The Wilpon family has announced that it has agreed to the sale of MLB franchise the New York Mets to billionaire Steve Cohen.
The deal is reportedly worth $2.4 billion, which makes the franchise, which would make it the highest price of any North American sports team in history.
A statement read:
The Sterling Partners have signed an agreement with Steven Cohen Pursuant to which Mr. Cohen would purchase the New York Mets. The sale transaction is subject to approval of the Major League Baseball club owners.
“I am excited to have reached an agreement with the Wilpon and Katz families to purchase the New York Mets,” Cohen said.
Until this point Cohen has owned just an eight percent share of the team, he had reportedly been attempting to purchase the franchise for some time, with a deal said to have collapsed at the last minute late in 2019, however talks were clearly resumed over this summer.
The figure of the sale is reportedly $2.4 billion, which is in a similar ballpark to that of the deals signed in sales of the Brooklyn Nets NBA franchise in 2019 and Carolina Panthers NFL franchise a year prior to that.
Choicely, a Finland-based fan engagement platform for media, sports & entertainment partnered with Helsinki Cup and KuPS to launch their respective apps to engage fans.
Choicely provides advanced technology for content owners who want to engage & monetise their traffic. Choicely worked with the Helsinki Cup, one of Europe’s largest junior tournament to create an app and with 17k downloads it dominated the Finnish sports apps listing in App Store & Google Play holding the Top 1 spot throughout the whole tournament.
Kavanne further adds as to why Choicely is better and easier to access/use than other apps in the market, “We found the Choicely app platform extremely easy to work with. We don’t have any tech people in house and it was easy to create and manage content with our own team plus our communications agency. Choicely team also gave us personal support whenever we had a question.”
Given the current scenario (Covid-19 era), technology’s role has become of great importance and organisations are coming up with innovative fans to enhance fan engagement. Choicely offers multiple competitive advantages, such as: advanced, modular & highly engaging tools easy scalability to millions of simultaneous users easy integration to existing websites & apps fully GDPR compliant brand engagement & acquisition tools for sponsors attractive local pricing to fit market needs native, localised app creator and publisher.
Matchroom has today September, 14, announced a five-year renewal with Stats Perform, a deal that will see the partnership with the SportsTech leader in data and AI technology pass twenty years.
The long-term, trusted partnership sees Stats Perform retain the worldwide exclusive live betting streaming rights for Matchroom Multi Sport and PDC TV events, including some of the biggest tournaments in sport from the Mosconi Cup, World Darts Championship, Champion of Champions Snooker, and more.
Under the multi-year agreement, Stats Perform will have the exclusive right to distribute live video streams of the competitions to licensed sportsbooks, creating exceptional betting experiences online, on mobile, and in retail betting venues.
Stats Perform recently worked with the PDC Darts Home Tour delivering coverage to some of the world’s leading sportsbooks as Matchroom and the PDC led the way in sports innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Alex Rice, Stats Perform Chief Rights Officer, commented: “We are delighted to be able to continue our long-standing relationship with Matchroom. The multi-sport nature of the deal provides our clients with a broad range of content which appeals to a high number of betting fans. In Matchroom, we have found a great partner who shares our vision for providing access to premium betting content.”
The Matchroom announcement follows the recent news that Stats Perform acquired the live streaming rights to the Belgium Jupiler Pro League. Both of these partnerships form part of Stats Perform’s official betting live streaming portfolio which also includes the Brazilian Leagues, National Basketball League, Spanish La Liga soccer, Women’s Tennis Association, French Ligue 1 soccer, Kontinental Hockey League, and more.
Matchroom Chairman Barry Hearn added: “Stats Perform are one of our longest-serving partners and this new partnership underlines our commitment to leading the way in sports programming. I’m delighted to see it pass 20 years of working together and long may that continue.”
iSPORTCONNECT has partnered with global sports technology leader Stack Sports.
Stack Sports currently works with a wide range of customers in the EMEA region including The Rugby Football League, Chelsea Football Club Foundation, UEFA Foundation, Basketball England, Basketball Ireland and Run for All, along with a number of other sporting organisations, charities and foundations.
