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ITTF names China Construction Bank as the title sponsor of the 2018 ITTF-Europe

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) and the Swiss Table Tennis has signed a partnership with China Construction Bank as the title sponsor of the 2018 ITTF-Europe Top 16 Cup taking place in Montreux, Switzerland from 3-4 February 2018.

As part of the partnership, the brand will leverage the event to promote its brand in Switzerland and across the world.

Gong Weiyun, the CEO of the China Construction Bank Zurich Branch, said: “We’re very happy to be supporting this prestigious table tennis event in Montreux. We have been operating in Zurich since the end of 2015 and our operation is now growing rapidly. This is an ideal time to be promoting our brand and commercial banking services here in Switzerland, and the 2018 ITTF-Europe Top 16 Cup is a perfect platform for us to do that. We are looking forward to a great event.”

Nicolas Imhof, president of the event organising committee and president of Swiss Table Tennis, said: “We are extremely proud that China Construction Bank, the second largest bank in the world, has chosen to partner us all for the event in Montreux. Thanks to China Construction Bank and other partners, we will be able to achieve our goal of delivering a very high quality event for everyone involved. We look forward to welcoming the players, officials, volunteers, and fans, see you there!”

Ronald Kramer, president of the European Table Tennis Union said: “We are delighted that such a prestigious bank is coming on board as title sponsor. The local organising committee have been doing a thorough job in the preparation phase, and so I’m confident China Construction Bank, other partners, and the spectators will enjoy the very best of European table tennis in Montreux.”

Visa leverages Monterosa’s app to offer fans live interaction with Team GB during PyeongChang 2018

Team GB has partnered with Visa to roll out a new interactive fan app for PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games to engage audiences across the UK.

Visa will leverage Monterosa’s Sport Companion app to power live interaction with fans whilst Team GB competes at the 2018 PyeongChang.

The app which is available free of cost provides fans with all the latest news and medal standings from the competition, the event schedule highlighting all Team GB activity.

British Olympic Association, commercial Director Tim Ellerton said: “We are constantly looking at ways to engage with our fans and the app that Visa created during Rio 2016 was a huge success, which provided brilliant up to the second updates and information. Working with Monterosa we’re excited to develop and extend the scope of what the app can offer to fans and it is great to be able to share the app today in the build-up to PyeongChang 2018.”

Suzy Brown, UK and Ireland marketing director at Visa, said: “The vision we have at Visa is to be the best way to pay and be paid, for everyone, everywhere, so are very aware that more and more people are embracing mobile technology for everything from paying for their daily commute to getting live updates on their favourite sports. The app is great for anyone wanting to follow Team GB in PyeongChang and will bring supporters closer to the action in real time. We particularly urge fans to download the app to follow the progress of Team Visa athletes Billy Morgan and Elise Christie who will be aiming to win in South Korea.”

Ben Barker, commercial director, Monterosa said: “We are really excited to be working with the BOA and Visa to provide a leap forward in the fan experience for what we all hope will be a ground-breaking Olympic Winter Games for Team GB. Utilising our Sports Fan Companion app product, we’ll be letting Team GB fans get under the skin of the athletes, schedule their daily viewing and create really sharable experiences”.

The Team GB: Winter Games app is now available for free download on mobile and tablet from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Bundesliga extends broadcasting deal with Cosmote TV until 2021

Bundesliga has renewed its broadcast deal with Greek pay-TV Cosmote until 2021.

The new deal will see Cosmote Sport channels broadcast all the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 matches, including each league’s Play Offs and Supercup.

The rights package includes all 617 games from the two leagues each season, and viewers will be able to watch the coverage on Cosmote Sport channels, as well as on the Cosmote TV Go and Cosmote Replay TV OTT services.

Cosmote TV earlier secured rights to the Uefa Champions League and the Uefa Europa League until the end of the 2020/21 season.

Dugout appoints Shaun McAllister from Copa90 as its first commercial director

Dugout has appointed Shaun McAllister as its first ever commercial director to head up revenue-driving media and brand partnership activity.

Shaun in his current role will be responsible for amplifying Dugout’s story by increasing the platform’s work with brands, driving innovative use of social media and maximising the exclusive content created by Dugout’s partner clubs, players and leagues.

Prior to this, Shaun McAllister served as the EMEA sales director for Copa90, where he led the regional sales for the agency.

McAllister said: “Dugout was founded on the premise that the way the average football fan consumes football content has fundamentally changed. For today’s digital-first, millennial football fan, it’s more than just 90 minutes – they want unparalleled, behind-the-scenes access to their favourite clubs and players, and they want to be the first to share great content with their friends.”

Matthew Baxter, Dugout president, said: “Shaun brings with him fantastic experience of both football and media and we’re thrilled to have him on board. I believe that Dugout offers a great opportunity for brands to do something totally unique, and Shaun’s role in recruiting and supporting these partners will play a big part in building on the success we’ve seen since launch. I look forward to seeing Shaun’s commercial expertise develop the business further over the years to come.”

eFootball.Pro awards esports league media rights to Sportradar

eFootball.Pro, which will be launching a football esports competition together with KONAMI, has signed leading sports data and content developers Sportradar as “Official International Media Rights Distribution Partner”.

