnny Aitken, CEO of PointsBet USA.

“This partnership demonstrates the inherent value of official data and its ability to revolutionize the sports betting experience around the world,” said Mark Locke, CEO of Genius Sports. “We are thrilled to expand our long-standing relationship as we continue to keep PointsBet powered with the fastest, most accurate sports data available.”

Umbro And England Rugby Extend Partnership To 2028

Umbro, the Official Technical Kit Partner of England Rugby, can today reveal its new England Rugby home kits that will be worn by the England men’s and women’s teams for the 2021-22 season.

For the first time in the professional era of the women’s game, a bespoke England Women’s Rugby kit has been developed, by Umbro. Continuing the commitment by Umbro to champion the Women’s game, the English brand worked in collaboration with the England Women’s Rugby team, taking inspiration from the players’ pride in the jersey, their collective aspirations, and the personalities within the squad.

Subtle detailing around the collar and shoulder area of the home jersey, gives the Red Roses a first of its kind kit, that they have played a part in developing, as they enter an exciting chapter in the women’s game. 

Umbro was announced as the Official Technical Kit Partner to England Rugby in 2020 and has agreed an extension to its partnership with England Rugby, that will see the two iconic English names collaborating until 2028.

Sam Lucas, Director of Sports Marketing at Umbro UK, commented: “The new England Rugby home kits, for the women’s and men’s teams are the next stage of the exciting partnership between Umbro and England Rugby. Working with the Red Roses to develop their kit, we set out to produce a kit they can wear with pride. For the men’s kit we wanted to bring a new look to the iconic white shirt. In both cases, performance has been the foundation of the kit Umbro has produced, that will match the level of both teams’ performances.

“The journey Umbro and England Rugby are on together is one of collaboration and the shared pursuit of performance. The decision to extend our partnership is a natural one and provides Umbro with an opportunity to continue to explore exciting ways to reconnect with rugby.”

Umbro has nearly one hundred years of developing performance orientated kit for elite teams and athletes across multiple sports. The next instalment of the iconic England Rugby home kit, is the product of all this experience, ensuring both the men’s and women’s teams will have kit that is ready for rugby, when it’s time to perform.

England player and Umbro ambassador Sarah Bern said: “This is a historic moment and I’d like to say a big thank you to Umbro, who have always been supportive of the Red Roses, for giving us the opportunity to have our own kit and grow our identity even further.

“Having our voices heard in what we wear and ensuring a comfortable fit for playing makes us feel valued and respected.

“Importantly, it unifies us with England Rugby, which we are proud to be a part of but also allows us to be unique.

“The kit design is amazing and I’m personally very excited to wear the new kit.”

RFU Chief Commercial Officer Simon Massie-Taylor said: “We’re delighted to extend with Umbro for a further four years. Umbro is a great fit for England Rugby sharing our dedication to high performance and innovation. It is great to see the kits unveiled today – particularly for the Red Roses with their own bespoke design. We look forward to working with Umbro on even more exciting kit launches over the coming years.”

Ben Ainslie’s Great Britain SailGP Team Becomes First Competing SailGP Team To Take Franchise Ownership

Ahead of the sixth event in the global racing league’s second season in Cádiz – Andalucía, the Great Britain SailGP Team has become the first of the existing eight SailGP teams to evolve to a third party owned franchise with Ben Ainslie, the world’s most successful Olympic sailor and America’s Cup winner, taking majority ownership of the team.

This announcement comes with further news that two additional new franchise teams will be joining the league for Season 3, the first of which was announced as a Swiss team on September 6th in Geneva.

When Ainslie entered SailGP for Season 2, he secured an option from Russell Coutts and Larry Ellison to take ownership of the team franchise if the team’s running costs and liabilities were covered in full. Through an underwrite and investment from Chris Bake this option has been exercised and Ainslie and Bake now take majority ownership of the team. Larry Ellison’s Oracle Racing Inc retain a minority equity in the team.