Stack Sports General Manager APAC/EMEA Andy Graham said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with iSPORTCONNECT who will assist with our growth across EMEA. Their private digital community and market intelligence will position Stack Sports products and solutions as a market leader across the globe and expand our reach in this region.
iSPORTCONNECT Founder and CEO Sree Varma commented: “I’ve been aware of Stack Sports for a while so it was really interesting hearing about their plans and wonderful to now be working alongside them on their journey as they are already doing a phenomenal job. This partnership with Stack Sports is a statement from us here at iSPORTCONNECT and how we hope to play a key role in their market growth and look forward to a successful partnership.”
ABOUT STACK SPORTS
Stack Sports is a global leader in sports technology, hosting and facilitating nearly 50 million users across 35 countries.We provide a variety of integrated technology platforms, specifically targeted to support all sport capacities, from national governing bodies, mass participation events, sports leagues, clubs and ultimately, coaches, athletes and fans. Stack Sports has offices in New Zealand (Auckland) Australia (Melbourne, Sydney), United Kingdom (London and Manchester) and the USA (Dallas, Atlanta, New York, San Diego).
iSPORTCONNECT CONSULTANCY
iSPORTCONNECT’s consultancy division assists clients with commercial development, marketing&communication and business strategy surrounding the world of sport. We provide business intelligence, global sports market entry strategy and support. Our clients include the likes of LaLiga, Tata Communications, Hookit, Seyu, ATPI.
ABOUT iSPORTCONNECT
iSPORTCONNECT was launched in 2010 with the aim of bringing together sports business professionals around the world as a networking community, enabling them to meet one another, find information and obtain access to a wide range of relevant services. The platform is now the largest global private network of sport business executives, where membership is exclusive and follows a strict door policy.
Velon, the business entity owned by 11 of the worlds largest and most successful cycling teams, has today released the results of an extensive study into cycling fans. The bulk of the study, performed in whole by Velon’s data & commercial agency partner Halfspace, has been collected over 1st party data on 127,000 fans who have interacted with Tour de France content across Velon’s owned channels including the website and CRM activities.
Data from Velon social channels (including 460k subscribers in YouTube, 3.7m fans on Facebook, 2.7m fans on Twitter and 3.8m fans on Instagram), cross-referenced with data from Google also showed an increase in global consumer interest in cycling from March 2020 through to September with a peak in internet searches in April.
As well as the direct engagement data collected, the study also contains GDPR-compliant analysis on the universe outside the Velon channels and how the same fans are behaving and interacting across the sectors of travel, retail, commerce, FMCG, Gaming, Technology, Automotive, Fitness and many more. It is the last of these two sectors that have shown the highest index for cycling fans to engage with.
“After carefully analysing the global data it is clear the Automotive and Fitness sectors make up 75% of the top 20 individual behaviors and interests of our cycling fans,” commented Velon CEO Graham Bartlett. “The data collection process means we now have deep actionable insights on all of our fan sectors and we believe, utilising our leading media house services, we can help sponsors reach and engage with these audiences better than ever before.”
The global fitness sector data was further proven when cross-referenced with analysis of Velon’s content production over the trailing 12 months which showed that content on team gear and equipment was statistically more likely to engage fans than other editorial types (outside of live content).
Six-Time Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton today announced the creation of ‘X44,’ a team which will race as part of the new electric off-road racing series Extreme E.
Named with reference to Lewis’s own racing number, X44 will enter Season 1 of the Extreme E Championship, with its first X Prix race scheduled to take place in early 2021.
As the team’s founder, Lewis will not be behind the wheel or involved on a day to day basis but he will put the learnings of his motorsport career into practice to help guide the creation of a dedicated and competitive team.
Through X44, Lewis will also be able to work towards his goal of raising awareness of environmental issues. In company with Extreme E, X44 will take its followers on a journey of discovery, to show first-hand how human actions are damaging the planet. X44 and its fellow Extreme E competitors will race electric vehicles in five remote locations, that are already damaged or severely under threat of climate change from a range of serious issues including melting ice caps, deforestation, desertification and rising sea levels.
“Extreme E really appealed to me because of its environmental focus. Every single one of us has the power to make a difference, and it means so much to me that I can use my love of racing, together with my love for our planet, to have a positive impact.”
The Extreme E championship will not only raise awareness of climate change but through its Legacy Programme, the series aims to leave its X Prix locations with a long-lasting legacy and hope for the future. Overseen by an independent Scientific Committee composed of leading climate experts, Extreme E will provide a template for how racing, and the wider sports industry, can have a positive impact on the planet.
