Football Association announce partnership with Google

Google Pixel has announced a new long-term partnership with The Football Association (The FA) as Official Mobile Phone and Earbuds Partner. The deal marks Pixel’s first step into football sponsorship in the UK, with the brand looking to work with both the senior men’s and women’s teams to help bring fans closer to the sport they love.

Pixel are also working with Lionesses star Lauren James, who will front Google’s “Football on Pixel” campaign throughout the summer and beyond. As one of the most exciting young players in the world, Lauren will be using her platform and the Pixel range to inspire the next generation of talent to pick up the game.

Throughout the partnership, Pixel will use its best-in-class camera and AI-powered technology to give fans fresh perspectives on their favourite players. This includes a new ‘Pitchside, Presented by Pixel’ content series that will take fans into the heart of the action, as well as fan-led stories showcasing the magic of England match days. Longer-form storytelling will take fans behind-the-scenes as the England teams compete on the international stage.

Pixel will also work with The FA to help increase visibility for women’s football, by delivering more, and higher quality women’s football content, with the aim of inspiring more girls and women to get involved in the sport, and help move the game forward.

Finally, Pixel and The FA are also committed to co-developing brand new experiences throughout the term of this partnership, leveraging Google’s AI-powered technology with the promise of enhancing fan’s experiences in Wembley and at home. This will begin during this Summer’s tournament,where Google will launch new ways to access information about the tournament – from match schedules to athlete highlights and more – through Search.

The partnership deepens Google’s existing relationship with The FA, following the announcement of Google Cloud as the official cloud of the England Teams in 2019. Google Cloud works with The FA to help deliver meaningful insights from data to benefit The FA both on and off the pitch.

Eileen Mannion, Vice President Marketing at Google UK, said:

“Football is more than just a sport in the UK, it’s deeply rooted in our heritage. It’s not only part of our vibrant and diverse culture; it brings people together, generating excitement and building strong communities. We are proud to be partnering with the Football Association (The FA) to help fans create memories together.  Phones are such an integral part of the modern sports experience, and we’re thrilled to work with The FA to get fans closer to the action of our incredible men’s and women’s teams more than ever before.”

FA Commercial Director Navin Singh said: “We’re delighted to welcome Google Pixel on board as our official mobile phone and earbuds partner. We’re passionate about connecting our supporters with our England teams, and this partnership will bring fans and players closer together through content delivered by leading technology. We thank Google Pixel for their support.”

As the only phone engineered by Google, Pixel brings together the latest AI breakthroughs and puts them into a device you can hold in your hand. This personalised help adapts to your needs and preferences, helping you save time and get more done, as well as powering Pixel’s leading features such as Night Sight, Magic Eraser, Real Tone and Live Translate.

Meet the Member: “A thousand things have changed in sports, but it is still sports. The greatest reality TV show on earth”

Timm Chiusano started his sports journey working at ESPN, but in his forties he has become a TikTok creator whose day in the life videos have helped him pass 1 million followers on the platform. In this interview we cover AI’s potential impact on sport, what broadcasters can learn from his content and much more…

So Timm, take us through your journey in sport?

I was born and bred a New York sports fan. In New York, you choose Mets or Yankees, Giants or Jets, and then the Knicks and Rangers are straightforward. That goes back generations, so you’re indoctrinated into rooting for these teams at birth. 

As a kid, my first job was being a caddy, and I worked at driving ranges for most of high school. I played golf from as early as I can remember, and I had dreams of playing hockey at the highest level possible. I played well in golf at a fairly high level, and then I got drawn into Canada with the delusion I could play junior hockey. It was pretty uncommon for a kid in New York City to drop everything and move to play hockey up there, but I had an amazing year playing junior B hockey.

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When I left school, I knew I wanted to do something creative in sports, and those were the only two boxes I wanted to check. So, I took every piece of crap job I could get my hands on. I worked part time at terrible hours as a grip, which is production speak for doing whatever the hell the producer needs you to do. I worked part time at CBS and ABC sports just to get anything underneath my belt I could. 

