The NBA has taken a big step in connecting directly with children and young players with the launch of the first Jr. NBA World Championship which wrapped up in Florida this past weekend.

The global basketball tournament for 13 and 14-year-old boys and girls from around the world took place at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando from August 7-12.

Insights into the genesis and aims of the new event will be on the agenda at the iSportconnect Brands Masterclass on September 18, where Dan Rossomondo, the NBA’s Senior VP, Head of Global Media and Business Development, will be bringing his experience and wisdom to the discussions.

The new event brought together more than 300 young players from 16 U.S. and 16 international teams, representing Africa & the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Canada, China, Europe, India, Mexico and South America.

The NBA has been working with the rest of basketball to put on the new event. All participating coaches had to be licensed by USA Basketball or FIBA.

Festivities tipped off with an opening ceremony and celebratory parade at Disney’s Magic Kingdom Park.

Fox Sports aired 16 Jr. World Championship games under a three-year deal. All of the games were simulcast on the Fox Sports app, which provides live streaming video content through iOS and Android devices.

Dan will be taking part in the Brands Masterclass panel on Embracing Technology, just ahead of the NBA China Games and then the start of the NBA season October 16.

The NBA China Games 2018 will feature two preseason games between the Dallas Mavericks and Philadelphia 76ers, both in China for the first time. They will play in Shanghai at the Mercedes-Benz Arena on October 5, followed by a re-match on October 8 in Shenzhen at the Shenzhen Universiade Center.

The NBA London Game 2019 will feature a regular-season game between the Washington Wizards and the New York Knicks at The O2 next January 17. It will be the ninth regular-season game in London.

“We work closely with our partners ahead of these international events so that they really deliver relevant value for them,” he said. “How we use technology to help do that is one of the things I look forward to talking about at the Masterclass.”

The iSportconnect Brands Masterclass takes place at the offices of Pinsent Masons in London and September 18.

The Overwatch League is poised to add an esports franchise in Toronto for the second OWL season starting on September 9.

Activision Blizzard, publisher of games such as Call of Duty and Starcraft, is undergoing final negotiations with a group led by Canadian entrepreneur Michael Kimel to sell a Toronto slot in the Overwatch League, league sources told ESPN.

Activision Blizzard Esports Leagues CEO Pete Vlastelica told German financial paper Handelsblatt in May that the plan was to sell six OWL slots across North America, Europe and Asia-Oceania. Deals are now in place, or near, for Atlanta, Guangzhou, Paris and Toronto. That leaves two more in the next three weeks.

The league is reportedly finalizing a deal for Paris with McCourt Global, Los Angeles-based parent company of Ligue 1 club Olympique de Marseille, headed by former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.

The family of Stan Kroenke, owner of Premier League club Arsenal as well as the NFL Los Angeles Rams and NBA Dever Nuggets, already owns an OWL team.

Other Overwatch franchise owners already include New England Patriots (NFL) ownership The Kraft Group, New York Mets (MLB) sister company Sterling VC, and Philadelphia Flyers (NHL) parent Comcast Spectacor.

The new Toronto slot is expected to sell for $35 million, ESPN said. In the first season, the league sold its 12 franchises for $20 million each.

At the beginning of this month, the league confirmed selling franchises to Atlanta Esports Ventures, a group co-funded by Georgia-based conglomerate Cox Enterprises, and Guangzhou, China, to Guangzhou Long-Lions parent company Nenking Group.

“After thrilling fans with an amazing Grand Finals at the Barclays Center, we’re excited to follow that up by expanding the Overwatch League next season,” said Vlastelica. “We’re pleased to add the Atlanta and Guangzhou teams to the ownership group, and we look forward to bringing the league to even more fans across both regions in 2019.”

“We know Atlanta and Guangzhou have deeply engaged fan communities and we can’t wait to unveil their teams,” said Overwatch League Commissioner Nate Nanzer “As the league continues to grow, we’re looking forward to seeing more talented pros in action as more roster spots open up.”

“The esports phenomenon is only getting bigger and the Overwatch League is at the centre of the excitement,” said Dallas Clement, chief financial officer of Cox Enterprises. “Atlanta has some of the most passionate fans in the world—and now, we get to bring this energy to the Overwatch League. We are thrilled to help lead the evolution of esports by building a team in our hometown.”

