The launch of the new home kit by London Premier League club Arsenal yesterday marks the first time in almost 25 years that adidas have made the shirts, having taken over from Puma last October as the club’s sponsor in a new deal reported to be worth £300 million over the course of the next five seasons kicking off in 2019-20. Enjoy this adidas Football-produced look into the meaning of the Arsenal brand on iSportconnect TV.
World Rugby CEO: “Our Sponsors Come At the World Cup From Slightly Different Angles”
The 2019 Rugby World Cup is only two months away now, kicking off in Japan on September 20. During the iSportconnect Paris Summit last week, World Rugby CEO Brett Gosper spoke to iSportconnect TV about his sport’s first showpiecce event in Japan. Our interviewer is Darran Phillips.
Hookit Rankings: Even In The Off-Season, Messi Is Number One
Lionel Messi remains the most followed sports personality in the social media world, according to the June ranking by sponsorship analytics and evaluation platform Hookit. The FC Barcelona star led all other by a wide margin in the volume of interactions as footballers once again dominated with seven players in the Top 10. You can see the whole list on iSportconnect TV.
LaLiga Adds LIVESCORE As Global Sponsor
LaLiga and LIVESCORE have signed a global sponsorship deal covering the next three seasons. The company, synonymous with sports results, becomes the first sponsor of LaLiga in the Sports Scoring category.
This agreement means the new global partner will exclusively sponsor LaLiga’s Replay360°, the technology that allows users from all over the world to see 360º replays of any piece of action, offering them a unique perspective from any angle of the pitch. Thirty-eight cameras installed in the stadium mean viewers can fly over the action or even see things from the perspective of the main player involved in the move.
Replay360° is currently offered in eight of the 20 stadiums of LaLiga Santander clubs: Santiago Bernabéu (Real Madrid), Camp Nou (Barcelona), Wanda Metropolitano (Atlético Madrid), Mestalla (Valencia), San Mamés (Athletic Club), Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán (Sevilla), Benito Villamarín (Real Betis) and Anoeta (Espanyol de Barcelona).
The partnership will give LiveScore access to the millions of viewers that enjoy watching LaLiga Santander around the world every day and help to define new international growth strategies in the different strategic markets in which LiveScore is present.
With more than 50 million monthly unique users accessing its website and native apps worldwide, LiveScore offers real-time results, fixtures, stats and news for national and international competitions in football, basketball, hockey, tennis and cricket. It has a presence across all five continents and users in 99% of the world’s territories.
True to its motto of ‘Ahead of the Game,’ the new sponsor of LaLiga has established itself as a leader in the Sports Scoring sector, thanks to the foundations on which it has built its business from the beginning: simplicity, speed and reliability.
“LiveScore is the best live results app and for LaLiga it is very important to associate with leaders in each market. This global strategic agreement will allow us to strengthen our brand internationally and open the door for our clubs to reach new fans,” explained Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga.
Commenting on the new partnership, LiveScore’s Sam Sadi said: “We are delighted to become a global partner of LaLiga. We share similar goals and ambitions: to grow an already loyal fanbase through innovation and continuous product improvement. Thanks to our well-founded reputation for speed, accuracy and reliability, LiveScore has grown to be the world’s ultimate destination for sports information and football scores in particular.
“As a leader in our field we are extremely pleased to join forces with LaLiga, the home of the world’s best players and some of the world’s biggest clubs. We are particularly excited to be associated with LaLiga’s Replay360°. Innovating for the benefit of our users is at the heart of everything we do and Replay360° highlights how LaLiga is committed to developing new ways to bringing unique insights to the fans,” he added.
Women’s Tournament Finals Score For European Public Broadcasters
Nine out of 10 homes watching TV yesterday afternoon in The Netherlands were watching the final of the FIFA Women’s World Cup on public channel NPO1.
The afternoon game was by far the top programme on Dutch television on Sunday with 5.481 million viewers and a remarkable 88% viewing share as the U.S. team defeated Holland for the title.
Another women’s final, to decide the European basketball championship, did well on Sunday in Spain.
Public channel La 1 pulled 1.858 million viewers and 15.5% share for the Spanish team’s win over France.