It took three years actually to break into a full time job with ABC sports as a production assistant which wasn’t even guaranteed to last more than 5 months. I was doing college football and PGA tour golf on the live sports production side of things. There was almost a five year journey between leaving school and having a full time job in sports which took patience just waiting for a door to open. I was also very cognizant of the fact that nothing was owed to me once that door opened.

I worked for ABC sports for 5 years and realised that chasing live sports across the globe 36 weeks a year was glorious, but not for my plans of being a married man. So, I reinvented myself as a marketer, and convinced people I was the right person to come up with creative ideas to sell to brands despite no specific marketing background. For example, I did starting lineups brought to you by a brand or halftime sponsored by someone  for ESPN and their major sponsors. I did that for seven years and then sold my soul to the cable company, where I’ve been for 10 years. 

Looking back on your career in sport, what was your personal highlight?

That is an easy answer. It was the 2005 Open Championship at St. Andrew’s, where Jack Nicklaus played his final major and Tiger smashed the field. We won an Emmy for that broadcast and just the opportunity to be St. Andrew’s soaking it all in was amazing. I did five Open Championships during my time and it was amazing being able to live in the UK for about a month since we had the men’s, women’s, and seniors all in different locations. That was unbelievably fun, but that Open Championship at St. Andrew’s certainly stood out. 

I would also say at ESPN being able to bring completely differentiating ideas to the table so brands could exist on something like SportCenter. I was reinventing what the billboard looks like, so it wasn’t just SportCenter brought to you by Verizon, but instead somebody holding a Verizon phone with SportsCenter in the background. It was something that was more endemic to what the consumers were used to rather than just shoving a logo in their face. 

How has sport changed since you left ESPN in 2013?

I like that I can say not a lot. I mean, yes, a thousand things have changed but it’s still sports. It will forever be the greatest reality TV show. The technology on billboards, the flashing stuff on the sidelines, who has logos on what, the pieces of equipment do not matter. It’s still a bunch of people who have worked their ass off to get to a single moment, and you don’t know what’ll happen next. There’s storylines, subplots, and all sorts of surrounding things happening. Today, the purity of what the game actually is still remains. The desire to win and what it means to people that accomplish what they set out for is still there. There’s countless things I could point to, but at the same time not a damn thing has changed because it’s still sports. 

Talk to us about your journey and growth on TikTok?

I have no idea. It’s been the weirdest thing. It started as, “Oh this interesting let me start doing this” then became oh people are starting to watch. I just love the process, and if I don’t do it, I feel awkward that I haven’t done one for the day. I go out there and do what I like to do, but once I realised my TikToks might be helpful and I started to get feedback I was like “Ok cool there’s things that resonate with people here”. I appreciate that there’s helpfulness in leaning into the 45-year-old narrative because I’m still the same dumbass 25-year-old at the core. People often ask, “what would you tell yourself now ” but I’m still the same person. 

In the same sense as sport, when you genuinely love the process, and you do it for the right reasons, amazing things can happen. My God has it wildly exceeded any expectation that I’ve had which was zero. Everyone’s got a story to share, so if you’re authentic about it, willing to keep trying, willing to repeatedly make yourself cringe, and willing to put in the work then completely unexpected things might pop out of the clear blue sky.  

What do you think sports broadcasters can learn from the success your content has had?

It’s about repetition and authenticity. When it doesn’t feel real, it doesn’t do well, and when I wear my heart on my sleeve it does well. People want a connective tissue in this digital world. Everyone can post the same highlight or talk about the same stuff. People can be bombastic, over the top, and just yell at the camera, and it doesn’t work. My opinion is, when people are trying too hard to be something they’re not, it flops. However, when it’s who you actually are, people love to see it. 

There’s a guy who does Trainspotting videos, Francis Bourgeois, who is one of the greatest examples of authenticity. How many people thought, “how awkward is that” when it has the camera angle stuck right in front of his face. He has unusual content but he communicates pure joy. When people take their own perspective and lean into the authenticity piece that’s when things get magical.  

