The Italian Football League, Serie A, have appointed Paolo Dal Pino as the new President of the league.
An official communication released the news, which will see Dal Pino take over the role from Gaetano Miccichè, who was forced to resign in November last year due to an investigation into his election in 2018.
Dal Pino managed to make the eleven votes required for a majority from the 20 Serie A clubs.
Paolo Dal Pino has been voted as Serie A’s next President, replacing Gaetano Miccichè, who resigned in November 2019.
Neil Snowball was named the next Managing Director of County Cricket at the ECB.
Matt Goodman has been appointed New York City FC’s Chief Operating Officer & Chief Commercial Officer.
Amanda Duffy has left her position as the NWSL President to join the league’s Orlando Pride franchise as Executive Vice President.
Marius Vizer Jr will become General Secretary of the International Teqball Federation.
Adam Benson has joined Wasps as Chief Commercial Officer.
Mark Alford is the new Director of Sky Sports News, moving from his previous position as Head of Digital at Sky News.
Chris Bell will take over as Head of Commercial at Luton Town FC.
Mark Pannes is taking over as CEO of the Vancouver Whitecaps MLS franchise.
Excel Esports have announced two changes, with Wouter Sliejjfers becoming the CEO and Robin McCammon selected as the Chief Commercial Officer.
Anna Shaw has become the ECB’s Commercial Strategy Lead.
Allistair Spiers is now Head of Sales at Leciester City Football Club.
Scott McCubbin has started his new role as Premiership Rugby’s Head Of Business Development.
David Jenkins is to head up Global Expansion at IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals.
Craig Santicchia will become Partner Development Director for Fnatic
Norris Scott is now Futures Sport & Entertainment’s Senior Vice President.
Adrian Sargent has taken the role of Chief Financial Officer of The Goodwood Group.
Brandon Moyer has become Global CRM Business Analytics Lead at Under Armour.
Pete Morris joins Canon as Brand & Sponsorship Senior Manager, EMEA.
Nike will continue to supply training equipment to The Chinese Athletics Association after the two signed a new 12-year partnership deal to continue Nike’s association.
Already with a huge presence in China, Nike will now be supplying Chinese athletes until after the 2032 Olympic Games. The deal also sees Nike coaches head over to China to provide international coaches for the development of athletes as well as taking them abroad for training camps.
“This partnership with Nike announced today will hopefully allow both parties to capitalise on our synergies and strengths, as part of the opening up of the Chinese sportswear market,” said CAA Vice-Chairman, Cai Yong.
“We look forward to working with Nike to increase interest in track and field, as part of our national goals to build a strong sports economy and physically active citizenry.”
Craig Masback, former athlete and Nike’s VP for Sports Marketing in China and Japan, stated: “Nike is committed to promoting the development of Chinese track and field and its athletes for many years, and this renewed contract once again shows our confidence in the future of the sport in China.”
LaLiga has reached another high-profile milestone, passing 100 million followers across all its social media platforms. Over six years’ work has seen the organisation consolidate its presence on 12 different social media platforms, producing content in over 15 languages.
“Passing this digital milestone is an achievement which should be framed within LaLiga’s wide-reaching international growth strategy. We’ve gone from having 3.9 million followers at the end of the 2013/14 season to over 100 million today, a record figure reached with an average of 47,000 new followers per day,” says Alfredo Bermejo, Digital Strategy Director at LaLiga.
LaLiga currently has 22 profiles on 12 different social media platforms: Facebook; Twitter (LaLiga, LaLigaEN, LaLigaArab, LaLigaBRA, LaLigaFRA, LaLigaJP, LaLigaID, LaLigaTH, LaLigaSports, eSportsLaLiga, LaLiga Foundation); Instagram; YouTube; TikTok; four platforms in China (Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, Toutiao); two platforms in Russia (OK, VK); and Line (in three countries: Japan, Thailand and Indonesia). Notably, LaLiga is the first football league in the world to reach 5 million subscribers on its YouTube channel.