“We are so excited to bring an Overwatch League team to Guangzhou,” said Zhong Naixiong, chairman of the Nenking Group. “The Nenking Group and the Long Lions have deep roots in this region, and we can’t wait to represent our city on the world stage and make our fans proud.”

The inaugural European Championships in Glasgow and Berlin scored impressive television audiences, with viewers in 10 key European markets tuning in for a total of over 567 million hours.

In total, 44 free-to-air broadcasters and partners across Europe and worldwide covered the seven-sport Championships from August 2-12.

The EBU and its Eurovision Media Services arm, Host Broadcaster of the multi-sport event, delivered about 10 hours of content per day across television, radio and digital platforms in innovative style.

The top average audience across the 10 countries totalled 20 million viewers on the closing Sunday August.

In Norway, NRK achieved an 80% market share for the conclusion of the 1500m and 400m hurdles.

In Germany, ARD/ZDF reported over 43 million viewers watched at least one broadcast from the Championships. The finals of the athletics in Berlin drew 5+ million viewers on ARD for the finals on the Sunday, while the women’s 4x100m relay reached a five-minute peak 6+ million on ZDF.

In the UK, BBC reported a peak audience of 6.4 million with an overall reach of 20 million. BBC also received 2.9 million online programme requests.

In comparison to previous individual European Championships, some of the smaller sports saw their viewing figures soar. In Germany, triathlon, rowing and golf saw large audiences across the event, while Poland tripled the audience for rowing compared to the 2017 European Rowing Championships.

ARD Sports Co-ordinator Axel Balkausky said: “We have reached more viewers than we thought possible. The market shares of the individual sports have almost doubled compared to single transmissions.”

Ron Chakraborty, BBC Lead Executive, said: “The European Championships created a lot of buzz. You couldn’t really miss it across the BBC. As a result, it has created far more press and publicity and put a much bigger spotlight on the events than had we just been sharing individual sports.”

Stefan Kürten, Director EBU Sport, said: “The EBU and its Members are the leading broadcast partners for the success of multi-sports events in Europe.

“Together with our Members and other stakeholders – including the participating sports federations, host cities and ECM – we have been fully committed to the concept of the European Championships from the outset as we were convinced that a further loss of relevance for European Olympic sports had to be avoided.

“Only the combined power of Europe’s public service broadcasters, driven by the EBU, could have brought this innovative event from vision to reality and we are delighted by its success.”

Betting brands account for nearly half the shirt sponsors of Premier League clubs this season, easily the biggest product category. There are nine different betting brands sponsoring teams.

However, this preeminence of betting brands is unlikely to be a long-term phenomenon, according to a leading sponsorship expert.

The proportion of betting brands as shirt sponsors, at the same level last season, has expanded steadily since 2002, when Fulham signed Betfair as the first betting brand for its shirt.

“Betting companies are doing all they can to gain exposure because time is limited for them to market themselves the way they have been doing,” Nigel Currie of NC Partnership told iSportconnect.

“There are calls for regulation and there will probably be restrictions coming along. It’s like what happened to tobacco companies back in the day.”

Fulham, promoted to the Premiership this season, is now sponsored by Dafabet. Also promoted, Wolverhampton has betting brand W88 as its shirt sponsor.

They make up for the loss of two betting brands worn by relegated clubs, Stoke City (Bet365) and Swansea (Letou).

“The Premier League is a fantastic vehicle for the betting companies,” said Currie, a long-time member of the iSportconnect community. “It’s such a competitive business and there are so many betting companies, they are an obvious target for the clubs.”

If restrictions on betting sponsorship do come in, Currie foresees the sponsorship picture holding up well regardless.

“If you go back to tobacco, everybody thought losing that sector for sponsorship would be a disaster. But new companies and new brands and new sectors arrived to fill the gap.”

“I think the same thing will happen more or less. There is always a new sector around the corner.”

Burnley, which replaced Dafabet with betting brand LaBa360 this season, finished seventh in the league in 2017-18, the highest finish for a betting-sponsored team.

Other Premiership clubs wearing betting sponsors this season are M88 Bournemouth (M88), Crystal Palace (ManBetX), Everton (Sport Pesa), Huddersfield (Ope Sports), Newcastle Fan88 and West Ham (Betway).

The dominance of betting sponsors resembles the situation in 1995, when 10 Premier League clubs had technology brands as shirt sponsors. Now there are none.

Since the creation of the league, technology has been the single biggest source of main sponsors, according to the Financial Times.