The football final also did well in Italy, with 1.468 million viewers tuning in the match on public channel RAI 2, with a share of 13.4%.
League Of Legends Series For German Market Is Coming
Riot Games, Freaks 4U Gaming and Lagardère Sports Germany will be launching a strategic and long-term cooperation this year. The first step will consist in the creation of a tournament series for League of Legends players in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH).
The partnership will last over the next few years with the aim of developing a new, leading regional league in Europe following the Premier Tour.
The partners will establish an exclusive league for German-speaking teams. The aim is to promote the market’s professionalism and create a sustainable ecosystem for players, teams and companies.
Hans Christian Dürr, Head of Esports DACH at Riot Games, said: “League of Legends is largely responsible for esports’ incredible success. We also want to play an instrumental role in expanding the German-speaking market further and believe we have found the ideal partners for this goal. This powerful network of three leading companies will undoubtedly reinforce esports in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.”
Michael Haenisch, CEO of Freaks 4U Gaming, said: “An integral part of our corporate DNA is the creation and development of esports ecosystems . The strategic long-term partnership linking Riot Games and Lagardère Sports Germany allows us to solidify ambitious plans to take League of Legends esports in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to the next level.”
Robert Müller von Vultejus, Managing Director of Lagardère Sports Germany GmbH, said: “There is a great deal of enthusiasm around esports in the entire DACH region. Numerous clients want to focus their esports engagements more strongly on their respective strategic target markets. This is now possible with the Premier Tour, which is designed for the DACH region through offering concrete planning and professional structures, particularly for brands interested in esports.”
As a marketing and sales agency, Lagardère was also responsible for managing the marketing aspect of the League of Legends European Championship.
Berlin-based Freaks 4U Gaming staff picture below) has had an exclusive licence to broadcast all Riot Games events, leagues and tournaments in the German-speaking region.
ITF Launches ‘World Tennis Number’ Project
Golfers have their handicaps. Now tennis will have a tool to serve the same purpose of making it easier for players to record and measure their progress and interact with other tennis players. The International Tennis Federation and leading national associations today announced a strategic project to develop and implement a global tennis rating called the World Tennis Number (WTN). Learn about it in this video on iSportconnect TV.
Sports technology company ClubSpark has been selected to build the WTN digital platform. This platform will create a global online tennis community, enabling players to access their WTN from anywhere in the world.
The World Tennis Number is planned to be in operation towards the end of 2019, with National Associations launching officially within each country from 2020.
ITF President, David Haggerty, said: “Our vision is simple, to create local online communities of tennis players sharing meaningful and enjoyable tennis experiences through level-based play. With this new platform, we have the means to connect a worldwide community of 87 million tennis players and fans.”
The WTN project is led by executives from the ITF, French Tennis Federation, LTA, and United States Tennis Association, and supported by a project team and an advisory group of nations that also includes experts from the national associations of Canada, China, Ireland, Netherlands and Switzerland.
First Women’s Tour Of Scotland Brings On Baillie Gifford As Partner
Asset management firm Baillie Gifford has become the new lead partner for the first ever Women’s Tour of Scotland between August 9-11.
With its first major professional sports sponsorship, Baillie Gifford hopes that supporting women’s cycling will help bring it up to equal footing with the men’s and the Tour’s coveted yellow jersey will be sponsored by the investment management firm. Scotland’s Katie Archibald today unveiled the coveted Baillie Gifford Leaders Jersey, at their headquarters in Edinburgh.
The jersey is made from six recycled plastic bottles and is much like the forthcoming Tour de France traditional yellow jersey, but with a Scottish twist – a saltire design in blue and purple. It will be awarded to the leading rider at the end of each stage and the final race winner.
Lynn Dewar, Partner at Baillie Gifford said: “The new Tour resonated with us in many different ways. Treating people equally, teamwork, strong role models, health and environmental wellbeing, and endurance all match the core values of our firm.”
Jack Royle, Head of Partnerships at the Women’s Tour of Scotland, said: “Bringing a women’s professional race to Scotland before the men’s equivalent represented a landmark moment. We set out with a commitment to ensure it delivered equal pay to its men’s counterpart and wanted to put sustainability at the forefront of a professional race. It’s hugely exciting to be delivering on these objectives with the support of Baillie Gifford as our lead partner.”
