Formula 1 launches first official esports series

Formula 1 is set to launch its first ever official esports series in partnership with Codemasters and Gfinity, according to Reuters.

The landmark series will see gamers from around the world compete for the right to be crowned F1’s number one virtual driver.

A qualification round is set to kick off in September and will be followed by the semi-finals in October, which will be broadcast live from the Gfinity Arena in London.

20 competitors will then travel to Abu Dhabi for the final which will be held on the 24 and 25 November – the same weekend as the final Formula 1 Championship race of the 2017 season.

The series will take place on run on PlayStation4, Xbox One and Windows PC platforms.

READ MORE: Power up – number-crunching the incredible growth of esports

Sean Bratches, Formula 1 managing director, said: “This launch presents an amazing opportunity for our business: strategically and in the way we engage fans.

“First, it’s a growing category with tremendous fan engagement that we’re entering in a big way; and we are proud to have Codemasters and Gfinity joining us on this ride.

“Of course as we do in Formula 1, we’ll continue to evolve and innovate in the way we run this virtual counterpart to the F1 championship to ensure we provide the most exciting and enjoyable experience we can for our fans.”

Neville Upton, Gfinity chief executive, added: “Formula 1 entering esports is a powerful endorsement to how vital it is for cutting edge organisations to consider esports in their digital offering in order to reach the elusive and lucrative millennial fan base.

“Gfinity has developed a unique & proprietary technical platform, which coupled with our in depth experience enable us to deliver a world-class turnkey solution for our global partners.”

Liberty Media, who completed a takeover of Formula One earlier this year, have targeted gaming as a key area to connect with a younger audience and drive revenues.

Manchester City and Mundipharma agree new global healthcare partnership

Mundipharma and Manchester City have agreed to a new global partnership following an inaugural first season that saw Mundipharma and BETADINE perform successfully as a regional partner of Manchester City.

Under the terms of the global partnership, the Manchester City Medical Team’s uniform and kits will feature BETADINE logos and they’ll be equipped with BETADINE® treatments for the playersThe brand will also benefit from enhanced exposure on digital display formats at home games.

The brand will also benefit from enhanced exposure on digital display formats at home games.

Mundipharma will continue to collaborate with Manchester City to provide aspiring footballers with opportunities to develop their skills as part of co-branded Youth Development Programmes, as well as offering fans the chance to see their heroes in action through consumer-based promotions.

Commenting on the new global partnership, Mundipharma CEO Raman Singh said: “This partnership has proven to be a great fit for our brands. Manchester City is one of the world’s best-performing football teams, while we have positioned BETADINE as a healthcare portfolio that builds personal resilience and supports well-being.”

Tom Glick, chief commercial officer of City Football Group, added: “We are extremely pleased to have extended our partnership with Mundipharma and BETADINE. They have been a great partner from the outset.

“We have been continually impressed by the creative approach they have brought to everything we have done so far. We are delighted that we now have an opportunity to work together on a global scale.”

Earlier this year, Mundipharma announced a partnership with J1 League club, Yokohama F. Marinos, which is also part of City Football Group.

NFL and Tencent agree China digital streaming partnership

The National Football League (NFL) and Tencent Holdings Limited, (Tencent) today announced a three-year partnership to make Tencent Sports the exclusive live digital streaming media partner of the NFL in China.

Under terms of the agreement, Tencent will air live and on-demand select preseason games, all Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football games, as well as select Sunday afternoon games, the playoffs, the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl for the 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons.

The partnership also features other expanded footage and programming rights, such as the NFL Draft, NFL Combine, and NFL Game Day, as well as programming such as NFL Hard Knocks and A Football Life, further bolstering Tencent’s non-game NFL content, making Tencent the home of the NFL in China.

NFL live games and content will be available for fans to access through Tencent’s NFL sections on both mobile and desktop terminals including Tencent Sports, QQ.com, Tencent Video, Kuai Bao, Penguin Live, Tencent Sports app, Tencent Video app, Tencent News app, as well as its social networking services, QQ and WeChat.


This partnership between the No.1 sports league in the United States and the No.1 digital sports platform in China brings the NFL’s excitement and quality production to Tencent’s hundreds of millions users.

“We are very excited about the NFL’s future in China and proud of our partnership with Tencent,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

“We are confident that this agreement will provide our growing number of Chinese fans with a better viewing experience and more opportunities for engagement with the NFL than ever before.”

