The Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix will continue to be held in Melbourne until at least the end of 2025 under a new agreement announced yesterday by Formula 1 and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation.

Australia has hosted a round of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship since 1985. It was held in Adelaide up until moving to the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in the heart of the Victorian state capital starting in 1996. Since then, apart from 2006 and 2010, the Australian GP has always been the season opener.

Melbourne has consistently proved to be one of the most popular on the calendar. In the last three years alone more than 900,000 fans have attended the Grands Prix at Albert Park, guaranteeing that the Formula 1 season kicks off in an incredible festival-like atmosphere at the heart of the one the world’s most exciting cities.

Next the race will once get the season underway from March 12-15.

Chase Carey, Chairman and CEO, Formula 1, said: “We are pleased to have renewed our partnership with the city of Melbourne, which will now host the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix until at least 2025. The decision to extend the current relationship for a further two years stems from the fact this event has proved to be a resounding success for the capital of Victoria, for Australia and indeed around the world, proving immensely popular with fans and those who work in Formula 1.”

“Working along with our partner, the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, we plan to make the Australian Grand Prix even more exciting and spectacular, as a sporting event and as a form of entertainment.

“Today’s announcement follows on from last week’s, relating to the British Grand Prix and is proof that more and more promoters are sharing our long-term vision for the future of Formula 1.”

Martin Pakula MP, Victorian Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, said: “This is a fantastic vote of confidence from Formula 1 to continue racing in Melbourne until at least 2025. Victoria hosts major events better than anywhere else in the world and I’m excited that Formula 1 has chosen to exercise its option to extend the contract and enable the Victorian Government and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC) to continue to deliver more world-class events for Victoria.”

“The Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix has contributed significantly to Melbourne’s standing as a global sporting and major events capital and the event is a key pillar of Melbourne’s and Australia’s international sporting calendar. Beyond the direct benefits to Melbourne and Victoria arising out of Formula 1’s decision, the contract extension until 2025 also provides benefits and confidence for Victoria’s events industry and the associated supplier base to the AGPC. Additionally, it provides the AGPC with opportunities to further enhance and develop the event for the benefit of all fans and lovers of the sport of Formula 1.”

 

The International Olympic Committee has confirmed that its tech partner Alibaba will be the ticketing provider for the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.

Alibaba, the IOC’s official cloud services and e-commerce partner, will work to ensure “a fully digitally enabled ticketing programme and modern user experience” that allows fans to purchase and redistribute tickets securely.

The organising will be responsible for the overall planning and delivery of the ticketing programme.

The appointment of Alibaba has been made with the objective of securing a single provider to deliver ticketing services and operations over several Games editions, reducing costs and the complexity of hosting the Games in line with Olympic Agenda 2020’s recommendations on efficient turnkey solutions.

As a result, OCOGs will benefit from the opportunity to have a continuity of service through the provision of established systems and delivery experience, alleviating the need to design, engineer and deliver a solution for each individual Games edition.

Timo Lumme, Managing Director, IOC Television and Marketing Services, said: “The ticketing solutions provided will drive further innovation at the Olympic Games, enhance the spectator experience and reduce costs for organisers, delivering on the commitments made by Olympic Agenda 2020.”

Chris Tung, Alibaba’s Chief Marketing Officer (in photo), added: “We are proud to extend our partnership with the Olympic Games, beyond e-commerce and cloud, by supporting the Beijing 2022 ticketing programme. We look forward to leveraging our technology to help provide streamlined, digitally-enabled ticket sales services to create a seamless ticketing experience for fans around the world.”

In addition to existing work with the IOC on the development of its digital strategy and ecosystem, Alibaba’s expertise in engaging Chinese consumers and ownership of Damai, one of China’s largest ticketing platforms, makes it perfectly positioned to become the Beijing 2022 Ticketing Systems and Services Provider.

The 109 events in seven Olympic winter sports will take place from February 4-20, 2022 in the three competition zones of central Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou.

Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group), the Nordic region’s leading entertainment provider, has acquired the exclusive Nordic media rights to the main International Skating Union (ISU) competitions up to and including the 2022/2023 season.

From autumn 2019, nearly 400 hours of world-class speed skating and figure skating from ISU events around the world will be shown live every season on NENT Group’s Viaplay and Viafree streaming services and Viasat pay-TV channels in combination with substantial exposure on NENT Group’s free-TV channels.

NENT Group will offer viewers in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark exclusive live coverage of the following ISU events:

• ISU Speed Skating Championships
• ISU World Cup Speed Skating
• ISU Short Track Speed Skating Championships
• ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating
• ISU Figure Skating Championships
• ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating
• ISU World Synchronised Skating Championships

Skating attracts a large, passionate and growing audience across the Nordic region, which has produced some of the sport’s top stars.

Norwegian speed skater Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen won 500 metres gold and 1000 metres silver at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics; Norwegian Sverre Lunde Pedersen won silver at the 2018 World Allround Speed Skating Championship; and Norway’s men’s team are the reigning Olympic team pursuit champions and 500 metres relay world champions.

Johann Olav Koss, winner of three speed skating gold medals at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, is one of Norway’s most famous athletes and was twice named Norwegian Sportsperson of the Year (1991 and 1994). Sweden’s Tomas Gustafson, meanwhile, dominated speed skating throughout the 1980s, winning three Olympic gold medals.

In figure skating, Alexander Majorov and Anita Östlund from Sweden and Viveca Lindfors (a bronze medalist at the most recent European Championships) and Emmi Peltonen from Finland all currently participate at the highest level of ISU competition.