Former Rio Governor Admits To Olympic Bribery Scheme
The former governor of Rio de Janeiro state said in court testimony yesterday that he paid $2 million to buy votes to ensure the sprawling Brazilian seaside city would be chosen to host the 2016 Olympic Games.
Reuters reports:
Sergio Cabral told a judge the money went to Lamine Diack, the former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and was used to buy as many as nine votes.
The head of the Brazilian Olympic Committee and the main organizer of the bid, Carlos Arthur Nuzman, introduced a representative of Rio 2016 to Diack and asked him to make the payments ahead of the 2009 vote that saw Rio win out over Madrid, Chicago and Tokyo, Cabral told a federal judge.
“Nuzman came to me and said, Sergio, I want tell you about the president of the International Athletics Federation, IAAF, Lamine Diack, he’s someone who is open to taking bribes,” Cabral said.
Prosecutors in Brazil charged Nuzman in October 2017 with paying the $2 million in bribes to secure Rio as the 2016 Olympics host city. That trial is ongoing. He has said he is innocent and his lawyers repeated that on Thursday.
Diack was also charged by Brazilian prosecutors. He said at the time he was innocent.
Last month, Diack was also indicted in a French court on charges he and his son Papa Massata were involved in a series of illicit practices over a number of years, including bribe-taking and money-laundering, with the active involvement of international athletes and their federations.
Cabral told Judge Marcelo Bretas that Nuzman assured him the scheme would work because Diack had a history of such practices.
“I said, Nuzman, what are our guarantees here? And he said, ‘traditionally he sells 4, 5, 6 votes. There is a risk that we don’t get through to the second round (of voting).”
Cabral said Diack guaranteed up to six votes for $1.5 million and then came back and offered more if he was paid an extra $500,000. Cabral said he authorized the payment.
“We did it,” Cabral said.
The former governor, who has been sentenced to almost 200 years in jail for his part in a series of corruption scandals, named several top athletes in his testimony.
Cabral also said that Brazil’s imprisoned former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the former Mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, did not participate in the scheme but were informed about it after the fact.
Cabral made the revelations at a hearing requested by his new defence team. The strategy of revealing admissions was made as part of his plea bargain in hopes it might lead to a reduction in the sentences facing both him and his wife Adriana Ancelmo, who was also jailed for corruption.
Demand For Tokyo Games Tickets Exceeds Expectations
Tokyo 2020 organizers said today they had underestimated Japanese demand for tickets after 3.22 million briefs were sold during the first domestic sales phase last month.
The unexpected demand prompted organizers to re-evaluate their Japan-based sales going forward and there will now be a second ticket lottery in August for those who missed out the first time around.
Reuters reports:
Organizers say hundreds of thousands of tickets will be available in the second lottery.
The exact format of the second phase has yet to be decided but will only be open to those who failed to obtain tickets the first time around, when results were announced on June 20.
The window will close by August 22, when the application process for Paralympics tickets is scheduled to begin.
“There was a massive amount of applications received in the first wave and this absolutely exceeded our expectations,” Tokyo 2020 spokesman Masa Takaya said on Friday.
“So in that respect, we are pleased to see such huge excitement being built up amongst people across Japan.”
Organizers have also ditched plans to offer further unsold tickets on a first-come, first-served basis later in the autumn, as had been originally proposed.
There is now likely to be a third lottery phase instead, only open once again to Japan-based residents.
Those wishing to purchase tickets outside Japan must do so through country-specific Authorized Ticket Resellers.
Between 70-80 percent of all tickets have been reserved for domestic sale with the remainder allocated to international customers and sponsors.
“As far as we know, the reaction from the public to this second chance is being well received … and by those who participated in the first wave,” added Takaya.
“So, we are right on track but we want to continue making our best effort.”
Organizers say that over 7.5 million people had registered for the Tokyo fan ID needed to make a ticket application.
Although the total number of tickets available has yet to be announced as many venue designs are still being worked on, organizers said in their bid for the 2020 Games that 7.8 million tickets would be made available.