Vice President of Tencent, Caitlyn Chen, said: “We believe our capability in production, content distribution and fans engagement will help NFL expand its audience profile and elevate the popularity of American football in China.

“Tencent Sports has been dedicated to fulfilling the diverse needs of Chinese users by bringing top premium sports content to China, including global sports leagues and tournaments, basketball, soccer, tennis, winter sports and American football, among others.

“We will continue to maximize the value of the sports right owners via the partnership and enhance the digital entertainment experience for Chinese users. We are committed to contributing to the growth of China’s sports industry.”

NFL China, Managing Director, Richard Young, added: “This extraordinary partnership will bring localized NFL games and content to Tencent’s hundreds of millions of daily users across China.

“The NFL’s popularity in China is soaring and our fan base will receive unprecedented NFL coverage and content throughout the year.”

Qatar 2022 organisers unveil Al Thumama Stadium design

Qatar World Cup organisers have unveiled their latest stadium plans for the 2022 tournament.

The Al Thumama Stadium boasts 40,000 seats and has been designed by local architect Ibrahim M. Jaidah, who modelled the venue on the “gahfiya” skullcap worn under the gutra, or male headscarf, in the Gulf.

The stadium, which is located in the Doha suburb of Al Thumama, is expected to be finished in 2020 and will stage fixtures up to the quarter-finals in five years’ time.

H.E. Hassan Al-Thawadi, Secretary General of the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, said: “I am confident that, once completed, Al Thumama Stadium will become a favourite among the region’s sports fans and a sporting landmark that demonstrates to future generations just how unique the Qatar World Cup will be.”

Advanced air conditioning units will be used to cool the stadium and combat searing temperatures in the Gulf.

Capacity at the stadium, which is one of eight being constructed, will be reduced to 20,000 following the conclusion of the tournament.

Turner to launch OTT sports platform with live UEFA games set for Bleacher Report

Turner and UEFA have announced a three-year multi-platform rights agreement for the exclusive presentation of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League from the start of the 2018-19 season.

Timed to this multi-year rights agreement, Turner has also announced plans to launch a new standalone premium sports streaming video service with the expansive collection of UEFA matches serving as a core pillar of the direct to consumer offering.

The new OTT sports platform will debut in 2018, with fixtures set to be broadcast on Bleacher Report.

Turner President David Levy said:“The launch of Turner’s new OTT sports platform and partnership with UEFA aligns with the company’s continued strategy to further expand the distribution ecosystem and our ongoing commitment to engage fans with premium content they crave across all platforms.

“These highly-anticipated matches and supplemental original programming will be a key foundation for our latest direct to consumer business sports offering, as well as coveted content for Bleacher Report and our leading television networks.

“In addition to the new audiences we’ll attract through the streaming service, the partnership will leverage the tremendous reach we have with our television networks and Bleacher Report’s position as the leading digital destination for millennial fans.”

Lenny Daniels, President, Turner Sports, added: “Through this new agreement, Turner Sports is further expanding our portfolio with championship-caliber content featuring two of the most popular sporting events in the world.

“We believe world football is one of the most impactful growth properties in the U.S. Our shared vision with UEFA has led to the perfect opportunity to leverage the reach of Turner as we establish deeper connections with fans, while simultaneously creating new business ventures for our company.”

Turner’s UEFA Champions League coverage will include four live telecasts each week throughout the Group Stage, plus two televised matches per week during knock-out rounds. All other matches will be available live through Turner’s new OTT sports platform launching in 2018, including direct access to the premium streaming service via Bleacher Report.

All semi-final matches, along with the UEFA Champions League final, will be nationally televised on TBS or TNT. UEFA Europa League matches will be available through Turner’s premium OTT sports platform – including access via Bleacher Report – with the UEFA Europa League final to be televised on TBS or TNT.

NASCAR and Twitter announce first-ever plan to live stream in-car cameras

For the first time in the sport’s history, NASCAR will live-stream an in-car camera on Twitter for all 10 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs races in 2017.

Beginning with the first race of the NASCAR Playoffs at Chicagoland Speedway, NASCAR will provide fans a unique look from inside the race car with a live camera stream that can be accessed via its official Twitter handle.

Fans can watch the full broadcast of the race at Chicagoland, Sunday 17th September at 3pm ET on NBCSN.

On the same screen of the live stream, fans will find a real-time curated timeline of tweets that capture the best of the NASCAR live conversation.