What has worked for me is that people trust me. I think it because they know I dont give a fu*k, and I am just going to be honest and sincere and wont do anything negative or harmful in any capacity. Authenticity allows your joy to shine through, so don’t be afraid of doing the things that other people are afraid to do if it feels right for you. If you mix that together and put it on repeat and really, really cool things can happen.

How do you see AI having an impact on sport?

It can totally destroy everything or it can lead to reinventing the way lineups are created, salary caps, and just the way we look at teams. Part of me doesn’t care. I just want to keep leaning into the purity of sports and why we fell in love with it in the first place. 

My gut tells me the biggest impact is going to be in data mining and then the mining of that data. This will tell us how to make cars faster, lineups better, and more. It could help teams analysing combines, saying “it doesn’t matter that this person ran fast because combined with this metric that’s ineffective”. So, it could take the Excel route as just a better way to aggregate and utilise information, or it could go the mischievous path and totally fu*k things up across the board. Hopefully it’s very subtle and helps people make smarter decisions but leaves the rest for human beings to continue to do their thing. 

If you could run one sports organisation for a month, which would it be, why and what would you do?

This is a difficult one because it’s so close between the Mets and Rangers, but I’ll pick the Rangers since hockey is what I played most as a kid. 

I would take them over and put an incredibly heavy focus on getting fans closer to what it’s like being on the ice. I don’t think that the speed and the ferocity of the game comes across to the people that are not necessarily in and around it on a day to day basis. I mean, dudes do 20 to 25 miles an hour on skates on an enclosed surface. Whether that would be through video communications or online, I would want to give fans the sensation to actually participate. Every other sport has a far easier barrier to cross where you can just pick up a basketball and shoot it or play catch with a baseball. 

Yes, there’s street hockey but that’s so grossly different. You can make similar arguments across all sports but professional hockey is a bigger extreme. Through that as well, I would want to build human storylines about the players to build a deeper connection. Where they come from and why they can do certain things will blow peoples’ minds. It’s not like the Rangers are hurting to sell season tickets these days, but I think it would be an interesting way to sell the game to a broader audience.

The View From Asia – The rise and rise of OTT in Asia

In his View From Asia column, Unmish Parthasarathi, the Singapore-based Founder of Picture Board Partners, the Strategy, Innovation & Venture Development boutique, reflects on why, how & who is making OTT more mainstream. 

Content is King, but Distribution is clearly the Queen as OTT in post-pandemic Asia has come on par, and, in some places, is beginning to exceed audience share compared to traditional television.

Asia is expected to add a billion consumers online in the course of this decade. There was another billion who preceded them – but took thrice as long. Both these large swathes of human adoption have benefited greatly from three macro trends, amongst others, which don’t see any signs of abating:

1. Population that is young, especially in South and Southeast Asia. Depending on the country, between a third and half are below the age of 35. Most are a growing presence in the workforce and a source of purchasing power;

2. Connectivity that is affordable and accessible. The consumption of video content in ever higher volumes – from short form on YouTube to long form movies and live sport – has let telcos to grow 4G from mid to mass market proportions; and, 

3. Entertainment alternatives at the price or convenience, such as sports events, theme parks or the cinema, are few. Coupling this with long, daily commutes and per capita dwell time quickly aggregates up to a third of the waking hours. 

More than fifty years ago, a Stanford professor called Roy Amara is said to have famously observed that we overestimate the impact of a new technology in the short run, and underestimate it in the long run. What timeline is deemed ‘long’ was left to us by the long-time Head of the Institute of the Future. 

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Depending on the global macroeconomic cycle of boom & bust, the consensus is that ‘long’ can be anywhere between a decade and two. What also shortens this trend are adjacencies or concurrent trends that happen in parallel with the one in our focus and provide it with tail winds. 

OTT surpassing TV has benefitted as much from Amara’s Law as from adjacencies such as cheap smartphones, digital payments, a supply of new/next generation content, good connectivity – and, sadly, also a pandemic.