The Nordic region is also set to host at least one ISU event in each of the coming seasons. Hamar in Norway will host the Combined ISU World Sprint & World Allround Speed Skating Championships in February 2020 and the ISU World Speed Skating Championships in March 2022, while Stockholm will host the ISU World Figure Skating Championships in March 2021.

In April, NENT Group announced a long-term, pan-Nordic deal to become the home of Alpine and Nordic winter sports from 2021.

Anders Jensen, NENT Group President and CEO: “This landmark agreement is yet another milestone for NENT Group as we continue to redefine the streaming and TV viewing experience for sports fans across the Nordic region. ISU skating attracts millions of viewers and is an ideal complement to our recently acquired winter sports rights. The planet’s fastest and most skilled skaters, at least three ISU competitions in the Nordic region, and NENT Group’s world-class commentary and production capabilities mean our viewers have even more to look forward to over the next four seasons.”

Bruno Marty, Senior Vice President of Winter Sports at Infront, the brokers of the agreement: “This marks one of our first deals in our new partnership with ISU. We are proud to have brought NENT Group on board, who with their intensifying commitment to winter sports and diversity of platforms and outlets will surely help us further elevate interest in these thrilling sports. The distribution on NENT Group’s streaming platforms and substantial exposure on free-TV will enable access to a large, passionate and growing audience across the Nordic region.”

 

The R&A sees a bright future for the Women’s British Open but Chief Executive Martin Slumbers offered no promises yesterday that the championship’s purse would be boosted any time soon to match the men’s Open.

Reuters reports:

The R&A, the ruling body for golf outside of the United States and Mexico, will take full control of the Women’s Open from next year.

Speaking at a news conference on the eve of the final men’s major of the year at Royal Portrush, Slumbers said that the men’s Open was the organization’s main revenue earner.

When asked whether he could envisage a time when the two championships would have the same prize money, he spoke about the need for the women’s Open to have a sustainable business model.

“We’re as ambitious for the Women’s British Open as we are for this Open,” Slumbers said. “We’re passionate about growing the women’s game but we need to build a sustainable women’s game (from the amateur level upwards).

“As we’re looking at the Women’s British Open, how (do) we attract more people to watch the championship, to watch it live, watch it on TV?

“To be able to keep raising the prize money we need to do it as a sustainable business model. How do we build a better model to have a more financially successful Women’s British Open that will flow then down into the prize money? Where it ends up, I don’t know.”

Slumbers highlighted the fact that the purse for the Women’s Open has been increased by 40% over the last year.

This year’s Women’s Open, to be played at Woburn in Milton Keynes, England, from August 1-4, will have prize money of $4.5 million, while this week’s men’s championship will hand out $10.75 million.

By comparison, the purse at this year’s men’s U.S. Open was $12.5 million, while at the U.S. Women’s Open it was $5.5 million, the largest ever for a women’s tournament.

Also, the PGA Championship paid out $11 million, while the Women’s PGA Championship purse was $3.85 million.

The Women’s British Open was founded by the Ladies Golf Union in 1976.

Slumbers acknowledged that the men’s Open was the organization’s biggest revenue generator.

“A lot of my responsibility is to balance out the revenues and expenses of our championships with our desire to invest 200 million pounds into the game in this decade,” Slumbers said.

“This is our biggest event. And we need to keep growing it to keep it one of the greatest sporting events, with half an eye on how do we improve the difference in pay between the Open and the Women’s British Open?”

 

SportAccord has confirmed the International University Sports Federation (FISU) is the first Gold Partner to sign-up for the 18^th edition of SportAccord in China. The next annual SportAccord event is set to take place in Beijing from 19-24 April 2020 and organisations can now register and take advantage of the pre-early bird rate (CHF1,500) available for a limited period only.

Enjoy a look at the setting of the event on iSportconnect TV.

FISU, founded in 1949, organises world-class sports and educational events for university students, promoting the pursuit of excellence in mind and body. These include the Summer and Winter Universiades – the largest global multi-sports events for university athletes.

The 30^th edition of the Summer Universiade (3-14 July 2019) recently took place in Naples, Italy, to great acclaim. The USA ranks top for the number of gold medals won followed by China in the All-Time Summer Universiade Medal Table.

Chengdu in China is the host city for the 2021 Summer Universiade, and was officially awarded the 2025 World Games during SportAccord 2019.

Raising the bar and becoming a Gold Partner for the next SportAccord event taking place at the China National Convention Center in Beijing,

Paulo Ferreira, Director General for FISU commented: “SportAccord 2020 in Beijing is set to be a confirmation of just how important China has become to the world of sport. It is a city that FISU has a great affinity for, with the Summer Universiade having been hosted in Beijing in 2001, shortly before the attribution of the 2008 Olympic Games.”

“As a SportAccord Gold Partner, FISU is proud to once again help bring international sport’s leadership to one of our favourite places.”

Nis Hatt, Managing Director of SportAccord said: “We’re delighted to welcome FISU onboard as a Gold Partner for the first time. Their commitment and investment demonstrate that the SportAccord platform provides excellent visibility for international sports federations, particularly at this level. We very much look forward to working with FISU in the lead-up to SportAccord 2020 in Beijing.”

 

Attending SportAccord enables delegates to network with sporting leaders at the highest levels, access an extensive conference programme, and experience the many opportunities on offer in one location, at the world’s leading global sports business event.

To raise visibility still further, organisations can become an official partner or exhibitor and discuss these investment opportunities with sales@sportaccord.sport.

The SportAccord 2019 Review magazine looks back at some of the many highlights that took place across the World Sport & Business Summit in Gold, Australia.

Follow developments and updates via Twitter @sportaccord using #SA2020, or keep up-to-date via LinkedIn and Facebook.