LaLiga’s audience is, like its social media channels, global and spread across the world. Spain registers the most amount of followers (around 7 million) but high concentrations of followers are found all over the world, including in Indonesia (more than 5.2 million followers); India (more than 5.1 million followers); Mexico (more than 5 million); Brazil (more than 4.7 million); and China & Egypt (more than 4 million.)
LaLiga engages with this global audience in over 15 languages, including English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Turkish, Russian, Hindi, Bengali, Bahasa Indonesia, Thai, Danish, Vietnamese, Pidgin English, Swahili, Wolof, Lingala and Hebrew besides Spanish.
Ten keys to LaLiga’s success on social media
Currently, over 25 people from 10 different countries make up the social media team based at LaLiga’s headquarters in Spain. In addition, many more based around the world collaborate on international projects to increase the visibility of the organisation and its social media platforms, among them the 45 LaLiga Global Network delegates, the International Development team and those spread across its nine international offices.
“This success is without doubt down to the team behind LaLiga’s social media channels and to the departments that support their growth,” explains Bermejo. “They have known how to adapt to our followers’ interests and needs to offer them engaging, quality content, which has in turn strongly positioned LaLiga both nationally and internationally.” The use of social media has thus become a key component in LaLiga’s internationalisation strategy and that of its clubs.
The NFL has announced a new collaboration with global fashion retailer H&M to launch men’s, women’s and children’s NFL-branded apparel and accessories, in a deal brokered by IMG.
This agreement will see the NFL roll out affordable clothing styles in a number of countries across the world as they look to capitalise on expansion around the globe.
In a statement released, the NFL state that products will be sold in more than 20 countries outside of the U.S, including the UK, China, Japan, Colombia, Germany, India, Mexico, South Korea and the Middle East. The first capsule collection of men’s jackets, tops and loungewear is available in stores and online now, with women’s, children’s and accessories lines to follow next season.
“By partnering with H&M, we are able to reach fans in markets across the world with a diverse selection of apparel and accessories for men, women and children,” said Akash Jain, NFL Vice President of Commercial Development. “NFL fanbases are growing throughout countries in every corner of the world and we want to continually meet our fans needs for fashionable apparel and fuel their fandom for years to come.”
Matthew Primack, Senior Vice President, IMG, added: “We are delighted to be bringing one of the most popular sports leagues together with one of the world’s favourite fast fashion retailers. The NFL’s international appeal as a lifestyle and fashion brand continues to grow rapidly. With its reputation for creative collaborations and thousands of stores around the world, H&M is the perfect partner to provide an accessible and stylish collection of NFL apparel and accessories that will be sought after by football fans and fashionistas.”
The National Basetball Association, Twitter and Turner Sports today announced a multiyear partnership extension that will bring more live NBA games and on-demand content to Twitter in the United States than ever before.
Sam Farber, NBA Vice President, Digital Media, said: “As early adopters of the social platform, it is exciting to see the #NBATwitter community grow into one of the largest and most active social media fan bases in the world.”
“As part of our extended partnership, #NBATwitter will drive interest in live NBA games, inform fans where to watch the action and bring fans closer to the league, teams and players through the NBA on TNT second-screen streaming experience.”
10 years of #NBATwitter and more to come!
The NBA and Twitter are extending their partnership, which includes another exciting season of #NBATwitterLive. We tip off the first game of 2020 with @celtics at @sixers Thursday night (7pm/et, TNT).https://t.co/eLbdobrbbG pic.twitter.com/rAH2Hqjqh6
— NBA (@NBA) January 8, 2020
TJ Adeshola, Head of U.S. Sports Partnerships at Twitter, added: “#NBATwitter is in a league of its own, as one of the most engaged and influential sports communities on Twitter. We’re excited to deepen our partnership with the NBA by bringing new and improved LIVE game streams, interactive voting polls, as well as the best of the best NBA video content to further ignite #NBATwitter conversation.