A decade ago, Sport OTT was seen, at best, as a nice to have that was a catch up service or enabled multiple court coverage at a Grand Slam. At worst, however, it was seen as a threat to your next TV channel subscription renewal. 

In keeping with the Age of Listicles, below are my ‘Top Ten Trends’ to explain the coming of age of OTT in Asia. Most of these, again unfortunately, share COVID-19 as a milestone that’s created the most material change in content consumption for half a century, since the onset of television in the 1970s: 

1.) Consumer behaviour is changing at scale. A new generation has begun to announce their arrival. They keep a smartphone by their bedside. They have multiple digital payment wallets. And, they shop and socialise online three-times as much or as often as they do offline.  

2.) Connectivity maturing to ensure the utilitarian nirvana of 100% uptime. Few instances of outage by telcos or cable operators during the pandemic when millions home schooled, made umpteen video calls and logged on at work from home is an under recognised but real achievement.  

3.) Migration to cloud infrastructure that began before the pandemic and accelerated through 2020 as the virus spread from East to West. Moving off-premise coincided with the largest human migration of workers in a very short time and was helped by a drastic cut in response time to provide scalable, remotely accessible backend infrastructure.

4.) The rise of new, more ‘intelligent’ technologies such as Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Neuro-Linguistic Processing, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. These have enabled OTT services to evolve from their original roles as online aggregators of video content, to digital merchants trading attention or personalised preferences with dynamic pricing served through a privacy compliant segmentation. 

5.) Major sports events such as the Tokyo Olympics, FIFA World Cup and the IPL remain key milestones. Both drove sizable capital investment by their media licensees who had twin TV-OTT platforms such as Viacom Sport-Jio Cinema in India, Astro in Malaysia, EMTEK Vidio in Indonesia, and Foxtel/Kayo and Nine/Stan in Australia. 

6.) Regulation on first part data and a citizen’s rights to privacy has changed the way Personal Identifiable Information (PII) is collected. The simultaneous deprecation of third-party cookies has elevated the value of platforms who have first-party data. Enter OTT services that have location, payment and profile details of the consumer.  

7.) The successful deployment of addressable advertising by OTT platforms comes at a time when marketers are seeking alternatives to brand spend on search or social. Astro Malaysia exemplifies this – combining online inventory with on-air spots on television and radio, as well as on-ground activation entitlements from its owned and/or operated events. 

8.) Content investments in additional/alternative programming for next-generation demand had been rising prior to the pandemic. This was even before the limitations of the back catalogue, whose origins and vintage were in traditional TV, were revealed. Old wine in new bottles, not! 

9.) The creator economy helped solve new programming needs. Content commissioners have access to new genres and proven formats. Both come with a sizable, loyal (and increasingly addressable) audience. And best of all, the brand ambassador comes with a proven marketing channel. 

10.) A sharpening of the ‘awareness-intent-purchase’ demand funnel through OTT interfaces is creating new opportunities for ‘shoppable content’. YouTube pioneered app downloads using  graphic overlays over a video with users encouraged to click a link. The ecommerce potential to combine emotive moments in sport or drama with ‘flash offers’ seem limitless.  

In conclusion, the origins of OTT in Asia were as a set top box-enabled, on-demand service, operated via a remote control and fulfilled by return-path data and a local head-end. Thankfully, trial & error, new technology, capital, and executive (and shareholder!) angst has enabled OTT to find a product-market fit that is increasingly optimal and promises much for the next age of story-telling. The ‘Martini Moment’ – Anytime. Anyplace. Anywhere. – has arrived in Asia. Cheers to OTT! 

Does cycling promote a more socially responsible sponsorship environment?

With the Tour de France’s Grand Depart in San Sebastián just two days away, we decided it was time to take a deep dive into the teams sponsors for this year’s Tour with this month’s Sponsorship Index powered by caytoo.

In cycling, as with many sports, the Consumer Goods sector tends to be the most common sponsor, however, cycling stands apart when it comes to the large share accounted for by Health & Wellbeing sponsors.