The greater commercial opportunities owning the majority of the Great Britain SailGP Team franchise provide were one of the key drivers behind Ainslie’s and Bake’s investment, with the pure sporting challenge enhanced by SailGP’s innovative sustainability and pathway programmes. This provides a unique offering to take to the market and attract partners who share similar values and are looking to activate their brand and message.

Ainslie commented: “When I was first invited to lead the Great Britain SailGP Team by Russell Coutts, I was immediately impressed by Russell’s and Larry Ellison’s vision of a global, sport and sustainable racing circuit which could really elevate the profile of sailing and provide continuity, which I have always been very much aligned to. I am delighted to have exercised the option together with Chris.

“With new teams, owners and partners coming into SailGP the league is in a very exciting commercial space right now. SailGP has the commitment from Larry Ellison to take sailing where it has never been before. We look forward to welcoming new like-minded partners to the GB team who share our ethos and our drive to push forward positive change.”

Ainslie, Coutts and Bake have a trusted relationship, with Bake previously having invested in Ainslie’s 35th America’s Cup campaign and owning an RC44 team, Team Aqua, in a yachting racing class inspired and co-designed by Coutts.

Bake has a strong passion for sailing and sustainability. He first founded Team Aqua in 2007 and has been a long-time supporter of Robert Swan’s 2041Foundation’s mission to engage businesses and communities on climate science and the promotion of sustainable practices. Bake has gone on to be the founder of the Global Sustainability Leadership Institute at the University of Texas at Austin where the combination of research, technical excellence, coupled with a diverse student body, can help derive the path to a more sustainable future.

“Ever since I have been involved in sailing it’s been clear to me that the sport needs to commit more to providing pathways, both to grow the sport and to grow diversity and inclusion with the sport. Over the past couple of years, I have been very impressed and supportive of the work SailGP is doing in this space, particularly through their Gender Equity Initiative. I am delighted to be a part of the League that will inspire future generations to become involved in our sport.”

The Great Britain SailGP Team alongside the British America’s Cup team operates under the ISO20121 standard, an international sustainability standard for events born out of the London 2012 Olympic Games and together with the team’s official Race For the Future Partner, STEM Crew, is seeking to inspire the innovators and problem solvers of the future into STEM careers. The league is already the first climate positive sports and entertainment property and has ambitious goals to be 100 percent powered by nature, both on and off the water by 2025. One of the first projects Bake will work with SailGP on is biofuel solutions to support the transition for the league and teams’ logistics, operations and broadcast.

Coutts said: “SailGP continues to go from strength to strength and this is another fantastic milestone on our journey to having a fully sustainable and commercially viable league. This new financial agreement for the British team – along with the announcement of our ninth team and the completion of a second further franchise transaction for a tenth team for Season 3 – continues to give us confidence that our commercially viable model is rapidly growing and can pave a successful and sustainable, year-round, pathway for our global league.”

SailGP resumes in Cádiz, Spain for the final event of the European leg of the season on 9-10 October 2021.

NBA And ESPN Partner To Provide Most Extensive NBA Coverage Ever In The Netherlands

LONDON, Oct. 6, 2021 – The National Basketball Association (NBA) and ESPN today announced a new agreement that makes ESPN the official broadcast partner of the NBA in the Netherlands.  The partnership, which will tip off with the league’s landmark 75th Anniversary Season in 2021-22, marks the most extensive NBA coverage ever in the Netherlands and builds on the league’s nearly 20-year collaboration with ESPN in the U.S. and around the world.

The partnership will see ESPN televise more than 200 live games each season in the Netherlands, highlighted by weekend games in primetime as part of the league’s “NBA Saturdays and NBA Sundays presented by NBA 2K22” European primetime initiative.  Fans will also be able to enjoy marquee NBA events such as Christmas Day games, NBA All-Star, the NBA Playoffs, the Conference Finals and the Finals, as well as ESPN studio programming.    