“This partnership is a perfect match. Not only does it give fans more of what they want to see, it provides an ideal canvas for marketers to connect with what’s happening in the NBA, on Twitter.”
For the second consecutive year, the NBA – through its NBA Digital partnership with Turner Sports – offers a complementary live streaming option for the second halves of at least 20 NBA on TNT games, featuring heavily anticipated regular-season games as well as the All-Star Game and at least 16 playoff games, including the Western Conference Finals.
2016 NBA Champion and 13-year veteran Channing Frye will serve as analyst for the #NBATwitterLive stream alongside a rotating panel of NBA influencers who will also add commentary live for each game available from the @NBAonTNT Twitter handle. Each single-player, isolated-camera feed will be voted on by fans from an @NBA poll for the player they want to see featured during the second-screen, live stream experience available in the United States.
Manchester City has announced a new global partnership with the world’s number one consumer appliances producer, Midea.
Midea will be present around the Etihad Stadium on key matchdays over the coming months through integrated branding and activations. The home appliance giant is also planning to develop an innovative digital campaign for the remainder of the 2019/2020 season.
Omar Berrada, Chief Operating Officer for Manchester City, welcomed Midea to the City family and said: “As we enter the second half of the season, we’re delighted to be teaming up with such a leading brand as Midea who have impressed us with their operation and ambition. Aligning with organisations who share a similar philosophy and approach to innovation is important to us and we are excited to see this partnership come to life.”
Brando Brandstaeter, Head of Brand & Communications at Midea’s International Business Division, commented: “Midea is probably one of the biggest companies many consumers around the world have just started to be aware of, and with City’s help we aim to make a great leap forward. Midea is huge, we offer one of the world’s most comprehensive product ranges in the home appliance industry. We have been looking for the right partner for the last 2 years and we are excited to have found the perfect match with Manchester City, an organisation that shares our philosophy in going above and beyond for their fans.
“At Midea, we believe in providing surprisingly-friendly solutions by adopting a consumer-centric and problem-solving approach, while City offers its global fans more than just 90 minutes of attractive football on the pitch. We share the same values in not just winning but winning meaningfully. We are confident that the synergy between the two brands will take us to a whole new level.”
DreamHack and SPORT1 will continue their partnership and broadcast two premium DreamHack Dota 2 tournaments live on pay-TV channel eSPORTS1 in 2020.
The first event from Friday, January 24, to Sunday, January 26, is the Dota 2 major ”DreamLeague Season 13 – The Leipzig Major”, which will be held at DreamHack Leipzig. The second event, DreamLeague Season 14, is yet to be announced with additional details to be presented during Spring 2020.
In addition to the live broadcast on eSPORTS1, highlights of the two competitions will also be shown in the magazine ”bwin Inside eSports” on eSPORTS1 and on free-TV. SPORT1 will also be the media partner of DreamHack Leipzig for the third year in a row and will report live from the event.
“We’re proud that SPORT1 has chosen to continue working with DreamHack and to broadcast our content to their many viewers in 2020,” said Marcus Lindmark, Co-CEO of DreamHack. “The broadcast of DreamLeague Season 13, the first Dota 2 DPC Major of 2020, on eSPORTS1 will make it accessible for all German Dota 2 fans that can’t attend the event and help further increase the hype around the tournament.”
“We have been working with DreamHack this year and continue our successful partnership in 2020 – with DreamHack on board as an experienced content partner at eSPORTS1,” said Daniel von Busse, COO TV and Member of the Board of Sport1 GmbH.
“The Dota 2 Major in Leipzig will be a highlight with a prize pool of one million dollars starting on Friday, January 24th – a special date as our esports channel eSPORTS1 celebrates its first anniversary on this day. In addition, we were also able to extend our media partnership with DreamHack Leipzig and will again report on one of the largest national gaming festivals in 2020.”
DreamHack and ESL have also announced a three-year-long strategic agreement with Blizzard Entertainment.
