The victorious English Premier League clubs in last week’s European football championship games have higher brand values and revenues – and also spend more on their first teams than the beaten finalists, also from the EPL, according to figures from CSM Sport & Entertainment.

Liverpool FC, which won the Champions League, has a higher brand value than tournament runner-up Tottenham, while Chelsea, winner of the Europa Cup, likewise outstrips Arsenal, defeated in Baku.

Take a look at how the four clubs compare.

Betting integrity body ESSA (originally the European Sports Security Association) has relaunched as the International Betting Integrity Association with immediate effect.

The move highlights the association’s desire to better reflect the global debate around betting and integrity issues and their leading role in that discussion. The association will continue to represent many of the largest regulated sports betting operators in the world with almost 50 brands feeding into its monitoring and alert platform.

Khalid Ali, Secretary General of the International Betting Integrity Association, said: “The new name communicates who we are, what we do and where we want to be. The association has been active across six continents in recent years, with almost half of our alerts coming from outside of Europe. This activity will only increase as gambling markets around the world continue to open up to regulation.”

He added: “The debate is global and our strategic focus must evolve in line with that.”

Established in 2005, the association has many of the world’s largest regulated betting operators as members. It has longstanding information-sharing partnerships with leading sports bodies including FIFA, UEFA, and the IOC and many gambling regulators.

Jon Russell, Non-Executive Chair of the association’s Board and Head of Global Trading at Betway, said: “Our members represent a sizeable part of the worldwide regulated betting market and their business strategies reflect global ambitions. Integrity has become a key regulatory issue in that market debate, with membership of a monitoring body a licensing requirement in some cases.”

Russell added: “Betting and integrity are now inseparable and I encourage all responsible operators to join us and take advantage of the multifaceted business benefits membership brings.”

Rocco B. Commisso, the owner of Mediacom, one of the biggest cable companies in the U.S., is close to agreeing the purchase of Italian Serie A soccer club ACF Fiorentina from the Della Valle family for around 160 million euros, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday.

Reuters reports:

The Della Valle family owns luxury goods group Tod’s and, since 2002, the Florence-based club who last season narrowly escaped relegation.

The source said ACF Fiorentina’s owner, Diego Della Valle, and Commisso met today at Tod’s offices in Milan and that a deal could be struck as soon as today or Wednesday.

Commisso, born in Calabria, is Chairman and CEO of Mediacom, the fifth largest U.S. cable company.

He owns the New York Cosmos.

Following the cancellation of the 2018 North American Soccer League season amid legal wrangling, a team branded as New York Cosmos B now plays in the National Premier Soccer League.

Commisso made a failed offer last year to buy a controlling stake in Serie A club AC Milan.

W Series has announced the appointment of Tracey Keenan to the new board director role of Chief Commercial Officer.

Tracey joins W Series with a wealth of commercial experience, most recently with WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), where she was Vice President and General Manager of WWE’s UK and Ireland business (its largest and most successful business outside the USA) and was responsible for the monetisation of broadcast, digital and OTT platforms, live events, sponsorship, licensing and marketing.

Prior to joining WWE, she also worked for BBC and News Corporation and led the commercial partnership programme at Tottenham Hotspur FC.

She said: “I’m thrilled to be joining W Series, which in its first season is already democratising motorsport and adding a compelling new competition to the rapidly growing roster of women’s sports globally.

“I’ve been impressed with what W Series has accomplished so far, and firmly believe that it can build on its early achievements and attract investment and sponsorship on an international scale. Women’s sport is undoubtedly a growth area for fans, investors and sponsors alike, and it’s already clear that W Series is about great racing as well as diversity.”

iSportconnect is collaborating with @SportsContentStrategy, a podcast by @MrRichardClarke exploring sports content, digital and social media by talking to players, executives, coaches, creators and specialists.

In the latest episode of the SportsContentStrategy podcast, Richard Clarke speaks to Simon Chadwick, Professor of Sports Enterprise & Director of Centre for Sports Business, University of Salford, about ‘soft power’ in sport. He argues this has led to disenchantment among sports fans and he is suggesting a solution.

“There is some disengagement when your club is owned by a foreigner but, equally, there’s a danger of disengagement from clubs owned by British investors, because in many cases, they simply cannot compete.

“I am a firm advocate of something like a climate change summit for football because I genuinely believe that we have fundamental issues that we need to address.”

“This should include fans, broadcasters, clubs, players, local communities and social media companies. We all need to reach a consensus about what we want football to be.”

“Right now I sense the game is still an incredibly powerful socio-cultural institution. It’s still compelling, dramatic, it still draws people in, there’s still a lot of excitement and emotion and love. But notwithstanding that, I think there’s an incredible sense of alienation across football from those whose clubs that are owned by people they’ve never even met who are not from the town and those people don’t really care right through to people like me, a local guy whose club is owned by another local guy. He loves the club, but they’re never going to win anything because they just he just simply doesn’t have the resources.

“As we’ve seen with climate change, everybody’s got vested interests. This is just part and parcel of being a human being and everyday life. So when it comes to football, it’s nothing different. But effectively the British government, certainly over the last 25 years since the inception of the Premier League, has done nothing. So effectively, a free market has ruled in football. We’ve done nothing either to stop or moderate or to control it in any meaningful way. But it’s not just us in the UK, it’s France, Spain, Germany and elsewhere. The European Union has done nothing because its sport policy has effectively been focused on participation. It’s not been focused on protecting its industrial assets.”

