Buffalo Bills linebacker Brandon Spikes has hired Sports Marketing Partners, prostate LLC (SMP) to help build his endorsement profile. SMP co-represents Spikes for marketing with Premier Sports & Entertainment (PSE). 

SMP is sports marketing and consulting company with expertise in endorsements, digital and social marketing and community and public relations. 

Spikes, a two-time consensus All-American, was part of two national championship teams as a member of the University of Florida. He was first-team All-SEC from 2007-2009, while also serving as a captain of the Gators.

Spikes played his first four years in the NFL for the New England Patriots, before signing with the Bills over the past offseason. 

SMP is excited to add Spikes to its roster of clients. 

“We are very happy to have Brandon join the SMP family,” SMP Principal Steve Schwartz said. “Brandon is a great football player and an even better person off the field. Working in partnership with the PSE team, we think our services will help Brandon maximize his marketing value.”

OC Sport, advice the global sports marketing company specialising in professional sailing and outdoor events, allergy has been acquired by French sports and entertainment group Télégramme Group who has secured a majority share. 

OC Sport was originally created by Mark Turner in 1993, who then joined forces with Dame Ellen MacArthur in 1997, to form the backbone of the operation that launched and then developed MacArthur’s sailing career.

In the last ten years, OC Sport has become a global sports marketing and events company specialising in professional sailing at both event and team level (Extreme Sailing Series, The Transat, Barcelona World Race, Artemis Offshore Academy, Dongfeng Race Team) and in outdoor events, especially in premium amateur cycling races (Haute Route Alps, Haute Route Pyrenees, Haute Route Dolomites Swiss Alps) and mass participation running events (Harmony Geneva Marathon for Unicef, French Riviera Marathon Nice-Cannes).

In 2014 OC Sport’s international team will be involved in more than 200 days of events and competition, across 36 events in 15 countries on 4 continents, Asia being a key element in OC Sport’s development strategy.

In 2010, after finishing her sailing career and focusing on her own foundation in the area of sustainability, Mark Turner bought out MacArthur and brought in Rémi Duchemin as both a major shareholder and CEO. The two have led the company through a period of significant growth, backed by various investors that have helped the company continue to launch new projects. Today, Télégramme Group has acquired a majority of the share capital of the group, with Duchemin and Turner remaining as shareholders for the next chapter of OC Sport’s journey.

“Mark and I would really like to thank the outgoing shareholders, both currently and those of the past few years, who have stuck by us as we’ve continued to run at a fast pace, often taking significant risks, to be able to develop the sports and properties we are involved in. This next chapter will give us a new foundation for continuing to take on new projects and developing new game-changing ideas – that is what gets OC Sport people excited, and it’s what we do best. Our mission to use sport to inspire the public, sponsors and cities alike to take on new challenges will remain unchanged. The focus of OC Sport will continue on international development utilising its sailing and outdoor sports know-how,” said Rémi Duchemin, CEO.

The Télégramme Group has been a media specialist for 70 years, and more recently acquired an events portfolio in sport and entertainment, including in sailing the famous Route du Rhum Destination Guadeloupe, the event that launched Ellen MacArthur’s career and indeed OC Sport in 1998, and the Solitaire du Figaro Eric Bompard, the entire focus of OC Sport’s Artemis Offshore Academy. 

Roland Tresca, Télégramme Group’s representative and new President of the Board of OC Sport, added: “We have been watching OC Sport for many years, and we are delighted to be able to combine forces going forward, to both solidify our position in France but, more importantly, to take Télégramme Group into new territories, sports and opportunities.”

Paciolan, the leading provider of ticketing, marketing, fundraising and sales automation solutions in college athletics, today announced that Villanova University (Villanova) has renewed its partnership with the company.

Villanova will continue to leverage Paciolan’s best-of-breed online ticketing solution and implement the company’s Access Management system. Villanova has been working with Paciolan since 2006. Paciolan is a subsidiary of the Philadelphia-based sports and entertainment firm Comcast-Spectacor.

With the partnership renewal, Villanova will implement Paciolan’s Access scanning and digital ticketing solution to enhance the fan experience at Villanova Stadium, The Pavilion Arena, and also Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pa. Villanova hosts some of its men’s basketball games each year at Wells Fargo Center, where Paciolan’s parent company, Comcast-Spectacor, is based.

“Paciolan provides us with the leading ticketing platform in college athletics and will enable us to launch digital and mobile ticketing,” said Bob Steitz, Senior Associate Athletics Director, External Operations at Villanova University. “We are excited to launch mobile ticketing for next season and offer new ticket scanning methods for our fans to use at football, basketball and lacrosse events.”

“We are thrilled to continue our wonderful partnership with Villanova University and provide them with the best-of-breed ticketing solutions,” said Jane Kleinberger, Founder of Paciolan. “We are eager to help implement new technologies to create seamless processes that help enhance and manage the fan experience.”

Soccer’s world governing body FIFA has extended their sanctions on three additional El Salvador players relating to match-manipulation investigations.

This follows the worldwide extension of sanctions imposed on 16 El Salvador players earlier this month.

The three players have received a six-month ban, a 12-month ban and a five-year ban from all football-related activities respectively.

The Disciplinary Committee of the El Salvador FA decided to impose the sanctions on 9 October 2013. This followed investigations conducted by the El Salvador FA into incidents of match manipulation that occurred in international matches, including friendlies and CONCACAF Gold Cup matches, of the El Salvador national “A” team in 2010, as well as matches involving the El Salvador U-20 national team.

