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.

The LA84 Foundation has given back over US$200 million to the communities that supported the Olympic Games and just awarded US$1, abortion | 101, bronchi 238 in grants to support 28 sports programs for young people.

The LA84 Foundation was established after the highly successful 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles with the mission to manage Southern California’s share of the surplus revenue (US$93 million). 

Anita L. DeFrantz, seek LA84 Foundation President and International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, said: “It is gratifying that 28 years after the success of the Los Angeles Olympic Games, the LA84 Foundation, the legacy of those Games, continues to make an important difference in the lives of local youngsters. 

“With fewer and fewer options available for youngsters to stay active and fit, it is imperative that all of us support the efforts of organizations that are providing girls and boys with the opportunity to play sports.”

With the London 2012 Olympics coming ever closer it is estimated that policing and security for the games will cost in excess of £1 billion ($1.6 billion) according to Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison.

Allison, the National OlympicSecurity Coordinator, gave evidence to the London Assembly’s Budget and Performance Committee on the costs of London 2012.

Describing the Games as a “significant challenge,” Allison revealed that £600 million ($959 million) had been originally allocated for its policing costs during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

When the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition came to power in May 2010, they conducted a spending review which reduced the estimated cost of policing to £475 million ($760 million).

They will still make the full original amount available to the Metropolitan Police if it is necessary, as well as a £238 million ($380 millio) contingency package, although Allison admitted he did not know whether they would need to use all the money available to it.

“Can I tell you how much money I need?” he told the Committee.

“No I cannot, I can’t tell you what the final costs are going to be.”

In addition to that, London 2012 will be responsible for security inside the Olympic Park and other Games venues, for which more than £280 million ($448 million) has been given to them by the Government, which would increase the overall policing and security cost of the Games to around £1.1 billion ($1.7 billion).

In September a leaked document showed that another £150 million ($240 million) could be required on top of that amid concerns that London 2012 would struggle to deliver security at the original estimate.

“I don’t think we will be able to say what the Olympic security will cost until October next year,” said Allison. 

But he promised a big police presence during the event.

Though a typical day at the Games will see 9,000 officers on the streets of London, peak days could see as many as 12,000 deployed.

“You will see police officers across the streets of London,” said Allison, assuring the public that whilst ensuring a safe Games takes place, that they were primarily concerned with “delivering a safe and secure London. A lot of good work has been done, and with 269 days to go there is a lot to be done between then and now.”

The cost of policing one of the most famous and fierce rivalries in World Sport cost almost $US 4. This is the cost between Glasgow Soccer giants Celtic and Rangers.

Six of the derbies were played last season and the Police were landed the police with a bill of around  $US 3.2. The clubs paid around $ US490, doctor 000.

CIS Insurance Cup Final which was contested by both side at Hampden Park cost Strathclyde Police $US 670, drugs 000

The home side is required by law to pay costs in the stadium. In a regular season this is two matches per home side.

The contrast with regards to other opponents is significant. With the third best team in Scotland the cost of policing is around $ US26, cheap 000 and with Rangers vs Manchester United in the Champions League the cost was just over $ US 40,000.

The biggest expense (nearly half) goes into extra police officers. The rest of the money goes towards match commanders, events room staff and football intelligence teams.

John Penrose, ed the UK Minister responsible for gambling regulation in the country, pilule has announced plans to enforce that all gambling operators selling into the British market – whether based in the UK or abroad – will have to obtain a licence from the Gambling Commission.

The changes mean that for the first time ‘remote gambling’ (gambling through remote means, such as the internet, telephone, television or radio) will be regulated at the point of consumption, not the point of supply, ensuring British consumers are always protected no matter which online gambling site they visit.

Penrose said: “All overseas operators will be subject to the same standards and requirements as those based in Britain, as well as being required to inform the Gambling Commission about suspicious betting patterns to help fight illegal activity and corruption in betting.”

Currently any gambling operator who wants to offer their services in Britain must be licensed or regulated in either an European Economic Area (EEA) state or one of the states approved by DCMS on the ‘White List’.

Delta Air Lines have revealed that they have agreed a one-year sponsorship of Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise the St. Louis Cardinals.

The deal, announced yesterday, February 28, means that Delta have become the team’s official airline and exclusive charter airline.

Under the terms of the agreement Delta will be featured on signs and scoreboards at the sides Busch Stadium throughout the 2011 season and will highlight its partnership with the team during Delta Day, a promotion coinciding with a June 23 game against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Additionally, Delta employees at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport will wear Cardinals caps and logos

Sports digital media specialists, Perform has announced a range of agreements with major US sports properties for premium content deals, marking the launch of the ePlayer video-on-demand (VOD) streaming service.

Perform’s rights acquisitions include game highlights produced by Major League Baseball (MLB) Advanced Media and Major League Soccer (MLS) as well as content from the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), PGA Tour, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).

The launch of Perform’s embeddable platform, ePlayer 2.0, represents the first time that a single video platform has collected such a significant range of game highlights under one umbrella and made them available for free-to-local online publishers across the US.

Juan Delgado, Perform’s North American managing director, stated: “We saw a significant opportunity at the local media level to engage and deliver relevant sports highlights specific to teams and markets. The launch of ePlayer in the US creates an amazing opportunity for rights-holders to embrace a fragmented local market audience and distribute targeted premium sports content to their avid audience following.”

Currently, ePlayer appears on 400 plus global publishers in 13 territories, and streams over 153 million videos every month.