A UFC bout on Saturday evening in the USA scored the highest rating in the 18-49 demographic in its time slot.

In a week consisting mostly of reruns the fight between Kevin Lee and Al Iaquinta (in photo) on FOX scored a 0.7 rating among 18-49s, the best for shows starting at 8 pm, although the audience of 2.15 million trailed repeats of Dateline on NBC (3.33 million) and NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS (3.01 million).

The 18-49 rating for the UFC was 0.2 higher than FOX scored for its broadcast of the season-ending 2018 MLS Cup last week, which had a 0.5 in the same demographic.

UEFA Champions League action again topped the Italian ratings on Wednesday night as public broadcaster RAI continues to ride high in its first season as the live window for big matches.

The 2-1 home victory of Swiss team Young Boys over Juventus attracted 4.393 million viewers on RAI 1 with a share of 17.8%.

In The Netherlands, Veronica also scored with the Champions League again, pulling the biggest audience of the day (except for the evening news).

The action-packed 3-3 draw between Ajax and Bayern Munich pulled 1.811 million viewers with a 30.9% audience share

The Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) and the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) signed an agreement to build up “A Business Case for Sport Integrity.”

This initiative is a key component of the implementation of the Kazan Action Plan, approved by the world sport Ministers’ Conference in 2017.

The primary purpose of the partnership is to foster a meaningful increase of government investment in the promotion and protection of sport integrity.

The project aims to gather empirical evidence and establish a business case, demonstrating the political, economic and social benefits of protecting the integrity of sport and, notably, the return on investments in this area.

It also aims to raise the awareness of government decision-makers and encourage them to invest in the protection of sport integrity.

Attendees at the launch of the partnership at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris included senior representatives from the UN and European governments, as Kenya, Mexico, Qatar, Malaysia, Gambia, Russia, Mozambique, Madagascar, Cameroon and others.

Other attending organisations included the Union Internationale d’Avocats, the Sport Employer’s representative organisation (COSMOS), the Union des Clubs Professionelles de Football, beIN Sports, Sorbonne University, ADIT and Transparency International (France).

SIGA CEO Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros said: “Governments acknowledge that sport pursues a mission of public interest. It has the potential to positively shape, influence and enrich society, communities and individual lives. It can act as a catalyst for economic development, create revenue streams, employment opportunities and technological advances.

“It is therefore only logical that Governments support and invest in the protection of integrity of sport in the same way they invest in other key sectors. This joint project with UNESCO and its member States aims to foster the due government investment in the promotion and protection of sport integrity. Investing in sport, with transparency and accountability, is the right thing to do. It will yield significant benefits for governments and its citizens.”

Nada Al-Nashif, Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO, said: “Sport integrity is not mainly a matter of compliance with standards for elite competitions but an important vector for citizenship, justice and security.

“We are pleased that SIGA accepted our proposal to use its collective intelligence and convening power to carry out this project of a Business Case for Investing in Sport Integrity. In line with the leitmotif of Agenda 2030 to ‘leave no one behind’, the result of this project will help reduce capacity gaps by helping to measure and demonstrate the relevance of sport integrity for specific SDGs and targets.”

Eleven Sports is working to preserve rights deals for LaLiga and other properties to carry on its fledgling OTT service in the UK and Ireland.

Eleven Sports was to have become the new home of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in those territories January, but it has confirmed difficulties in securing the necessary additional carriage agreements in order to supplement its own streaming platform.

Eleven Sports told the Daily Telegraph that the service is in talks to restructure its deals for LaLiga and Serie A, among other rights.

A spokesperson told the newspaper: “Without carriage agreements with the existing platforms, alongside the challenges posed by rampant piracy, the current market dynamics in the UK and Ireland are very hostile for new entrants.

“We are in discussions with our rights partners, La Liga and IMG, about how we can restructure our existing agreements in order to continue our current OTT service.”

In July Eleven Sports announced a strategic partnership with IMG securing Serie A rights in the UK and Ireland.

LaLiga reached an agreement with Eleven Sports earlier in the year for streaming as well as other rights. The Spanish league is not commenting on the current situation.

THE SPOT has opened registration for the sport and innovation event from May 28-29, 2019, in Lausanne, Switzerland, with an early-bird price of CHF300 for the first 100 tickets.

After the successful inaugural edition this year, THE SPOT expects to draw over 1000 delegates in year two to the SwissTech Convention Center.

• In the Marketplace and the Demo Zone, participants will be able to present and discover brand new products and solutions with changing stands every day.
• A conference and workshops in non-traditional formats will connect the participants with pioneers in innovation and generate exceptional conversations.
• Dozens of young companies will go toe-to-toe in a start-up battle where your vote will go toward crowning the ultimate champion.
• Numerous networking opportunities will make THE SPOT the birthplace of new cross-sector partnerships and projects.

Several speakers have been confirmed already, including:

• Kim Blair, senior manager at Exponent, Inc., and MIT Sports Innovation Programme founder
• Benjamin Penkert, founder of SportsTechX and head of consulting at leAD Sports
• Anna Rozwandowicz, co-founder of The Story Mob
• Ian Smith, integrity commissioner at Esports Integrity Coalition (ESIC)
• Mounir Zok, co-founder and managing director at N3XT Sports

THE SPOT is organised jointly by ThinkSport, the Swiss Tech Convention Center, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), the University of Lausanne (UNIL) and the Canton of Vaud.

Go to www.thespot2019.org to join in the adventure and register.

As the high-profile playoffs get into full swing, Major League Baseball is digesting another decline in total attendance for the marathon regular season of 162 games per team.

Total attendance of 69.67 million, a decline of 4.1% from last year, was the lowest since 2003.

Average attendance dropped to 28,830, the lowest since 2003 after 14 consecutive seasons topping 30,000.

In a season unusually cold and a large number of rained out games, attendance fell for 17 of the 30 teams.

The team with the best attendance for the sixth consecutive year was the Los Angeles Dodgers with with a record total of 3.86 million including their victorious NL West tiebreaker against the Rockies on October 1.

The Miami Marlins ranked last with a total of 811,104, the first team to finish below 1 million since the Montreal Expos in 2004.

The Expos moved to Washington D.C. and became the Nationals in the 2005 season.