“We are both proud and humbled by the fact that Blizzard has chosen DreamHack and ESL to take the lead for competitive StarCraft II and Warcraft III moving forward,” said DreamHack co-CEO, Marcus Lindmark. “This strengthens our joint position as the top tournament organizers in the market with a unique combination of reach and knowledge, and an extensive and successful history. It also provides us with an incredible opportunity to cater to the historical Starcraft II and Warcraft III esports communities, who have played a very important role in the development of modern day esports.”
“We are so proud that StarCraft II and Warcraft III are home to two of the most passionate, storied and devoted communities in esports history,” said J. Allen Brack, President of Blizzard Entertainment. “Both ESL and DreamHack have been long-standing partners for our esports, and we want to give our players, talent, content creators and fans the stability inherent in a long-term relationship, keeping these communities thriving for years to come.”
The R&A and the men’s European Tour have committed to help the newly formed joint venture between the Ladies Professional Golf Association and the Ladies European Tour in their efforts to significantly grow playing opportunities, financial incentives and television exposure for women’s professional golf in Europe and around the world.
Each organisation will have one seat on the new LPGA-LET Joint Venture Board of Directors, as well as providing financial support to the change.
Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A, said: “Building a strong and sustainable Ladies European Tour is fully consistent with the aims of The R&A Women in Golf Charter. We support the vision of the LPGA-LET joint venture to create significantly more opportunities for women and girls to pursue their dreams in golf here in Europe and to inspire future generations to take up the sport. We look forward to working with the LPGA-LET team as a board member of this important venture.”
Keith Pelley, Chief Executive of the European Tour, said: “The European Tour has already had the opportunity to host events involving LET members and we’ve seen their talent and drive first-hand. Looking ahead to our 2020 schedule, we have added another new and exciting co-sanctioned event with the LET in Sweden and are pursuing similar opportunities in other markets. The women professionals bring a different dynamic and fan base to the game – all of which improves our sport – and we look forward to building a strong women’s professional presence through this new collaborative approach.”
While the LPGA might have been the first organization to reach out to the LET in an effort to create an even stronger entity, LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan always knew he could count on the support of others: “It’s exciting to see so many stakeholders in the game give their attention and their support to rebuilding a stronger women’s professional tour in Europe,” said Whan. “This significant commitment by The R&A and the European Tour is an immediate, important endorsement of the vision for the new LPGA-LET partnership.”
LET Board Chair Marta Figueras-Dotti added: “Great businesses typically start with great leadership teams. Adding leadership from the LPGA, The R&A and the European Tour to our newly formed board is a recipe for success. I can’t wait to get started!”
Spanish football giant Real Madrid C.F. has announced an exclusive partnership with IMG to commercialise the club’s Digital Overlay® advertising on perimeter boards at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium. The multi-year deal beginning with the current 2019/20 season will also see IMG develop regional partnerships for the club in Asia and North America.
David Hopkinson, Global Head of Partnerships at Real Madrid, commented: “This agreement with IMG is a very exciting development for the Club as Digital Overlay® technology allows partners and advertisers to take advantage of our unmatched international reach, and provides a competitive advantage for brands in key markets around the world. IMG’s extensive global operations will also be invaluable in the development of regional partnerships in key strategic markets across Asia and North America.”
Adolfo Bara, SVP & Managing Director, Football Events, IMG, said: “Real Madrid is one of the most successful and popular clubs in world football and we’re looking forward to leveraging our strengths in Asia and North America to expand its global portfolio of partners.
“The opportunities available for brands via Digital Overlay® technology are endless, allowing geo-localised marketing opportunities, tailored messaging and targeted advertising connected to one of the most watched sports teams globally,” he added. “To ensure we deliver a world class service, IMG will team up with Project 11 who have a proven track record in selling virtual advertising.”
Real Madrid in partnership with AIM Sport has implemented industry-leading Digital Overlay® technology at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium for all LaLiga and Copa del Rey matches. The Digital Overlay® technology allows the club to customise LED perimeter board advertising for each broadcast region, thereby allowing brands to deliver specific messaging to geographically separate audiences.