FIFA continues to work closely with its member associations and the confederations to tackle match manipulation. As part of a ten-year programme of collaboration with INTERPOL, regional workshops involving key stakeholders are being held all over the world while recently launched e-learning programmes are also helping to educate players, coaches and referees on the dangers of match manipulation to help them to avoid becoming victims of this threat to football integrity.

British Cycling have announced today that Monmouthshire in Wales will host the 2014 National Road Championships.

The championships, which will take place in and around the Abergavenny area, will be held in June with the National Time Trial Championships taking place on Thursday 26 and the National Road Race Championships taking place on Sunday 29.

Jonny Clay, Cycle Sport & Membership Director for British Cycling, said: “Following on from the success of the 2013 championships, where we delivered an event witnessed by 35,000 people on the streets of Glasgow, we had significant interest from towns in hosting the championships for next year. The spectacle provided by the victories of Joanna Rowsell, Alex Dowsett, Lizzie Armitstead and Mark Cavendish took the event to a new level.

“This will be the second time in five years that the championships has visited Wales with the event held in Abergavenny in 2009. Abergavenny also hosted a very successful British Cycling Premier Calendar road race this year and has a strong pedigree in cycling led by Grand Prix of Wales organiser, Bill Owen, who will organise the championships for Monmouthshire next year. In 2009 we saw a race in which Chris Froome, Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish were all key protagonists and 2014 should be a fitting prelude to the Tour de France Grand Départ in the UK.”

Speaking on behalf of Monmouthshire, Councillor Bob Greenland, cabinet member with responsibility for economic development, said: “Monmouthshire Council recognises the economic benefits that major events can bring to our county. The high profile that British Cycling has brought to the sport since the great successes of last year’s Olympics is plain to see. It‘s incredibly exciting that we have the opportunity to work with British Cycling and host next year’s prestigious National Road Championships.”

British Cycling is now seeking expressions of interest from locations looking to host the 2015 event.

Britain’s prestigious Royal Ascot has increased its prize money to a record £5 million ($7.5 million), in an effort to attract the top race horses from around the world.

As well as reaching the £5m Royal Ascot milestone, prize-money for the year is more than £10m which was reached once before in 2008.

The Queen’s representative at Ascot described breaking the £5million prize-money barrier at the Royal meeting for the first time this year as a “real milestone”.

Johnny Weatherby, who looks after Her Majesty’s interests at the Berkshire course, is thrilled the cash increases to the races has taken the total for the five days past that magic figure.

He said: “We are delighted to be able to announce these prize-money increases and a £5m Royal meeting is a real milestone for the country’s flagship flat race meeting.”

Weatherby also announced that The Queen has given permission for the Windsor Forest Stakes to be renamed the Duke of Cambridge Stakes in honour of her grandson, Prince William.

“We are also naturally thrilled that Her Majesty The Queen has graciously consented to renaming the Windsor Forest in honour of her grandson, the Duke of Cambridge,” he said.

That race has gone up £25,000 to £125,000, while the biggest increases are of £100,000 each to the St James’s Palace Stakes and Coronation Stakes. They are now worth £350,000.

Ascot chief executive Charles Barnett said: “We have worked hard to make the international races competitive globally in recent years and our focus this year has been to enhance the top three-year-old races, the feature handicaps, the two-year-old championships and the programme generally.

Korean telecom giant KT has officially announced its plan to establish a tenth professional baseball club under the Korea Baseball Organization(KBO). The company signed a memorandum of understanding with Gyeonggi Province and Suwon City.

KT will begin key tasks, including selecting players and coaching staff and building a training facility, when the KBO gives final approval.

The club intends to join the nation’s second-tier league in 2014 and the top flight in 2015. KTChairman, Lee Suk-cahe, said: We have decided to establish a club as baseball has cemented its status as the nation’s number sport, accompanied by a strong thirst for a tenth team and active support from Gyeonggi Province and Suwon City.”{jcomments on}

 

Women’s Boxing is to be included in the Glasgow 2014 sports programme, it was announced today.

This is the first time ever the sport has featured in a Commonwealth Games and follows the recent success of the debut of Women’s Boxing at London 2012.

The announcement was made today (Friday) at the Commonwealth Games Federation’s General Assembly in Kampala, Uganda and marks an historic moment for female athletes within the Games Movement.

Women’s Boxing will feature as a full Commonwealth medal event for the first time, with medals in three weights: Fly Weight (48-51kg), Light Weight (57-60kg) and Middle Weight (69-75kg) – the same events as London 2012.

One of the memorable highlights of this summer’s Olympic Games was the Gold Medal triumph of Team GB’s Nicola Adams in the Women’s Fly Weight division.

Glasgow 2014 has worked pro-actively with the Commonwealth Games Federation and the International Boxing Association (AIBA) to develop this opportunity for female athletes.

David Grevemberg, Chief Executive of Glasgow 2014 said: “Glasgow 2014 is proud to include Women’s Boxing as part of our sports programme for the Games. As London 2012 demonstrated, Women’s Boxing has elite athletes from across the world, including strong representation from across the Commonwealth.

“As an Organising Committee we are delighted to be delivering an inclusive Games with more opportunities for women and Para-sport athletes.”

HRH Prince Imran, President of the Commonwealth Games Federation said: “I’m delighted that Women’s Boxing will be among the sports on the programme of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, following the decision today by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth Games Federation to endorse the organising committee’s proposal.

“We saw at London 2012 that the Commonwealth’s Women boxers are the among the best in the world, and I applaud Glasgow 2014’s hard work towards securing a Games which demonstrates our shared commitment to gender equity and fairness.”

Today’s announcement was welcomed by AIBA – International Boxing Association.