How LaLiga Has Embraced VAR

VAR (video assistant referee) technology, one of the most talked-about developments in global football over recent years, already plays a big part in the matches of Spain’s LaLiga (as the video below shows).

VAR provides a new way to help referees make more accurate decisions, but as with all technology, success depends on how well it is implemented and understood.

LaLiga has seen the importance of VAR since it was approved for experimentation by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) in early 2016. Since then, it has led a unique training programme that has involved workshops, studying other leagues, simulations for referees and communications with clubs, media and fans.

The programme is unlike anything that has taken in place in Europe to this point and remains available to any club, league or official that wants to study the technology better. In recent months, FIFA and the English Premier League have examined how LaLiga’s deployment of VAR could be replicated in their own competitions.

There is good reason for other competitions to study LaLiga’s approach. With refereeing accuracy jumping to 98.8% this season, after the introduction of VAR, it’s clear that the methods are quickly proving their worth.

“The key to VAR success is transparency and communication”, said Sergio Sánchez Castañer, Technology Director for LaLiga’s VAR project. “From the first day we knew that it could be a success in Spain but not before we brought all of the stakeholders together to understand the aims of VAR and how to use it. We convinced the Spanish federation (RFEF) and IFAB of this which I think is key to the results we are seeing today.”

Read the full story here.

Football Esports: “More Structured Future Lies Ahead”

A more traditional sports structure is on the horizon for the world of esports, according to an adviser to the winning team of the FIFA eClub World Cup in London this month.

“At present there is still a clash of cultures between football and football esports,” said Daniel Luther, founder of the agency ESB Marketing Netzwerk, which works closely with tournament winner King Esports.

“Football has been around for over 100 years and is very structured, while esports is a new sport. But restrictions will definitely be coming in the future.”

King Esports, the tournament favourite, was the first team not from a football club to win the event, defeating the pair from Ligue 1 team Dijon, making a surprise appearance in the final.

In fact, the Dijon payers were on loan from Team Vitality, an esports organisation part owned by Dijon club President Olivier Decourt.

Vitality have teams across multiple games and have recently found surprising success in League of Legends.

Brian Savary, the Dijon esports manager, told iSportconnect that one of the great things about esports competition is that it enables Dijon to play the likes of Manchester City – when the clubs are unlikely to meet on the football pitch.

Watch the video to hear what they said.

Online Matchmaker Hooks Cricket Club Up With New Sponsor

Online sponsorship marketplace Connexi today announced a partnership between Middlesex Cricket and management consultancy JMAN Group that was secured via the new platform.

Middlesex’s Royal London One-Day Cup shirts will, from this season, be sporting the JMAN logo on the front, and it will also appear on the back of the club’s Vitality Blast shirt and on the collar of the County Championship shirt.

JMAN Group will also benefit from in-ground pitch-side advertising and corporate hospitality at Lord’s, the Middlesex home ground.

Launched in October 2018, Connexi has an exclusive partnership with SMG Insight, the sports sponsorship research arm of YouGov, and provides data, insights and detailed search functionality to enable partners to find each other.

Connexi recently named Charl Malan as Managing Director. He joins from Imperial Brands.

 

Cycling-Friendly Copenhagen Welcomes Tour de France

Copenhagen will host the start of the Tour de France in 2021 in a first for Denmark, and city officials say it will be the biggest sports event ever held in the country.

The opening stage on July 2 two years from now will be a 13-kilometre time trial around Copenhagen.

This will be followed by a 190-kilometre route from Roskilde to Nyborg and then a 170-kilometre stage from Vejle to Sønderborg on the following day.

Copenhagen Mayor Frank Jensen said: “It is a tremendous honour to host the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in 2021. The best cycling city in the world welcomes the greatest cycling race in the world.

“The Grand Depart in 2021 will be the biggest sporting event ever held in Denmark.”

“We look forward to celebrating together and showing the world our passion: the Tour de France and our unique bicycling culture.”

Check out this welcoming video from Copenhagen, which Lonely Planet named as the most cycling-friendly city in the world.