“I’m incredibly proud to add one of the world’s most spectacular and prestigious leagues to our live sports roster,” said Rob Labree, Director Programming & Production at ESPN in the Netherlands.  “The NBA needs no introduction, with all its talent, icons and illustrious teams.  The NBA will feature prominently in ESPN’s programming in the upcoming season, with many live games and popular shows like ‘NBA Countdown’ and ‘NBA Today.’”

“We’re excited to build on our longtime relationship with ESPN by providing fans in the Netherlands with more live NBA games and coverage than ever before,” said Adam Cox, NBA EME Senior Director, Global Media Distribution.  “With regular weekend games in primetime and the league’s most iconic moments throughout the season, there has never been a better time to be an NBA fan in the Netherlands.”

ELEVEN Acquires Exclusive AFC Rights In Six New Markets

The ELEVEN Group is set to launch in multiple territories across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, with a dynamic D2C service at the heart of the project.  

By 2022, ELEVEN will be delivering for fans in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brunei Darussalam, and the Philippines with plans to expand further in the near future. 

ELEVEN will launch with a leading collection of Asian Football Confederation rights. ELEVEN’s offering will include the remaining AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to Qatar™ matches for the territories of Hong Kong and Thailand in 2021. From 2022-24 the deal will extend to cover broadcast rights for all AFC competitions across all ELEVEN´s Southeast Asian territories, with the exception of Indonesia. ELEVEN will be rapidly expanding its content portfolio with a focus on local and locally relevant rights. 

An OTT first approach will be employed by ELEVEN in all territories. Each local service will be powered by the Group’s global ElevenSports.com platform and its pioneering, proprietary streaming technology. D2C distribution will be complemented by partnerships with local linear operators to make content as accessible to fans as possible.   

ELEVEN´s offering will be tailored to each market. Local teams will be installed in core territories, with ELEVEN´s Southeast Asia operations headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Local commentary teams and on-screen talent will be recruited to engage viewers with authentic and impactful programming.  Team Whistle, the US sports media and entertainment company acquired by the ELEVEN Group in May 2021, will bring its award-winning production capabilities to the new network of platforms, creating content that champions ELEVEN´s live rights and engages younger audiences. 

The group’s expansion in Asia builds on the success of its operations in Taiwan and Japan in recent years. In Taiwan, ELEVEN offers fans a mix of premium local and international sport including the CPBL (Taiwanes Baseball), the NPL (Japanese Baseball) the English Premier League and the NBA. In Japan, ELEVEN employs an OTT only service for its local baseball rights.

ELEVEN´s activities in Asia are supplemented by fellow Aser Ventures media platform LIVENow. LIVENow launched an OTT platform with an accompanying linear service in Singapore earlier this year to bring audiences live and exclusive coverage of UEFA Euro 2020. They now deliver live coverage from the Premier League each week, in partnership with local operator Singtel. LIVENow also partners with ELEVEN´s local platform in Taiwan. 

Guillaume Collard, ELEVEN Group Chief Rights Acquisitions Officer, said: “We’re delighted to be launching in Southeast Asia with a compelling package of AFC rights. Our plan is to build a network of services that are local, accessible and available to fans wherever and however they want to consume their favourite sport and entertainment. Our AFC rights give us a great platform to grow from, as we work to serve audiences in the region in a fresh and dynamic way.”

Marc Watson, ELEVEN Group Executive Chairman, added: “The ELEVEN Group has been growing rapidly over recent months. Our mix of sports and entertainment content attracts over 4billion views each month and we want to continue building and innovating our offering to deliver for more fans than ever around the world. Our expansion into multiple markets in Southeast Asia is an important step in delivering on that ambition. We will use the capabilities we have in our Team Whistle division to produce extra digital content to appeal to younger fans and complement our live matches, making our coverage of AFC the most compelling sports product in the region.”