Among the 400+ sponsors across the 22 teams competing in this year’s Tour de France, 16% are Health & Wellbeing brands. This compares to just 2% in Formula 1, 4% among English football’s Premier League, 5% across global sports federations and 7% across both the NBA and MLB (both 7%).

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Clearly, companies see cycling’s fanbase as much more interested in health and fitness, hence the prevalence of sponsors across the likes of fitness/training-related apps and health-related services. In this regard, cycling could therefore be seen as a much more socially responsible environment in that the messages being promoted to its fanbase are more likely to have a positive impact on people’s daily lives.

For example, two sectors which are often criticised when it comes to using sponsorship to promote their wares – Gambling and Alcohol – make up a much smaller share of sponsors among Tour de France teams (2.2% and 1.5% respectively) than in the likes of the NBA (10% / 5.8%), Premier League (6.6% / 7.4%), MLB (6.9% / 4.1%) and across sports federations (4.9% / 3.1%)

This is reinforced by the fact that five of the seven most common individual sponsors provide health/fitness-related products to consumers: training app TrainingPeaks, sport smartwatches Garmin (both with 9 sponsorships), QM Sports Care products (5), EME Italy physiotherapy-related products and body temperature sensor Core (both 4).

Here is the full breakdown:

Click here to find out more about the work done by caytoo

Meet the Member: “County cricket, unfortunately, does not bring in enough revenue to cover itself”

With the Ashes underway we spoke to Lancashire Cricket’s Acting Operations Director, Michael Hewson, about how the Club have diversified their income streams and how cricket can be more inclusive.

So, Michael to kick us off, take us through your journey in sport?

My background is a hotelier – up and down the country – from small boutique hotels up to five-star central London properties. A new Hilton Garden Inn was being built here at Emirates Old Trafford so that’s what brought me to Lancashire Cricket in the first instance. I joined in 2016 as General Manager of the hotel, which went on to open in 2017.

Prior to my arrival at the Club, Emirates Old Trafford had undergone a £60 million redevelopment which included new conference and event facilities – such as The Point – so the prospect of a new 150-bed Hilton Garden Inn was hugely exciting and offered the opportunity to maximise revenue, both on a match day and non-match day.

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Having been in the role of General Manager, I then moved to the role of Head of Commercial Operations before recently moving into the Acting Operations Director position at the start of the year.

How is your current role at Lancashire different to what you have done before?

I used to be hotel-specific, delivering a hotel experience. Coming to Emirates Old Trafford – this is a venue that does it all.

It’s a 365-day business operation so you’ve got a 150-bed hotel operating, Lancashire’s domestic fixtures, Manchester Originals in the Hundred as well as England games. We’ve got an incredibly business Conference and Events business – whilst we also host 50,000 capacity concerts – of which we’ve just held two nights of Arctic Monkeys back-to-back, which was incredible.

It’s a cliché, but every day really is different!

The cricket season obviously only takes up part of the year, how do you make sure you are bringing in revenue 12 months a year?

One of the key words that you’ll hear me talk about is diversification. This is something that the Club have focused on over the last decade, in terms of diversifying our business model.

Unfortunately, county cricket does not bring in sufficient revenue to cover itself. International cricket brings in a significant amount through ticketing and hospitality and we also have the popular short form competitions in the T20 Blast and the Hundred, but for us, it was about developing a venue that allows us to further diversify our revenue streams.

We opened the 150-bedroom property – the on-site Hilton Garden Inn – which was record breaking in terms of local market penetration. We have Christmas parties in December and January that we do for up to 1,500 people a night. Taking it a step further, we are just month’s away from a 100-room extension to the hotel, taking it up to a 250 bed. This is going to further elevate our Conference and Event business too, as we’ll be able to attract multi-day residential conferences, which will take us to a new level. The new development will also include a dual-aspect new restaurant with views overlooking the pitch that will further enhance our facilities at the ground. 

From a commercial partnership perspective, we work with some fantastic brands, including Emirates as our headline partner, Hilton, Heineken, UA92, Sportsbreaks.com, just to name a few. Our sponsorship levels are at a record level – which is fantastic. 