Also in the News…

  • Marriott International and Manchester United today announced a multi-year marketing partnership, giving the 120 million members of the Marriott Bonvoy travel programme exclusive opportunities for Manchester United football experiences, including the chance to become the club’s Stadium Announcer or Kit Manager for the day. With the Marriott Bonvoy travel programme, members have access to a portfolio of global brands and properties in 130 countries and territories, plus other member benefits.Have a look at the star-powered videos related to the new deal here.
  • The French Fencing Federation (FFE) has officially recognised lightsaber duelling as a competitive sport. The federation  is now equipping fencing clubs with lightsabers as seen in Star Wars and training instructors. FFE Secretary General Serge Aubailly was quoted by AP saying: “With young people today, it’s a real public health issue. They don’t do any sport and only exercise with their thumbs. That is why we are trying to create a bond between our discipline and modern technologies, so participating in a sport feels natural.”
  • Tanaka Holdings has become a Tokyo 2020 Official Supporter, the third domestic tier of the sponsorship programme for the Games, as the partner in the category of Precious Metals and Jewellery. The deal brings the total number of Tokyo 2020 domestic partners to 59, including 15 Gold Partners, 30 Official Partners and 14 Official Supporters (including one Official Supporter which sponsors only the Paralympic Games).

Also in the News…

  • Marriott International and Manchester United today announced a multi-year marketing partnership, giving the 120 million members of the Marriott Bonvoy travel programme exclusive opportunities for Manchester United football experiences, including the chance to become the club’s Stadium Announcer or Kit Manager for the day. With the Marriott Bonvoy travel programme, members have access to a portfolio of global brands and properties in 130 countries and territories, plus other member benefits.Have a look at the star-powered videos related to the new deal here.
  • The French Fencing Federation (FFE) has officially recognised lightsaber duelling as a competitive sport. The federation  is now equipping fencing clubs with lightsabers as seen in Star Wars and training instructors. FFE Secretary General Serge Aubailly was quoted by AP saying: “With young people today, it’s a real public health issue. They don’t do any sport and only exercise with their thumbs. That is why we are trying to create a bond between our discipline and modern technologies, so participating in a sport feels natural.”
  • Tanaka Holdings has become a Tokyo 2020 Official Supporter, the third domestic tier of the sponsorship programme for the Games, as the partner in the category of Precious Metals and Jewellery. The deal brings the total number of Tokyo 2020 domestic partners to 59, including 15 Gold Partners, 30 Official Partners and 14 Official Supporters (including one Official Supporter which sponsors only the Paralympic Games).

Champions League Tops Viewing In Italy

The UEFA Champions League match between Atlético Madrid and Juventus last night was a big winner for public television in Italy.

RAI 1 pulled 6.878 million viewers for the game as Wednesday’s top programme, two and a half times more than the show in second place. The Madrid team’s victory earned a 25.5% market share.

In The Netherlands, where football often generates big audience numbers even when there is no local side on the pitch, the game was only number 10 for the day.

Veronica pulled 860,000 viewers and a market share of 16.6%

In Spain, France, Germany and the UK, the match was not on free-TV.

Yahoo Sports Moves Into Fan Subscription Business

The New York Mets are teaming with Yahoo Sports to create a subscription membership platform for fans of the MLB team.

The premium experience, called Queens Baseball Club, will launch on iOS and Android on March 28, and fans can learn more.

The membership, expected to be priced at $4.99 or $5.99 per month, will offer members exclusive editorial from a team of writers dedicated to the Mets beat, community tools and access to behind the scenes content and experiences like batting practices, press conferences, and front office Q&As.

The New York Post reported that the team and Yahoo have a three-year agreement.

The team and Yahoo have a three-year agreement, according to sources. Yahoo declined to say how much it will pay the Mets. The Mets declined comment entirely.

Yahoo Sports General Manager Geoff Reiss told the Post: “I think the guys at The Athletic are really smart. They probably saw some fairly similar things that we did. There is this fairly significant delta between fans’ hunger to feel connected to a specific team and how well they were being served and, I suspect, I think there are some similarities of what we are putting together.”

“But I do believe that the way we are building this platform is significantly differentiated based on the energy we are going to be putting into these kinds of access points and the energy we are going to be putting into these communities. We think that the information component is incredibly important, but it isn’t enough to base the entire business around.”

Yahoo will begin with MLB and NBA teams, proceeding case by case, and there is no goal to cover every franchise in each sport or to have city sites.

“We will be launching steadily over the next couple of years,” Reiss said.