To minimise environmental impact, the races will not be open to spectators, with fans instead following the action through live TV broadcast, and on social media. The command centre for the championship series will be on board the RMS St. Helena, a ship which is undergoing a multi-million Euro transformation to minimise emissions and transform her into the operations, logistics, accommodation and garage base for the championship.
The single-design electric vehicle driven by X44, and all other competitors, is at the cutting edge of innovation for electric vehicles, and through them Extreme E hopes to develop tech which will find its way into everyday use, paving the way for a less carbon intensive future.
X44 will also provide opportunities to the next generation of drivers, engineers and technicians and will be dedicated to developing world class talent, providing an inclusive culture and promoting diversity. The on-event race team will be made up of seven personnel including, as with all Extreme E teams, a professional female and male driver.
Lewis Hamilton said,“Extreme E is an exciting new sustainability initiative, and this is a great opportunity to be involved from the outset as a team founder. Of course, my ambitions and commitments with Mercedes in Formula One mean that I won’t be operationally involved in X44, but I’m excited to play a different role in this new series, one that brings my vision for a more sustainable and equal world to life.
“Extreme E really appealed to me because of its environmental focus. Every single one of us has the power to make a difference, and it means so much to me that I can use my love of racing, together with my love for our planet, to have a positive impact.
“Not only will we visit remote locations facing the front line of the climate crisis, we will also work closely with these locations and leading climate experts to share our knowledge and leave behind a positive legacy in each location which goes far beyond the racetrack.
As Founder of X44, I am looking forward to building my team around important values such as sustainability and equality. None of us are perfect and we all have improvements to make, but I am excited to use our platform to highlight the most serious issues facing our planet and the solutions we can all be part of.”
Founder and CEO at Extreme E, Alejandro Agag, commented, “We are thrilled to welcome Lewis Hamilton and his X44 team to Extreme E. Like us, Lewis is hugely passionate about motorsport, but also shares our belief that we can use sport to highlight subjects which are vital to the world, such as climate change and equality.
“Lewis is one of the most successful drivers of all time, and we’re all excited to see how his X44 team performs on and off the racetrack under his incredible guidance. A huge welcome to the Extreme E family Lewis!”
X44 joins a roster of already announced teams and drivers including Chip Ganassi Racing and Andretti Autosport, both from the US, Abt and HWA from Germany, Spain’s QEV Technologies, and fellow British owned outfit Veloce Racing.
Amazon Prime has been announced as the UK Broadcaster of the newly created Autumn Nations Cup Tournament, due to kick-off on the 13th of November.
The Autumn Nations Cup is a new, innovative tournament that will take place over four weekends between November 13th and December 6th, 2020.
The competition will be a unique eight-team competition, involving the Six Nations as well as the rugby unions of Georgia and Fiji.
In recent months as the scale of the challenge presented by the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, it became apparent that fulfilling the traditional Autumn International fixtures would not be possible particularly as a result of travel restrictions preventing certain international teams from competing in scheduled fixtures.
This newly created tournament will replace the traditional Autumn International window for 2020 and ensures rugby fans all over the world will be treated to top class international rugby this Autumn.
Channel 4 have teamed up with Amazon Prime Video to ensure rugby fans can enjoy the entire tournament with Prime Video showing a range of games exclusively which will be available to Prime Members. This tournament follows hard on the heels of the conclusion of the Guinness Six Nations. Prime Video will also carry live coverage of England vs Ireland alongside Channel 4s live coverage.
Channel 4 will show live free to air television coverage of England’s clash with Ireland when the rugby giants meet in the Autumn Nations Cup this November.
Channel 4 – the only place where viewers can enjoy free to air television coverage of the tournament – will also show exclusive live coverage of the inaugural competition’s opening match between Ireland and Wales. In addition to three live matches, Channel 4 will broadcast highlights from all the rounds of the eight-team tournament after striking a deal with Amazon Prime Video.
The Autumn Nations Cup has been lined up to replace the autumn rugby internationals which have been kyboshed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The competition opens on Friday, 13th November, when Ireland take on Wales at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin live on Channel 4. The cup competition will be held over four weeks and features all Six Nations teams – England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales – who will be joined by Georgia and Fiji.
Channel 4’s Head of Sport Pete Andrews said: “We’re delighted to have teamed up with Amazon to bring rugby fans this fantastic tournament. It’s thrilling to be offering first class live international rugby on Channel 4 and it’s great to be launching the tournament live on a Friday night with Ireland v Wales. The England Ireland match-up the following week is a mouth-watering prospect live on Channel 4.