The key word for us is innovation. We’re not a traditional county cricket club – which can be viewed as a bit stagnant. We want to be moving things forward, and pardon the pun, push the boundaries. For us, it’s all about creating a world class, multi-purpose venue that has a wide range of revenue streams, so we’re not fully reliant on cricket.

Your members are obviously so important to a county, how do you keep your members engaged through the year and make sure they renew their memberships?

The key for us here is driving the volume and engagement of our membership. We now have around 9,000 members, which is the highest it’s been for a while. Last year, we took a long, hard look at our membership structure, which included significant external research and consultation with new and old members.

I mentioned before about diversity – and we’re looking to grow and diversify our membership. Cricket in all its guises has to be more relevant and attractive to all audiences. Even simpler, the game has to be much more accessible than it has been previously. We’re a members’ club so engagement is absolutely key. They’re not just a traditional season ticket holder, like in football or rugby, so we look to run a programme of events throughout the year, including Forums and coffee mornings including Q&As with players and coaches from both our men’s and women’s teams.

There are lots of different groups who come to cricket from your traditional county members to your more casual T20 fans, how do you try and make sure each of these groups feels valued?

With the addition of the T20 Blast and more recently, the Hundred to the portfolio over the last couple of years, there really is something for everyone when it comes to domestic or international cricket. We know that we have our Traditional Members who have been Lancashire supporters for a long time – and we’d like to thank them for their loyalty – but we also know that there is a younger generation of supporters coming through that enjoy the shorter form of the game.

As mentioned, we simplified our membership offering at the start of the year to try and make coming to watch Lancashire matches easier, more accessible and affordable. The Hundred and the T20 Blast is now the gateway for new cricket supporters and Members, or those that have never been to a cricket match before. We need to the cater for all different supporters that come to Emirates Old Trafford and ensure they all have an unforgettable experience when they walk through the gates.

There’s a lot of talk about trying to get Gen Z involved in cricket at the moment, how are you tackling that challenge?

We’ve already touched on making our membership options more accessible to new and younger cricket fans and ensuring we look to diversify our audience. We have to do all we can to attract fans of the future to get involved with Lancashire Cricket. This is really important for Lancashire’s long-term future.

The digital landscape plays a really important role in this too. We’re developing younger audiences across social media platforms such as Instagram and Tik Tok and the creation of fun and engaging content is at the heart of our strategy in this area.

The team here at Lancashire have also worked tirelessly on LancsTV – our live streaming product, which is well known to be leading the way in domestic cricket. The growth of our live stream viewers over the past two years has been exponential – with over 70% being aged 18-35. We are also the only county to be live streaming in India, across both the Jio and FanCode platforms. 

What do you think some of the challenges facing Lancashire and county cricket in general are at the moment?

As I said earlier, unfortunately cricket doesn’t pay for itself – so financial sustainability in the long-term is crucial. That’s been one of the key strategies here at Lancashire Cricket for the last decade, investing in the venue and diversifying our business model. The new hotel extension is going to huge for us over the next ten years, as we look ahead at our long-term plans. 

For us, the growth of women’s cricket is right at the top of our priorities too. We’ve had a professional women’s side – Thunder – for the last three years and it continues to develop at pace. We’ve taken both our men’s and women’s teams on pre-season tour over the last couple of years whilst Thunder are playing more and more cricket at Emirates Old Trafford, which is great. Funding is really important and we – the ECB and all counties – must continue to increase investment over the coming years, whilst also ensuring our women’s side has the same access to facilities and opportunities as our men’s team. It was announced last week that we’ll be hosting five women’s Internationals between 2025-31 at Emirates Old Trafford, which is something we’re all looking forward to.

Lastly, we all know what’s happened with cricket over the last couple of years – and it’s been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons at times. We all have a responsibility – along with everyone involved in English Cricket – to ensure that cricket as a game is welcoming and inclusive and that we take every step possible to eradicate any kind of discrimination. This is something Lancashire Cricket is absolutely committed to and is very much part of our DNA and core values as an organisation.

