New Zealand Denies World League Has Green Light

New Zealand Rugby CEO Steve Tew has said that no plans have been agreed on for the launch of a new international league of rugby nations.

The New Zealand Herald revealed this week that World Rugby has been negotiating the establishment of a 12-team World League to kick off in 2020.

The 12 nations would be the current Six Nations (England, France, Italy, Scotland, Ireland and Wales) and the current Rugby Championship sides of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina, plus Japan and USA, which would be invited to join the Rugby Championship group.

The plan would apparently leave Fiji, Samoa and Tonga out in the cold.

In a statement, Tew said: “World Rugby have been proactive and bought an idea to the table, we have been refining it over several months and a positive spin off has been some real commercial interest in backing it.“

“Having said that nothing has been decided, we have not agreed to anything at this stage and have always been working to the March World Rugby meetings as the next opportunity to discuss the details.”

“There’s no simple solution to this, but New Zealand Rugby remains committed to working through the proposals with the right people in the room.”

Leadership Masterclass: “Let’s Think About How We Make Decisions”

Calculating risk and probabilities is a fundamental part of business and being able to anticipate future trends, or even what’s likely to happen next week, has never been tougher than in these hazy days of Brexit.

For delegates at the first iSportconnect Leadership Masterclass in London next week, all the uncertainty is very much good news. It will give a timely resonance to the presentation by our guest speaker Trevor Charsley, an economist, who is the Senior Markets Advisor at global payment and risk management solutions company, AFEX.

“Are people really aware of the decision-making process and the biases that they have?” he wonders.

That will be a jumping-off point on March 6, when Trevor will share his insights on risk, decision-making and leadership. Without giving too much away, he offers a preview in the video below.

To learn more about the Masterclass, click here.

To sign up for the event, contact Chloe McCombie at info@isportconnect.com

Spain’s Famous Stadiums Are Opening Up To Women’s Football

Athletic Femenino recently broke the record for attendance at a Spanish women’s football match with 48,121 spectators at one of LaLiga’s showcase stadiums.

With encouragement and support from LaLiga, a growing number of clubs across Spain are taking the decision to stage women’s matches inside stadiums typically reserved for the men’s side, with increasingly impressive results.

None more so that San Mamés in Bilbao, where the new attendance record was set on Wednesday 30 January. A total of 48,121 were in the stands to see Athletic Femenino, the sister team of LaLiga’s Athletic Bilbao, take on Atlético Madrid in the Copa de la Reina. This attendance also surpassed anything that the men’s side had achieved up to that point in the LaLiga season.

Speaking after the game, María Tato, Deputy Secretary of Athletic Club, said: “Athletic Club fans want to see women’s football, they want to support women and they understand that it has a home here. We want this match to leave a footprint and start a movement that extends throughout Europe and the rest of the world.”

San Mamés will not be the only major stadium to stage the women’s game for the first time this year. Real Sociedad, another club in the Basque region, opened its Anoeta stadium to its women’s team in February, attracting more than 21,000 spectators.

Espanyol de Barcelona’s RCDE Stadium is also preparing to welcome their women’s team. Their Liga Iberdrola match against Atlético Madrid will be held at the 41,000-capacity venue in mid-April.

To read the full story, click here.

 

EXCLUSIVE: Inside Nike’s New Esports Deal In China

Exclusive report by Lanxiong Sports —

Nike has signed a four-year sponsorship deal with Tencent for its League of Legends Pro League (LPL), becoming one of the head partners of the top esports league.

The partnership was announced today by TJ Sports, a new joint esports venture created in January by Tencent and Riot Games on January 10.

After landing 10 sponsorship deals for the 2019 season including Mercedes-Benz, KFC, L’Oreal, Alienware, LPL signed its first deal with a sports brand.

Details of the deal are not officially disclosed, but sources familiar with it told Lanxiong Sports, the first sports business content provider in China, that Nike will spend around RMB50 million ($7.5 million, including cash and cash equivalents) a year to buy out the apparel rights of all the 16 LPL clubs.

Nike and LPL will share the sales revenue of the Nike products featured LPL elements at a confidential ratio.

A source close to LPL told Lanxiong Sports that other sports apparel companies also considered to acquire the deal with LPL, including Adidas and Chinese sports brand 361°.

Last year, executives of Adidas attended some LPL competitions and met with executives of the Riot Games several times.

TJ Sports was officially established in January, which to some extent dragged the pace of the deal; Second, there were some problems in the process of trademark registration for several LPL clubs and those clubs had to replace a newly-designed logo, which cost time, too.