Under the terms of the multi-year partnership, the company will be the exclusive agency commercialising the live media rights for the new league’s matches, as well as distributing matchday previews and analysis, highlights, news, interviews, reports and other audiovisual content to provide the public worldwide with everything they need to understand, follow and gain insight into the new exciting league.

Sportradar will also be in charge of production across all this content, including all the live LAN (face-to-face) matches. These fixtures, whose details haven’t been unveiled yet, will be played by top-notch teams and will become a model in the electronic sports space.

eFootball.Pro’s Managing Director Javier Alonso highlights the professionalism of the company: ‘We trust in the quality of the contents produced by Sportradar and its expertise to distribute them. We hope that we together will lay the foundations of the football esports’ future and bring the spectators a unique and exciting product’.

Sportradar’s Director Media Rights Giuseppe Sampino added: ‘This league already has all the ingredients in place to ensure that it takes the world by storm. With the likes
of Piqué involved as President and Founder, Sportradar are delighted to bring our pedigree in the international sports media space together with our existing esports credentials to the table.

Fans as well as industry observers will be watching with keen interest as this league launches, flourishes and excites, and we cannot wait to be part of that evolution’. Sportradar covers more than 350,000 matches from over 50 sports every year, and lists UEFA, NBA, Bundesliga and ESL, the world’s largest esports organisation among its partners.

Sportradar will also be responsible for the distribution of other esports events that esports Media Rights (EMR), which owns eFootball.Pro, will organise. EMR competitions will go beyond football esports and one of them will be unveiled soon.

Wildmoka raises $8 million in Series A funding led by Alven

Sophia-Antipolis and Paris, February 1st, 2018 – Wildmoka, the leading live clipping, editing and publishing platform for broadcasters, announced today a Series A investment of $8 million led by venture capital investor Alven with participation from existing shareowner Apicap.

Wildmoka’s cloud video platform empowers broadcasters and content owners to unleash their fan engagement by clipping the greatest moments from live TV and events as they happen, and sharing them across web, mobile and social to give viewers what they really want – immediate access to the best highlights.

The company works with clients across all media verticals, from sports to news to entertainment. Its automated workflow technology brings one of the most advanced cloud video solutions today, and is capable of assembling and publishing content instantly towards multiple platforms, while optimising editorial effort, growing new audiences & developing innovative monetisation models.

Current customers include major media companies such as NBC Sports, NBC News, France Télévisions, CANAL+, FOX, Orange, beIN SPORTS, MBC Group, Altice (BFM & SFR), the International Tennis Federation, to name a few. In addition to its headquarters in the South of France, the company has five offices on three continents (Europe, US, and Australia).

Since its Seed Round in early 2016, the company has grown rapidly with platform deployments and has multiplied its customer base tenfold. This Series A financing will be used to further boost Wildmoka’s global commercial expansion and market presence, and to accelerate the investments in its cloud video platform. Raffi Kamber, Partner at Alven, will join Wildmoka’s board of directors.

“Live content distribution on web, mobile and social has become a core differentiator for broadcasters and content owners, both in terms of brand recognition and monetisation. By using next-gen technologies like speech-to-text, video recognition, and machine learning, Wildmoka ensures that its offering is well-timed with fans’ rapidly increasing demand for a highly personalised digital experience.

“Wildmoka provides a powerful solution for the industry and we are thrilled to collaborate with them and support them as they work to build the next media digital hub,” Raffi Kamber explained.

“We couldn’t be more excited about our partnership with Alven,” Cristian Livadiotti and Thomas Menguy, Co-Founders of Wildmoka, said. “We now have a new ambitious partner on board, who provides us not only with capital, but also with a vast strategic experience in the high-tech sector, and a proven track record in fast growth.

“While the funding will help us broaden our sales focus, most importantly, it will allow us to continue driving value for our existing customers. It means they will see more innovation from us at a faster pace.”

About Wildmoka

Founded in 2013 in the Sophia Antipolis technopole, Wildmoka is a live clipping, editing & publishing platform provider. Wildmoka’s solutions empower Content Owners and Rights Holders to deliver their live content in front of the largest digital and social audiences as quickly as possible.

The platform enables them to face the viewers’ demand for growing video content over web, mobile and social, allowing them to increase their fans engagement, grow their audience, and develop new monetisation models. For more information, please click here

About Alven

Paris-based Alven Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm with over $500 million under management. Alven backs primarily ambitious European entrepreneurs in the digital technology space. Alven’s sectors of interest include notably AI, data-driven platforms, Saas, security solutions, as well as disruptive consumer models with a particular focus on marketplaces and web brands.