“Through the in-car camera live stream on Twitter, our fans will have another compelling vantage point of the NASCAR Playoffs, where the energy and intensity of stage racing will be elevated to a whole new level,” said Steve Phelps, executive vice president and chief global sales and marketing officer at NASCAR.

“To provide this level of access on Twitter throughout the 10-week playoffs is a fantastic way to complement the viewing experience on NBC Sports and the NBC Sports app.”

Real-time race highlights will also be available on Nascar’s Twitter page, offering fans additional ways to follow the playoffs.

“NASCAR continues to innovate on Twitter, a place where their passionate fans discuss what’s happening before, during and after every race,” said Anthony Noto, Twitter COO.

“Our new collaboration will offer NASCAR fans a unique live stream perspective for the 2017 playoffs alongside the real-time Twitter conversation.”

Sportradar teams up with Comunio to power fantasy football game

One of the leading providers of fantasy sport across Europe, Comunio, has kicked off its pre-season build up by signing a deal that will see Sportradar, a global leader in understanding and leveraging the power of sports data and digital content, power their player performance scores across the top European leagues starting this summer.

Comunio provides fantasy football leagues based on ten of the top European competitions, including the UEFA Champions League, the top two divisions in Spain and Germany, as well as the top leagues in France, Italy, England, Portugal and Turkey.

Fans from a range of European countries, including Spain, Germany, England and France can enjoy assembling fantasy teams from across any of these ten competitions and testing their expertise.

When the 2017-2018 season kicks off, those player performance scores will be based on Sportradar’s Player Performance Index. This Index, which is just one solution in Sportradar’s suite of Premium Soccer products, marries a whole new level of performance data collection across the most important competitions in Europe with a sophisticated, in-house developed objective algorithm that crunches and weights all of those data points to generate an incredibly accurate performance score.

Speaking about the agreement, Comunio CEO, Fabian Loschek said: “The members of our fantasy football sites across Europe are some of the most passionate, knowledgable and discerning football lovers there are. Some spend a lot of time and energy researching and weighing up their line ups. We love and share that level of dedication.

“That is what drove this deal. We wanted to provide a level of performance data and analysis that would match the attention to detail of our users. Sportradar’s Premium Soccer is a game changer that records over 100 types of micro-events per match, evaluates their quality, weights their overall importance and then uses a sensitive algorithm to generate a deeper piece of analysis.

“I can’t wait for the season to kick off and our thousands of users to experience a whole new level of engagement in the leagues they follow and love.”

Sportradar’s Digital Sport Head of Business Development, James Heneghan, added: “In a summer of big signings, this, for us, is a hugely important one. Comunio’s faith in our product, our processes and our attention to detail is a powerful endorsement for us as we know how demanding they are on behalf of
their users.

“At Sportradar, we challenged ourselves to look deeper into performance to provide scores and other data-driven solutions that really provide a more complete picture. Fans nowadays want a level of engagement and insight that was impossible just years ago, but we are proud to meet and exceed that demand with our Premium Soccer offering and our partnership with Comunio”.

BT Sport agrees deal for weekly results show to be streamed live via Twitter

BT Sport Score, the football results show, will be available to anyone using Twitter in the UK, following an agreement between the sports broadcaster and Twitter for it to be live streamed on the social media platform.

The agreement allows Twitter’s millions of UK users to sample a key highlight of BT Sport’s weekend line-up at no cost – providing potential subscribers an opportunity to sample the broadcaster’s approach.

It is the latest move by BT Sport aimed at making its content available as widely as possible: BT made last season’s UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League finals available for free to as many people as possible, on YouTube, the BT Sport website, BT Sport channels and the app, underlining BT’s commitment to make televised sport more accessible to fans.

The show will be streamed via @btsportscore on Twitter each Saturday afternoon. BT Sport Score will still be broadcast on BT Sport channels every week. The programme keeps viewers up to date with the action from all the matches taking place across the UK.

Simon Green, Head of BT Sport, said: “We’re delighted to be showing BT Sport Score live on Twitter. This provides Twitter users a great chance to sample our strong programming, who will be able to watch football news and scores as they come in, whether they are at home or on the move. Innovation is at the heart of BT and we look forward to working with Twitter.”

Theo Luke, Director of EMEA Sports Partnerships, Twitter, said: “BT Sport’s innovative approach continues to transform the experience for fans on Twitter, a place where football conversation is happening live in real time every day. We’re extremely excited to collaborate with them to ensure fans on Twitter don’t miss a moment of the Saturday afternoon action.”