Reiss said there is no membership-number goal, and he will judge its success based on the aggregate number of subscribers, not on how each team reaches a specific goal.

“We would only be embarking on a business that we had a high level of confidence that could scale,” Reiss told the newspaper.

In another development, NBC Sports Group has expanded its alliance with Yahoo Sports in bringing content and programming to mobile and desktop devices.

The new agreement includes material from the Golf Channel, the NBC Regional Sports Networks and Rotoworld, which covers the world of fantasy sports.

The aim is to develop more editorial collaboration between NBC and Yahoo in targeting audiences for sports including the NFL, NHL, Premier League, auto racing, horse racing and golf.

The companies also said they will be presenting more live events and ramping up their fantasy sports game.

Paris 2024 Wants To Get The Summer Games Dancing

The World DanceSport Federation’s long campaign for a place at the top table of international sport is paying off with Breaking (breakdancing) among the four new sports competitions proposed for inclusion at in the Paris 2024 Summer Games.

Skateboarding, Sport Climbing and Surfing were also shortlisted by the Paris 2024 Organising Committee for the programme of the XXXIII Olympiad.

The package of four sports will now be considered by the IOC Executive Board next month. Should the EB approve the package, the sports will then be submitted to the IOC Session for final approval during meetings in Lausanne, Switzerland from 24-26 June.

Breaking was included in the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018.

WDSF President Shawn Tay said: “It is an incredible honour and privilege that, for the first time, a dance discipline is being considered for inclusion in the Olympic Games. It is a humbling experience for all members and supporters of DanceSport.”

Paris 2024 CEO Tony Estanguet, a three-time canoeing Olympic champion, said the inclusion of the new sports would make the Olympics “more urban” and “more artistic”.

Breaking proposed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for inclusion on the sports programme of the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

The Paris 2024 organisers proposed the four sports in response to a new level of flexibility afforded to Olympic Games Host Cities to encourage innovation in the Olympic programme. Host Cities, beginning with Tokyo 2020, now have the option of suggesting new sports and events for inclusion in their edition of the Games that are not binding on future Games hosts.

Skateboarding, Sport Climbing and Surfing were also included on the programme for Tokyo 2020.

The squash establishment expressed disappointment at the Paris choices.

In a joint statement, the World Squash Federation (WSF) and the Professional Squash Association (PSA) said: “We truly believe squash could seamlessly integrate into the Olympic programme with minimal costs and an optimised pool of participants.

“Our unique interactive glass court would allow squash to bring a lot of additional excitement and spectacular action to any iconic monument of the host city or shed a new light on less known urban areas, while also helping to engage young people in the sport from day one of the preparations and well beyond the Olympic Games.”

The World Karate Federation (WKF) said it WAS “deeply saddened” that Karate, which will make its Olympic debut at the 2020 Games but has not been included on the Paris shortlist.

“Our sport has grown exponentially over the last years, and we still haven’t had the chance to prove our value as an Olympic sport since we will be making our debut as an Olympic discipline in Tokyo 2020,” said WKF President Antonio Espinos.

Exhibition Is At The Heart Of SportAccord

SportAccord will be ramping up the amenities offered to encouraging organisations which exhibit at the 17th edition of the annual World Sport & Business Summit taking place from May 5-10, 2019, in Gold Coast, Australia.

The exhibition is considered to be an important aspect of the event. Its prime location in the middle of the convention, together with the buzzing SportAccord Café, provides an ideal setting to have business conversations, as well as enjoy the many networking events on offer throughout the week.

Susan Sawbridge, Manager, New Zealand Major Events, said: “SportAccord is the greatest annual opportunity for New Zealand to showcase its strengths, as an events destination, allowing us to connect with International Federations, other host cities and suppliers.”

You can see what the exhibition looked like during SportAccord 2018 in Bangkok here.

Nis Hatt, Managing Director of SportAccord, said: “The exhibition provides a dynamic platform and advantage for industry, cities and regions, as well as sporting bodies, to showcase their organisation – whether it’s to kick-start a new initiative or share latest developments.”

“Each year we look at ways to improve and ‘localise’ the SportAccord exhibition, and this year is no exception. With the support of Host City Gold Coast, we will be revealing some new additions for SportAccord 2019.”

You can check out the floor plan for the event this year in Queensland here.

And click here to register your interest.