As well as live coverage of Ireland vs Wales (13.11.20) and England vs Ireland (21.11.20), Ireland’s game against Georgia (29.11.20) will also be live on Channel 4.
England will be in one pool with Georgia, Ireland and Wales while France, Fiji, Italy and Scotland make up the other pool. Channel 4 will carry highlights of the tournament’s conclusion, the finals weekend on 6th December. After playing other teams in their pool, the leaders of each table will play each other in a final. A finals weekend will also see the second placed teams of both groups play each other, both third placed teams play and so on. Channel 4’s coverage will be produced by Sunset + Vine Wales.
Channel 4 will also be showing live coverage of the Heineken Champions Cup Final on 17th October, about one month before the Autumn Nations Cup kicks off.
Ben Morel, CEO Six Nations Rugby commented, “We are absolutely delighted to formally announce details of the Autumn Nations Cup. A significant amount of time and effort has gone into delivering this new tournament format in testing circumstances and the spirit of collaboration amongst key stakeholders has been outstanding.
“While the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic made the traditional Autumn Test window unfeasible, we remained determined to deliver a unique and compelling tournament proposition which would ensure world class rugby for our fans globally, and competitive matches for players, unions and federations.
“We cannot wait for the tournament to get underway in November and fans can look forward to some outstanding matches featuring some of the greatest players in the world. We are especially pleased to be joined by Fiji and Georgia and expect them both to be tremendous additions to the competition.”
Suresh Letchmanan has been working as the head of Asia Pacific for Borussia Dortmund with special responsibilities for the business sectors Sales, Marketing and Business Development since October 2014. Previous to this task he headed the legal and business affairs of Dentsu Sports Asia as the company’s Vice President. Suresh specializes in strategic planning, business development, legal and general management across many areas. iSportconnect spoke with him about BVB’s APAC strategy, virtual tours and latest partnerships. Excerpts:
What’s the strategy behind BVB venturing into the India market?
Borussia Dortmund is following the developments of the Indian football ecosystem latest since the U17 FIFA World Cup which was hosted by India in 2017. Beside the massive socio-economic potential of India, we see a steadily growing interest for football. The quality of the Indian Super League is constantly improving and more and more (young) Indians start to play football in addition to the consumption of the same on TV, which makes India a very interesting market for Borussia Dortmund. We want to reach as many Indian football enthusiasts as possible in order to increase the number of our fans and followers. At the same time, we want to give back to our fans which means that we want to be as close as possible to them in order to make them feel like being a part of the BVB family.
On the technical side of things, we at Borussia Dortmund feel that we can support the further development of the Indian ecosystem especially in terms of sustainable and successful youth development. Therefore we partnered with the ISL club Hyderabad FC to increase our local footprint and to underline our long-term commitment in India.
What is BVB’s current India fan base? What are some of the fan engagement activities the club has undertaken for its Indian audience?
Back in 2017 we had one officially registered fan club founded by a group of passionate BVB fans in Pune. Today we can count on the support of eight official fan clubs spread all over India, from Delhi in the North to Chennai and Kerala in the South and from Mumbai in the West to Kolkata in the East. This makes us extremely proud. Beside the absolute number of Indian fan clubs, we are very happy to see how the clubs are getting more and more connected within the country and how they support each other in their activities. Thus, little by little a network of Indian fans in all major Indian cities is developing and growing which is extremely important and helpful for our future on-ground activities, once the pandemic is over.
In terms of fan engagement activities, we are of course trying to run as many activities online as possible due to the pandemic. The online meet & greets with former players but also with club officials are well received by our fans around the world and we are planning to have some new formats around the start of the new season. But of course, we all hope that the Corona-situation will end soon so that we can organize events on site again, just like we did before the pandemic. Especially the visits of our legends to cities like Kolkata and Bangalore, the watch parties in Cochin, Mumbai and Delhi as well as our football clinic in Mumbai were highlights for us and our local fans and we are hoping to bring this kind of activities back to India soon.
Tell us about your latest partnership with Hyderabad FC. Can we expect similar partnerships in future?