Driving social change through blockchain technology

Multiple sports are played and loved globally by people of all ages, backgrounds and genders, with peoples affiliations to clubs and sports being something that unites people from all across the globe. 

What if we combined the power of football to unite people around good causes and drive social change by using the power of technology to bridge gaps, build and empower communities and deliver transformative solutions?

Sports Blockchain Chiliz and Common Goal, a pledge-based charitable movement supported by players, coaches and organisations throughout the global football industry, aim to find out, pioneering a movement that brings the football industry together to drive social change by using blockchain technology to allow them to reach and have an impact on a new audience.

It’s a journey that can usher in a new era of increased transparency, accountability and stronger governance in philanthropy, all made possible through the transformative power of blockchain technology.

How blockchain technology can help drive social change through elite sport is a topic that will be covered in great depth at the Emirates Stadium for SEG3 on June 28 & 29.

Be sure to block time in your diary from 14:05-14:35 on June 29th to understand how you can lead the way to a fairer sporting ecosystem alongside:

  • James Newman, Director for Corporate Affairs, Chilliz
  • Thomas Preiss, Co-Founder, Common Goal
  • James Flude, Head of Business Development, MatchWorn Shirt
  • Daniel Wood, Co-Founder, World Freestyle Football Federation. 

The Bottom Line – Manchester United share price climbs as speculation of sale rises

This month’s index continues to show volatility between different categories and names. In sports, the surprise Saudi-PGA deal on golf has heightened speculation about which sports could be next to benefit from the investment of Middle East money in particular. That helped Formula One. In a related story, the speculation that the Qataris are still in the bidding for Manchester United and have a strong chance of winning helped boost its share price. Yet it was not all positive. Borussia Dortmund’s share price tanked as it failed to win the Bundesliga on the final day, which was then compounded by the sale of Jude Bellingham.

The major US Tech giants continue to do well and so seven companies – all in Tech – have contributed virtually all of the increase in the S&P 500 US index. That is likely to continue as investors seek safe harbours. Netflix benefited from this general trend but also hopes its password crackdown will help its subscriber numbers and profitability. 

Apparel stocks also did well with Adidas continuing to benefit from better than expected results and reducing investor concerns over the Yeezy issue. The stocks generally are also likely to benefit from the perception they are recession proof.

Text by Ian Whittaker, Twice City AM Analyst of the Year

Post-Event Report: How to grow revenues in Women’s Sport

The fourth in-person event of iSportConnect Masterclass+ series of 2023 was built on our new highly-focused and interactive format with breakout discussions at the heart of the event. After many requests we turned the focus to women’s sport and dived into both media revenues and maximising sponsorship revenues as our main topics.

A great list of delegates took part including representatives from Formula 1, Premier League, Barclays, British Olympic Association, Cinch, Saracens, Visa, Barclays and Aston Villa.

View From The US: Ottawa Senators sold to Andlauer for nearly $1 billion

In this View From piece Sportico’s, Kurt Badenhausen, Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams, look into the recent sale of the Ottawa Senators for almost $1 billion.

Michael Andlauer has reached an agreement to acquire the NHL’s Ottawa Senators. The team sold for almost $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The group is acquiring the team from the estate of Eugene Melnyk, who died in March 2022 (the Melnyk estate will retain a 10 percent interest in the club). The pharmaceuticals billionaire had acquired the team out of bankruptcy two decades ago for $92 million, and last fall, the Melnyk family retained Galatioto Sports Partners (GSP) to explore a possible sale. The deal is still subject to league approval.

“I believe that the Senators’ fanbase is one of the most passionate in the league, and I’m excited to take the franchise’s success both on and off the ice to the next level,” Andlauer said in a statement released by the team. “The short and long-term future of the team is incredibly bright, and I look forward to getting to know the team, the fanbase and the community.”

Representatives for GSP declined to comment on the sale.

Last year, Sportico valued the Senators at $655 million, 27th in the 32-team league. The Senators have missed the playoffs in six straight seasons, generate the NHL’s third lowest revenue and consistently lose money.