The deal between Nike and LPL confirms that sports brands are showing willingness to invest real money into the esports market. For LPL itself, the investment from Nike further affirms the value of their esports IP.

With the title of 2018 League of Legends World Championship won by Chinese esports club Invictus Gaming, LPL has obtained an unprecedented influence in the esports community.

According to data revealed by TJ Sports earlier this year, the total viewership of LPL in 2018 climbed 50% to 15 billion, compared with 2017. And the final game of 2018 League of Legends World Championship had  a record 99.6 million viewership.

But in comparison with the huge viewership, the marketing value of esports has still been underestimated. Even the leading clubs in LPL can hardly have a head partner which are willing to give them RMB10 million ($1.5 million)  or more for a club naming rights fee.

Although RMB50 million ($7.5 million) a year cannot be seen as a huge number, compared with RMB300 million ($45 million) a year for the Chinese Football Association Super League (CSL) and RMB180 million ($27 million) a year of Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), it marks progress for the LPL and the esports industry.

The esports league in China, King Pro League (KPL), which is a mobile esports game also published by Tencent, has already signed an apparel sponsorship deal with HLA Jeans.

A source near the deal told Lanxiong Sports that HLA Jeans will pay around RMB10 million ($1.5 million) a year to KPL as equipment sponsor, and the official announcement will be released on the opening day of 2019 season on March 6.

The new Nike-LPL agreement still has some wrinkles to iron out.

Under the deal, all LPL players, coaches and team staff will exclusively wear Nike apparel on game days. This would create an issue for teams with existing apparel partners, or those looking to sign apparel deals in the future.

Edward Gaming (EDG), for example, was partnered with Chinese local sports brand Li-Ning before the 2018 League of Legends World Championship and the partners had the intention of reaching a long-term deal.

But Yang Guang, Director of Marketing of Li-Ning, told Lanxiong Sports in an earlier interview that the company, was aware that it would not be able to sign a sponsorship deal with EDG without violating the contract between Nike and the LPL.

As to the partition of the LPL commercial rights, Lin Song, former head of Riot Games China and current co-CEO of TJ Sports, told Lanxiong Sports in November 2018, that the league was working out a model referring to the mature sports league like NBA and European soccer leagues.

Even in the biggest leagues, the commercial rights in the apparel sector differ from one to the next. For instance, the NBA collectively sold apparel rights to Nike, but clubs in European soccer leagues can independently sign apparel deal with brands.

In October 2018, Nike collaborated on a campaign with LeBron James to promote the basketball star’s upcoming documentary Shut Up & Dribble, which featured Jian “Uzi” Ziha, a player from LPL team Royal Never Give-Up (RNG). Nike has said that was just a simple marketing campaign.

On February 27, the day before the official announcement of the Nike deal, consumers could still find the LPL’s own-branded products on the LOL Official Online Store.

The prices were RMB199 ($30) for a T-shirt, RMB319 ($47) for pants and RMB619 ($93) for coats, relatively low prices compared to the conventional sports apparel. Given that most esports fans are youngsters, whose spending power is questionable, how to price and sell the products are two main concerns for Nike.

According to the official media brochure from TJ Sports, some items of the Nike-LPL products will be put on sale publicly during 2019 LOL Mid-Season Invitation.

As for the official Nike-branded team jersey, we will not see the samples until 2019 League of Legends World Championship, and fans can buy them in 2020.

 

PUMA Deal With City Football Group Is Company’s Biggest Ever

PUMA and City Football Group have signed a global long-term partnership, which will see PUMA supply Melbourne City FC, as well as sister clubs in England, Spain, Uruguay and China.

Starting in July 2019, PUMA will be the official partner of Melbourne City FC, Manchester City FC, FC Girona, Club Atlético Torque and Sichuan Jiuniu FC, supplying all representative teams including men’s, women’s and youth football.

“PUMA’s partnership with City Football Group is the largest deal that we have ever done – both in scope and ambition,” said Bjørn Gulden, CEO of PUMA.

“We are very excited to partner with City Football Group, whose success, ambition and drive for innovation has seen them setting new standards, on and off the field. We look forward to building the most innovative partnership in football by redefining the sports partnership model both on and off the pitch.”

“We want to maximise on-field performance as well as football culture, in areas such as music, gaming and fashion to connect and inspire the fanbase of each team.”

“This announcement marks the start of an exciting new chapter for City Football Group,” said Ferran Soriano, CEO of City Football Group.  “Our relationship with PUMA, covering five City Football Group clubs across four continents, will reset the model for sports partnerships on a truly global scale whilst being locally relevant and authentic for fans around the world.”