“I think certainly there’s an opportunity going forward for there to be some kind of ‘football parliament’ for want of a better term whereby the important stakeholders and I’m not just talking about people with money, I’m talking about fans, communities, supporters trusts, grassroots football projects, but equally Sky, Amazon and MasterCard plus and Manchester United and Real Madrid.”

“All of us to have a voice and all of us deserve to be heard. And we need to consensually negotiate a way forward and to establish a vision for OUR football and OUR heritage.”

To list to the complete interview, click here.

Ferrari have decided to join Formula One’s esports for the first time, thus ensuring all 10 teams will line up on the virtual grid in this year’s world championship.

Reuters reports:

The Italian brand opted not to participate in the first two seasons of the official F1 esports championship but Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto had recently said they plan to enter this season.

Mercedes won both titles last year, as in the real world.

Julian Tan, Formula One’s Head of growth and Esports, said Ferrari’s inclusion was a “momentous milestone” for the virtual championship.

“It’s really exciting to see that all of F1’s teams have bought into the vision,” he said.

“They see the huge potential of esports within Formula 1 and they recognize the importance of the program as part of our wider objective of reaching out to a new audience.

“We’re really looking forward to working with all of the teams to make this season a success.”

The esports championship will kick off with a Pro Draft in July, which will determine each team’s driver line-up ahead of the four live events to decide the champion between September and December.

Formula One has more than doubled the prize money for this year’s esports world championship, with the virtual teams racing for a very real pot of $500,000 compared to last year’s $200,000.

“Season 3 is going to be bigger and better,” Tan added.

“We’ve already had this huge expansion in our online qualifying competition, and our draft is going to be bigger as we have all 10 teams involved and all of them will be picking at least one driver from the draft.”

A major gambling expansion in Illinois that will give Chicago its first casino, allow betting on sports and raise money for a massive infrastructure program won final approval on Sunday in the state legislature.

The Democratic-controlled state Senate also took final votes to pass a $40.1 billion general funds budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 after the state House of Representatives completed its work on Saturday.

Reuters reports:

Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker, who has said he looks forward to signing the gaming expansion bill, applauded lawmakers for completing “one of the most ambitious and consequential legislative sessions in this state’s history.”

“We worked hard in a bipartisan fashion to pass a budget and to get a massive, important infrastructure bill passed,” Pritzker told reporters.

The governor had pushed for sports betting, and legislation was approved to allow it at casinos, racetracks and sports venues.

Eight U.S. states currently offer sports betting, while four other states have approved it so far this year.

Illinois, which already has 10 casinos, would add six more, with Chicago getting its first, which would be privately owned, along with slots at the city’s O’Hare and Midway Airports.

Chicago’s share of casino revenue would be earmarked for its underfunded police and firefighter pension funds.

The bulk of new gambling revenue, along with money from higher taxes on vehicle fuel, parking, cigarettes and other measures, would help fund a $45 billion, six-year “Rebuild Illinois” capital plan for roads, bridges, mass transit, schools, universities, and other projects.

Illinois, which has the lowest credit ratings among states, would take on considerably more debt after lawmakers approved $20.8 billion of bonds for capital improvements and an additional $1.2 billion of bonds to put a dent in the state’s backlog of unpaid bills, which currently totals an estimated $6.3 billion.

A huge $133.5 billion unfunded pension liability and chronic structural budget deficits have pushed Illinois’ ratings down to a notch or two above the junk level.

With credit rating analysts closely watching the state’s fiscal progress, Pritzker’s office, citing an unexpected revenue surge in April, dropped a plan to reduce fiscal 2020 pension contributions.

The full $8.37 billion pension payment is included in the budget, which lawmakers said was balanced. The spending plan counts on new revenue from internet retailers, an assessment on managed healthcare organizations and a tax amnesty program.

Last month, the legislature voted to put a constitutional amendment on the November 2020 ballot asking voters to adopt graduated personal income tax rates to replace the current flat rate. Pritzker championed the amendment as a way to raise about $3.4 billion annually to address the state’s fiscal woes.

Lawmakers also made Illinois the 11th state to legalize recreational marijuana for adults, a move that could raise as much as $500 million a year once fully implemented.

The former International Tennis Federation Director of Development, Dave Miley, has formally joined four other men in the running to become the new President of the governing body, after being confirmed by the ITF as an official candidate.

The President of the ITF and the 14 members of the Board of Directors will be elected at the ITF Annual General Meeting on September 27, 2019 in Lisbon.

Other confirmed candidates are:

• Incumbent ITF President David Haggerty of the USA (photo below), seeking a second four-year term.
• Ivo Kaderka of the Czech Republic
• Anil Khanna of India

Miley has been nominated by Tennis Ireland.

Speaking at Roland Garros in Paris, he said: “The tennis family is not working together as it should.  We are still too fragmented, interests are not always aligned and some have vested interests that are holding tennis back.  While our sport is growing in some important markets, there are worrying declines in participation in North America and Europe for example.”