Nonetheless, bidding for the club was robust. Nine different groups submitted offers ahead of the first March deadline, including one from actor Ryan Reynolds and real estate developer Remington Group. Four groups made follow-up bids ahead of the final deadline; along with Andlauer, those included former Pittsburgh Penguins minority owners Jeffrey and Michael Kimel, Canadian billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos, and film producer Neko Sparks, whose group also included Snoop Dogg.

Andlauer is a minority owner in the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens and the owner/chairman of the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs (he previously owned an AHL team with the same name, but sold it to the Canadiens in 2015 and then bought an OHL club that he renamed and moved to Hamilton). He was born in France and raised in Canada, and is now the president and CEO of Andlauer Management Group, which oversees a number of transportation and logistics companies.

The Senators are the first Canadian hockey team to hit the market since the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2012, and one of the new owner’s biggest early priorities will be a new arena location. The Senators currently play at the Canadian Tire Centre, an arena about 16 miles (26 kilometers) from the capital city’s downtown center. Many believe the location has limited the team’s attendance; the team averaged 16,757 fans at home this season, which ranked 25th in the league. The Senators also haven’t made the playoffs since 2017.

In June 2022, the Senators signed a memorandum of understanding for a new downtown arena at the LeBreton Flats site. And while a new arena would obviously add to the costs associated with owning the team, many incoming buyers are attracted to the proposition of being able to plan, design and control a new venue (a similar dynamic exists in the sale of the NFL’s Washington Commanders).

Other recent NHL sales include Fenway Sports Group’s 2021 acquisition of the Pittsburgh Penguins for about $900 million, and former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam’s recent purchase of the Nashville Predators, a deal that includes tiered payments that began at a $725 million valuation and will eventually jump to more than $1 billion.

(This story has been updated with Andlauer’s statement released by the Senators.)

BK8 to pledge money to local charities as part of partnership with Aston Villa

Aston Villa have agreed a multi-year partnership with BK8, which sees the brand join as the new Principal and Front of Shirt Partner

The organisation, who have signed a three-year deal with the Club, will have branding featured on the front of Villa’s three shirts until the end of the 2025/26 season and have committed to giving back to charity with this latest announcement. 

The club’s third kit, which will be unveiled later in the summer, will see BK8 make a contribution per adult third shirt sold, to a local charity in Birmingham. The move comes off the back of BK8’s previous work over the past two years, working with charities and programmes involving mental health awareness and this initiative is the first of what will be a number of collaborations with the Club. 

They are currently co-operating with Her Game Too on the importance of gender equality in football.

Speaking about the rationale behind their charitable aims, BK8 EMEA Managing Director Michael Gatt, said: “We are really delighted to be able to announce our support for local charities as part of our exciting new partnership with Aston Villa. Being able to give something back to the supporters for their dedication is a hugely significant part of the reason we want to be involved with a prestigious institution, which is what Aston Villa Football Club are. 

“As a brand working in football for the last few years, we have committed to working closely with our partners’ local community initiatives and ensure we continue our commitment to delivering on our ambitions in this area. 

“Over the next three years of this deal we will work tirelessly to make an impact in this area with a number of programmes across the region that engage with Villa supporters locally but also on a global scale.” 

An Aston Villa spokesperson said: Through this partnership with BK8 we look forward to exciting collaborations together that will help to grow both brands, particularly within Southeast Asia.”

The brand will also invest in several brand activations across the course of the partnership, which they believe will showcase their commitment to several local charitable initiatives in and around Birmingham. The deal also includes various advertising opportunities including advertising assets at Villa Park, which will be given to charity organisations to display promotional messages throughout the season.

CEO Salauddin SS of Outlast Sports Entertainment, who brokered the partnership, said: “We are thrilled to play a key role in helping BK8’s continued growth and helping forge meaningful football partnerships for the brand. Fans can expect more activations in coming months where we can give back to the community to help bring about even better opportunities for the future.”