Serie A announce ManBetX as Presenting Partner for Asia

ManBetX has been named as the International Presenting Partner Asia for Italy’s Lega Serie A, which kicks off the new season this weekend.

The international gaming group’s brand will be featured in match graphics, idents and virtual goal-mat advertising in all live Serie A matches broadcast across on all platforms throughout Asia.

In addition, ManBetX will also have the use of extensive on and offline assets with Lega Serie A and activation programs across many Asian countries.

A spokesman for ManBetX said: “This is a hugely exciting time and we are delighted to partner with Serie A, one of the world’s top football leagues. Italian football is very popular in Asia and we look forward to engaging with the league’s ever-growing fan base in the region.”

The package is delivered by Interregional Sports Group (ISG) who developed a ground-breaking approach to in-event branding.

“We are delighted to have reached this agreement with ManBetX’ said ISG joint CEO Tony Ragan. “Delivering regional audiences to our brand partners through globally popular sports events is at the core of our business.”

The ManBetX relationship with Italian football got underway in the Super Cup which saw Lazio beat Juventus 3-2.

Mobile telecom operator Zain Sudan becomes LaLiga’s latest regional partner in Sudan

The companies have signed a three-year deal under which they will join forces to promote Spanish football in Africa, which is a strategic market for LaLiga

An agreement was unveiled today under which Zain Sudan will serve as LaLiga’s regional partner in Sudan for at least the next three seasons. This deal sees LaLiga team up with the leading Sudanese telecom operator, which boasts 13 million customers in the country and is a pioneering company that was among the first to offer mobile telephone services in North Africa.

The presentation ceremony was held in Spain and attended by: the LaLiga president, Javier Tebas; Gregory Bolle, LaLiga’s head of Global Partnership; María Barberá, head of international Marketing, Osama Abdalla Abdo Kahin, the chief operations officer (COO) at Zain Sudan; Khalid Gaffar Ibrahim, Zain Sudan’s chief commercial officer (CCO); and Salih Mohammed Ali Omer, Zain Sudan’s corporate communication senior director, Khalid Abdelmoneim, Director Commercial Department; Eltayeb Ali Farah, Manager Media Communications.

They all posed together in the Hall of Flags at LaLiga’s headquarters in Madrid and highlighted the importance of this agreement between two cutting-edge international institutions that have achieved excellence in their respective fields. Fernando Sanz, General Director Middle East & North Africa and International Sports Projects and LaLiga Ambassador and Fernando Morientes, Ambassador of LaLiga, also attended the presentation.

LaLiga, which is at the forefront when it comes to technological innovation and has a global audience of more than 2.5 billion people, is joining forces with Sudan’s biggest mobile telecom operator. Over the next three years, they will work together to promote the LaLiga brand in the African country.

Africa as a whole represents a strategically important market for Spanish football’s organising body, which has two offices in the continent: one in South Africa and the other in Nigeria. Indeed, this agreement consolidates LaLiga’s presence in Africa as part of the organisation’s ongoing internationalisation process, which is driven by a firm commitment to getting closer to its fans all over the world by linking up with leading companies in every domain.

Zain Sudan Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Elfatih M. Erwa welcomed this groundbreaking agreement between Zain Sudan and LaLiga which is going to give the opportunity for the Sudanese people to have different experience of the Spanish football.

“Africa has a huge potential for growth and is a very important continent for us. Working with Zain Sudan will help us to achieve our goal of consolidating our position in Africa. Working with a telecommunications company will help LaLiga to connect directly with fans,” said Gregory Bolle, LaLiga’s Head of Global Partnership.

“We are the best league in the world and once again we are creating partnerships to move as close as we can to our fans all over the world,” added Maria Barberá.

“We hope that this partnership will support the Sudanese ongoing efforts to return Sudan to excellence in football and sports, Sudan is one of the four founding members of CAF which was born on February 8, 1957 in Khartoum. Sports and football in particular have always helped in uniting the Sudanese people, this partnership ties well with Zain Sudan objective of developing youth and provide them with the opportunities to keep up with what happening in the world,” added Zain Sudan Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Elfatih M. Erwa.

The two institutions will also collaborate in areas such as marketing, commercial promotion and social media, and on corporate social responsibility activities through the LaLiga Foundation.