Dato’ Windsor John, AFC General Secretary, said: “The AFC is delighted to enter into this partnership with ELEVEN, which further underlines the prestige and ever-growing stature of the AFC’s world-class competitions. Football continues to occupy a special place in the ASEAN region and in Hong Kong and we want to thank ELEVEN for ensuring unparalleled access for our passionate fans and for believing in the future of Asian football.”

Patrick Murphy, Board Member and CEO at Football Marketing Asia, added: “We are very pleased to welcome the ELEVEN Group as the newest addition to our ever-growing family of valued AFC media partners. Like FMA, ELEVEN sees huge, continued growth potential in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, which is underpinned by their plans to launch a dedicated OTT service bringing premium AFC football content to more fans across the region. Our teams at FMA are looking forward to start working with ELEVEN.”

Founded by the leading sports and media entrepreneur Andrea Radrizzani and Marc Watson in 2015, ELEVEN is an award-winning sports and entertainment media group. The ELEVEN Group houses 1,655 distribution channels and 665 million aggregated social media followers, generating more than 4 billion video views each month. The Group owns more than 50 original content formats and distributes over 65,000 live hours of sport each year to audiences globally. From the world’s biggest sporting events, to the best local sport, to award winning original programming – viewers enjoy a 24/7 offering of live and non-live entertainment across ELEVEN’s global network.

FIFA Tender Process Launched In MENA For Media Rights To FIFA Arab Cup 2021™

FIFA has opened an invitation to tender (ITT) for the media rights to the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021™ in the Middle East and North Africa. The first-ever FIFA pan-Arab tournament, which will be hosted by Qatar from Tuesday, 30 November until Saturday, 18 December 2021, will offer a glimpse into what to expect one year later at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™.

The tender process will allow FIFA to select the media companies that are best placed to achieve its objectives of providing broad exposure for the tournament and offering fans in the Arab region a high‑quality viewing experience.

The FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021 offers an exciting match schedule, with four matches per day in the group stage followed by the quarter-finals, semi-finals, play-off for third place and final, making a total of 32 games to be played over 19 days. Twenty-three national teams from the Arab world were invited to participate in the competition, with seven out of 14 advancing from the round of qualifying matches to meet hosts Qatar and the eight highest-ranked countries, who qualified directly.

As in the FIFA World Cup next year, all matches will take place in and around Doha, with minimal travel distances between venues. Besides Al Bayt and Ras Abu Aboud stadiums, which will be inaugurated on the very first matchday, the line-up of magnificent FIFA Arab Cup venues also includes Al Thumama, Ahmad Bin Ali, Education City and Al Janoub stadiums, all built from scratch in preparation for 2022.

Media companies or organisations wishing to participate in the tender processes can request the ITT by email. Interested parties should contact FIFA-Arab-Cup-Media-Rights@fifa.org. Submissions to FIFA must be received by 10:00 CEST on Tuesday, 19 October 2021.

WME Sports Sign NBA Superstar Luka Dončić

NBA Superstar Luka Dončić, point guard for the Dallas Mavericks franchise, has signed with agency WME Sports.

WME Sports will focus on expanding Dončić’s full business portfolio. Dončić will lean into WME’s full panoply of expertise across brand partnerships, content, digital, talent ventures and social strategy. This will add to Dončić’s on-court representation by Bill Duffy and Quique Villalobos at BDA Sports.

Dončić will enter his fourth year in the NBA when the league season begins later this month, and he has quickly established himself as one of the best players in the world during his brief NBA career so far.

As his on-court achievements continue to rise he is rapidly becoming one of the most marketable stars in basketball, alongside LeBron James and Steph Curry, with his European background also expanding his marketability across both continents.

Dončić has broken several NBA and EuroLeague champion history records and has been named NBA All-Star, All-NBA First Team and NBA Rookie of the Year. This summer, he became the youngest player in league history to earn multiple All-NBA First Team selections.

He is on the cover of the NBA 2K22 video game and this summer signed a five-year, $207 million supermax rookie extension with the Dallas Mavericks to commit his long-term future to the franchise.