“PUMA share our vision for challenging expectations, and we are looking forward to what we believe will be a ground-breaking partnership.”

PUMA and Manchester City are already linked via several player partnerships, including Caroline Weir, Pauline Bremer and Nikita Parris in the Women’s Team in addition to men’s club captain Vincent Kompany, midfielder David Silva and striker Sergio Agüero, who famously scored in the last seconds of City’s final game of the 2011-12 season to clinch the first of three league titles for the club in the modern era.

“Federations Must Become More Creative And Commercial”

In photo above: ASOIF President Francesco Ricci Bitti and Executive Director Andrew Ryan

The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) today launched its report on the Future of Global Sport, aggregating the views of thought leaders and decision-makers from sport, business and government, and laying out a vision for the future of sport over the next 20 years.

The report addresses political, social, technological, legal and economic influences, all of which are impacting International Federation decision-making and the model under which sport will be managed going forward.

ASOIF President Francesco Ricci Bitti said: “ASOIF has invested significant resources in this project and we believe the results will help IFs to better understand, anticipate and react to the changes and trends confronting them.”

“In fact, some of the outlined future scenarios may serve as a wake-up call. This report invites us all to challenge our thinking at ASOIF and encourage our members to challenge their own.”

Key findings of the report include:

  • IFs must demonstrate an exemplary standard of governance in order to maintain the confidence of the media, governments, business and the public at large while also protecting the integrity of their sports;
  • IFs will need to develop a more proactive, creative, commercially driven and collaborative mind set, re-evaluating their role and strategies in favour of increased partnership with the private sector;
  • IFs will need to embrace “digital” in earnest, transforming their business models, organisational designs and operational cultures;
  • Today’s sporting event model will evolve so that true partnerships entailing closer cooperation and balanced risk-sharing among and between stakeholders, including business and government agencies will be a requirement;
  • Athletes with sufficient following are gaining influence in today’s disintermediated media landscape and will need to be offered greater incentives to compete in established events;
  • In order to attract new people to participate in and consume their sports, IFs must adapt their strategies to a changing society and to how, in future, people will discover and consume content;
  • If they adapt, IFs will remain widely accepted as unique bodies effectively capable of governing and administrating their sports on a worldwide basis as custodians of the rules, training of judges, managing the events calendar and coordinating and funding global development initiatives etc; and
  • It will become increasingly important to have an effective “umbrella” organisation working to promote and defend the Olympic IFs’ collective common interests given the range of major common challenges that IFs share but can never be expected to address individually.
  • Following-up on these findings, the report concludes with a blueprint for IFs to adapt and take advantage of the opportunities presented by today’s disrupted and competitive sporting landscape. This consists of ten recommendations for IFs related to two equally important themes of governance and entrepreneurialism.

The report will also provide ASOIF with guidance and a basis for prioritisation, particularly in relation to its work on establishing a solid future role for IFs, as the involvement of both public authorities (governments) and private business interests in sport continues to grow.To see the entire report click here.

Clipper Race: “We’ve Become More International”

It has been 50 years since Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, now Chairman of The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, made history by becoming the first man to sail solo and non-stop around the globe in 1968-69.

One of nine sailors to compete in the Times Golden Globe Race, Sir Robin set off from Falmouth, with no sponsorship, on his yacht on a voyage that was to last 312 days at sea.

Sir Robin wanted everyone to have the opportunity to experience the challenge and sheer exhilaration of ocean racing and to make it possible in 1995, with William Ward, he co-founded the Clipper Race, one of the biggest challenges of the natural world and an endurance test like no other.

With no previous sailing experience necessary, it’s a record breaking 40,000 nautical mile race around the world on a 70-foot ocean racing yacht.

One of the big changes since the project began is that the crews have become more international.

“In the last race, there were more non-Brits than Brits taking part, the first time that has ben the case,” Sir Robin told iSportconnect in this exclusive interview. “We deliberately tried to make it more international and that’s beginning to work.”

Leadership Masterclass Will Feature Insights From FIFA C-Suite And Sunderland Co-Owner

iSportconnect is pleased to announce that Luis Vicente, Chief Digital Transformation & Innovation Officer of FIFA, will be a guest speaker at the inaugural Leadership Masterclass on Wednesday 6th March 2019 at the offices of EY in the City of London. Joining him on the programme will be Charlie Methven, Director and Co-Owner of Sunderland AFC and Chairman of Dragon Advisory.