Past or current investments include Algolia, Dataiku, Drivy, Happn, Wit.ai (Facebook), CaptainTrain (Trainline/KKR), Bime Analytics (Zendesk), Frichti, Tinyclues, iAdvize, Peopledoc and Wynd. For more information, please click here

Australian Open renews broadcast deal with beIN until 2024

The Australian Open has extended its broadcast partnership with beIN until 2024.

As part of the deal, beIN will broadcast lead-in tournaments, AO qualifying and the Laver Cup in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Tennis Australia will also provide quality original programming content year round, including match highlights, player, tournament and city profiles, plus behind the scenes footage.

beIN media group’s executive director of sports content, Daniel Markham, said: “beIN are delighted to continue our long-term relationship with Tennis Australia. Tennis is one of the central pillars of our premium sports content and today’s announcement cements beIN as the continuing long-term home of tennis in the Middle East and North Africa.

“The Australian Open is the perfect way to start the sporting year and we are very excited to bring this event to our audiences for the foreseeable future.”

Tennis Australia chief revenue officer, Richard Heaselgrave, added: “The extension of our partnership with beIN media group now includes the full eight weeks of the Australian summer of tennis, the brand new global event the Laver Cup, along with other quality original content throughout the year.

“BeIN’s commitment to their most comprehensive coverage of the Australian summer of tennis will allow our fans in the MENA region to follow the action right across Australia throughout December and January. With more channels, content and live feed capabilities, we will be able to tell a more compelling story that shows the power, passion and glory of tennis.”

NASCAR bolsters international efforts with new leadership roles

NASCAR has announced a series of new leadership appointments as it expands its international business.

The organisation has named Jim Cassidy as new chief international officer, who will be reporting to Steve O’Donnell, executive vice president and chief racing development officer.

Cassidy will oversee all international competition and commercial operations, building on the success of NASCAR’s three international series with the NASCAR Pinty’s Series in Canada, NASCAR Mexico Series and NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.

O’Donnell said: “Jim brings nearly two decades of racing operations and industry leadership experience. He has worked tirelessly to grow our existing motorsports properties outside of the U.S and will lead our efforts to identify important growth opportunities internationally for our sport and its growing fanbase.”

Cassidy added: “NASCAR racing is broadcast in over 185 countries and territories, with race fans engaging stock car racing in person at events in Canada, Mexico and across Europe. The demand for NASCAR racing internationally has never been stronger and we look forward to bringing our sport closer to race fans everywhere.”

Meanwhile, Chad Seigler has been appointed as the vice president, International Business Development and Celeste Griffin-Churchill as senior director, International.

NASCAR additionally named Ben Kennedy as general manager, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Kennedy will oversee all aspects of NASCAR’s truck series, working closely with Brad Moran, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series managing director, and Jeff Wohlschlaeger, managing director, Series Marketing to continue to deliver great racing, fan experience and marketing across this series.

Kennedy will report into Elton Sawyer, vice president, Competition and will work closely with O’Donnell and Steve Phelps, executive vice president and chief global sales and marketing officer.

ITF announces major restructure of professional tennis with 2019 transition tour

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has today announced details of the new ITF transition tour that will be launched in 2019 as part of a major restructuring of professional tennis.

The tour aims to provide a more effective pathway linking the ITF Junior Circuit and the senior professional game, and also ensure that prize money at professional level tournaments is better targeted to enable more players to make a living.

The creation of the transition tour is based on ITF research that shows that while over 14,000 players compete each year in professional tournaments, only around 350 men and 250 women break even financially without consideration of coaching costs.

The transition tour will be staged within a more localised circuit structure that reduces costs for players and tournament organisers. This will also increase opportunities for players from more countries to join the pathway and be supported in their transition to professional tennis.

The transition tour forms part of a new worldwide tournament structure that has been agreed between the ITF, ATP and WTA in order to address the current challenges at entry level.

This structure is expected to reduce the number of professional players with ATP and WTA rankings from 3,000 players to approximately 750 men and 750 women.

Women’s tour structure 2019:

Men’s tour structure 2019:

ITF President David Haggerty said: “The new worldwide tournament structure in which we have collaborated with the ATP and WTA will help address the issues of transition between the junior and senior game, and enable more professional players to make a living.

“The introduction of the transition tour will allow players to take the first steps towards becoming a future champion within a more targeted and affordable circuit structure.”

Chris Kermode, ATP Executive Chairman & President, added: “The new points structure from 2019 will lead to significant enhancements to the player pathway through men’s professional tennis, providing a seamless link for players to progress upwards into ATP Challengers and beyond.

“We look forward to the successful implementation of the new structure through our continued extensive collaboration with the ITF.”

Steve Simon, WTA Chairman & CEO, commetned: “It is the goal of many talented young tennis players to compete on the WTA Tour. We support the restructuring of the pathway to professional tennis that is being announced by the ITF which is designed to simplify the forward progress of talented young players through different tournament levels.

“These efforts will provide more targeted job opportunities for players, and ultimately establish a clear pathway structure for players to move up to the WTA professional level.”