As already mentioned by Borussia Dortmund’s managing director, Carsten Cramer, we are really proud to have Hyderabad FC as our official club partner in India. The colors are obviously a perfect match but what is even more important to us is that we see many similarities at both clubs, e.g. in terms of a sustainable and holistic youth development and the importance of fans for the overall club culture.
Hyderabad FC is BVB’s first and exclusive club partner in India and the fourth international club partner beside the existing ones with Thai Premier League Club Buriram United, Australia’s NPL Club Marconi FC and Iwate Grulla Morioka in Japan.
What are the challenges of working in a complicated country like India where football is still not as popular as cricket?
The predominance and tradition of cricket in Indian is of course challenging for international football clubs but we see huge potential for Borussia Dortmund in India. Especially the upcoming generation seems to be pretty much into football and other sports beside cricket. In addition to the famous Yellow Wall and the overall thrilling atmosphere in Germany’s biggest stadium, the Signal Iduna Park, Borussia Dortmund is internationally well recognized for its success to bring young and highly talented players, like Jadon Sancho, Erling Haaland, Christian Pulisic or Gio Reyna, to the next level, which helps us a lot to attract new fans and football lovers in India, especially among the growing community of (young) Indians who enjoy playing football themselves and who are looking for young idols to identify with.
Any plans to focus on women’s football in India?
All of Borussia Dortmund’s grassroots activities are of course open and available for girls. In our first football camp in Mumbai in December 2018 we had a good proportion of really talented girls and we also participated in a conference called ‘She Plays All Win’ which explored opportunities to empower women and girls through football.
But since Borussia Dortmund has no girls and/or women teams in Germany yet, it would be presumptuous to say that we want to focus especially on this topic in India. However, we are absolutely aware of the importance of this topic and we will definitely continue to involve as many girls as possible in all our grassroots activities in India.
Due to strict UEFA precautions still in force, spectators have not been able to enter the stadium during any national teams’ matches, but Hungarian fans have had the chance to use an application to post pictures on to the commercial surfaces of Puskás Arena and express their support for the national team this way.
The MLSZ (Hungarian Football Federation) Fan XP application made its debut at Sunday’s home match against Russia, enabling fans to post their photos before and during the match on to the giant screens of Puskás Arena and on to the LED walls next to the pitch through a moderated channel.
The digital innovation has been available for the first time on this match in the Nations League series, giving Hungarian fans an opportunity to support the players and show them that there is a nation behind them.
“It has made us very proud to help the Hungarian fans and stand behind our national team with our technology. Our solution already brought happiness to many fans who weren’t able to travel to their beloved teams’ matches in the past, unfortunately now we all have to watch our favourites from a distance. We hope that the fans will be able to return into the stadiums soon and encourage their teams in person.” – said Tom Vecsernyes, CEO of Seyu Solutions Ltd.
ELEVEN is delighted to extend its partnership with the National Football League in Belgium, Luxembourg and Portugal.
ELEVEN’s new deal will give American football fans the chance to enjoy the best live action from the NFL. ELEVEN will broadcast three NFL games every week of the season. Its coverage will include the playoffs and the Super Bowl.
The NFL games form part of a premium package of live sports rights for ELEVEN in both Belgium and Portugal. In Belgium, ELEVEN is the Home of Belgian football for the next five years and fans can enjoy La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, NBA and more. In Portugal, ELEVEN subscribers can watch all the action from UEFA Champions League, La Liga and Bundesliga as well as F1.
Luis Vicente, Chief Executive Officer, ELEVEN, said: “The NFL is one of the greatest leagues in the world and we’re delighted to be making it available to American football fans in Belgium and Portugal. We look forward to continuing to grow our partnership with the NFL.”
Williams Racing
Williams Racing is pleased to confirm a new partnership with Versa Integrity Group (Versa), a leading provider of industrial inspection and maintenance services across all facets of critical infrastructure for the energy services industry.
Darryl Schimeck, CEO of the Versa Integrity Group said: “We are excited to partner with Williams Racing and introduce the world to Versa through the sport of F1. Our shared devotion to excellence and safety signalled a clear opportunity between two brands focused on winning and continuous improvement.”
Tim Hunt, Commercial and Marketing Director for Williams Racing said: “In a relatively short space of time, we have already begun to see new commercial opportunities emerge in this new chapter for Williams. We are proud to be working with Versa Integrity in this new partnership. We share the same objective of providing our partners with services of the highest quality and we look forward to developing the relationship to deliver tangible business growth for Versa.”