Luis became FIFA’s Chief Digital Transformation & Innovation Officer in September 2018, after being a leader in Digital Transformation & Innovation since January 2018. Prior to his role at FIFA, Luis was chief executive of 3vs Sports Partners. He has assumed a leading role as sports transformation evangelist, working in senior executive roles or provide C-level consultancy services to some of the world’s greatest brands in multiple sports: Red Bull, Ferrari, Lotus, A1GP, Manchester City FC and Valencia CF as well as assuming leading roles at commercial and innovation working groups at global soccer organisations such as the Premier League, LaLiga or ECA.

Charlie is an Executive Director at Sunderland AFC and a top international Public Relations expert, ranked by Spear’s Wealth in November 2017 as “outstanding in field” and amongst the top 10 reputation managers in London.

He has run successful Public Relations agencies for over a decade, acting as Managing Director of New Century Media for five years from 2006, before going on to found Dragon Advisory in September 2011. Prior to entering the world of public relations consultancy, Charlie had a stellar career on national newspapers. Starting as a reporter on the Sporting Life, he eventually became a columnist and leader writer on the Daily Telegraph, where he had previously edited the paper’s famous Peterborough column. He has also written for the Spectator, the Evening Standard and a wide range of other periodicals.

Created in response to high demand from our senior executive members, this new Masterclass will help attendees gain greater understanding of the leadership challenges faced by the sports business industry today.

With a maximum of 150 invite-only delegates, iSportconnect provides a media/agency free opportunity to network with influential senior-level sports business executives. We are famous for our intimate and relaxed environment, encouraging ideas exchange and helping to introduce you to the right new connections.

To register your interest in attending the 2019 Leadership Masterclass, please contact Chloe at info@isportconnect.com

Invitation Policy: The Leadership Masterclass is a complimentary event for iSportconnect members who are from governing bodies, sports teams, brands and broadcasters. There is no fee to become an iSportconnect member. No sports agencies, professional service providers & suppliers are allowed.

For limited partnership opportunities, please contact Hugo at info@isportconnect.com

“New Davis Cup Will Give Global Tennis Stability”

This year’s edition of the Davis Cup will be the 108th in the history of the biggest international team tennis competition, and the very first in a brand-new format that promises to give the event a huge boost in profile and popularity

There will be 18 teams taking part in the Finals from November 18-24 in Madrid, as the World Group becomes a single event focusing global attention. A total of 133 nations have been competing this year.

In this exclusive interview, David Haggerty, President of the International Tennis Federation, offers an inside perspective on the transformation taking place under the ground-breaking investment by Kosmos Group, founded by Barcelona FC star Gerard Piqué.

“We were very proud that an outside company came in and told us, we love tennis, and we want to invest significantly in tennis and be your partner,” Haggerty said in the interview at the ITF headquarters in London

The ITF has been exploring how to reinvigorate the Davis Cup for about five years, the federation president told interviewer Ben Barker, the Commercial Director of digital fan experience specialist Monterosa.

“The new format will give our member nations greater confidence and stability for a minimum of 25 years, so that they can drive the development of tennis,” Haggerty said.

The new Finals will feature shorter showdowns between nations with best-of-three matches replacing best-of-five (and each match will also be best-of-three instead of best-of-five).

 

Table Tennis Names 12Bet Partner For World Championships

The ITTF has confirmed 12BET as Official International Betting Partner for the biggest table tennis event of the year, the Liebherr 2019 ITTF World Championships, taking place in Budapest from April 21-28.

The partnership will see digital and social media activations carried out during the World Championships, promoting the 12BET brand throughout the world and particularly in Asia, whilst driving fan engagement through competitions and the chance to win special prizes!

Following the successful partnership with 12BET at the 2018 ITTF Team World Cup in London, the ITTF is looking forward to teaming up again to enhance the brand and user experience during the sport’s most followed event of the year.

Last year’s World Championships in Halmstad, Sweden, drew a worldwide TV and OTT audience of approximately 725 million people, almost 550 million impressions across ITTF social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Weibo) and close to 1 million video views on YouTube.

Rory Anderson, 12Bet CEO for Europe, said: “12BET is very pleased to have secured a second partnership with the ITTF following the 2018 ITTF Team World Cup, a superb event which achieved impressive marketing and media results.”

“With the World Championships being the biggest Table Tennis event in the annual calendar, we are excited to be on that global sporting and marketing platform again and look forward to witnessing the very best players from around the globe compete for the most coveted world titles.”

Jonny Cowan, ITTF Europe Marketing Manager, said: “It was a pleasure to work with the 12BET team last year at the 2018 ITTF Team World Cup, and we are very pleased that 12BET are extending their relationship with table tennis. The ITTF is committed to building long-term partnerships with our sponsors, and we believe we have the events, TV viewers, data and social media strategy to generate significant ROI compared to other sporting properties.”