ITF Launches Global Wheelchair Tennis Development Plan

The ITF Wheelchair Tennis Committee has launched its new Wheelchair Tennis Development Plan, which is says will be instrumental in the continued growth of the sport around the world.

The new Development Plan will benefit from an annual investment of $1 million in wheelchair tennis from Kosmos as part of its Davis Cup partnership with the ITF, alongside continued support from the Cruyff Foundation. The ITF will also work to secure additional investment through new commercial partnerships.

The Wheelchair Tennis Development Plan aligns with the framework and activities of the ITF’s broader Development Strategy, and has been created in collaboration with the ITF Development Department, ITF Wheelchair Strategy Taskforce and other wheelchair experts. Three core objectives that have been identified:

  • Increasing the number of wheelchair tennis players
  • Increasing the number and geographical spread of National Associations offering wheelchair tennis activities
  • Developing talented players, particularly those from nations that are both under-resourced and under-represented.

To achieve these objectives, the Development Plan will focus on seven key areas: participation, performance, events, coaching, facilities, administration, and investment and partnerships.

Among the new initiatives are development and equipment grants for National Associations, while player grants will assist talented players in reaching their potential. National Associations will also be offered financial assistance for hosting entry level international and regional wheelchair tennis events, to help expand the number of localised competitive opportunities.

The ITF is also committed to enhancing wheelchair-specific coaching resources, including existing services such as the ITF Academy, the ITF’s online education platform.

ITF President David Haggerty said: “We are committed to this new Wheelchair Tennis Development Plan that will allow more disabled people worldwide to access this wonderful sport and its far-reaching benefits. Wheelchair tennis players globally will have more opportunities to play the game and, potentially, have the opportunity to become stars in the future. Wheelchair Tennis is stronger than it has ever been and we are confident that this plan will ensure the sport continues to thrive.”

The Cruyff Foundation, whose partnership with the ITF is in its 17th year, has already helped drive ITF development activities in more than 45 countries including the implementation of junior wheelchair tennis programmes. These programmes remain at the heart of the new Development Plan.

World No. 7 Kgothatso Montjane, of South Africa, who benefited from wheelchair development programmes in her home country, said: “It’s very exciting to hear that the ITF is investing even more in wheelchair tennis. From the time the ITF helped set up the wheelchair tennis programme in South Africa I quickly fell in love with the sport and it has given me so many opportunities and taught me so much. It will be fantastic if other young wheelchair tennis players are able to have the same chances as I did to play the game.”

DFB Appoints Genius Sports For An Integrity Programme

The German Football Association (DFB) has selected Genius Sports to launch a new integrity programme that will monitor over 7,500 games a year to prevent match-fixing and betting-related corruption.

Beginning with the 2019/20 season, Genius Sports’ Bet Monitoring System will provide vital visibility across global betting on all Bundesliga, 2. Bundesliga, German internationals, women’s and youth team fixtures. By analysing global odds movements with predictive algorithms, this technology will automatically flag potentially suspicious betting activity in real-time.

The DFB integrity team will now benefit from unprecedented levels of betting intelligence, detailed reports on individual games and analysis of global betting markets that will provide key information from third-party sources and bookmakers to support any integrity investigations.

Hendrik Große Lefert, DFB Integrity Officer, says: “We look forward to working with Genius Sports as our new integrity service provider and hope to gain new impetus in the field of preventing betting-related corruption.”

Steven Burton, Managing Director at Genius Sports, said: “Being selected to safeguard the integrity and future of one of the largest football associations in the world is a huge honour for Genius Sports and is a testament to the quality of our services. Our monitoring technology, expertise in analysing real-time betting and global intelligence network will provide comprehensive protection for the DFB, ensuring their games remain transparent and unpredictable.”

 

Columbus Crew Engages Legends For US$230m New Stadium

MLS side Columbus Crew SC has partnered Legends, a leader in global planning, sales and hospitality for project development and commercial sales rights for the new stadium and team training facility in Columbus, Ohio.

Columbus Crew SC competes in MLS as a member of the League’s Eastern Conference and began play in 1996 as one of the ten charter clubs of the League. To help keep the team in its rightful home, the Haslam family, owners of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, and the Edwards family, including long-time Crew SC physician Dr. Pete Edwards, acquired investor-operator rights to the club ahead of the 2019 season.

The Columbus Crew SC Stadium is expected to be completed in 2021 and will be located in the Downtown Arena District. The new venue will include 20,000 seats, team store, and outdoor public plaza space for social gathering. The old stadium site will be redeveloped as a community sports park and new state-of-the-art training facility for the team. Legends Global Planning will oversee design and construction of the stadium and the team training facility. Legends Global Sales will manage all commercial rights including sales, marketing and sponsorship assets for the training facility and the stadium.

“We’re thrilled to add the expertise of Legends to our process of working to create a new stadium experience that keenly suits the collaborative spirit of the Greater Columbus community,” said Tim Bezbatchenko, Columbus Crew SC President and General Manager.

“Legends’ proven track record in the sports and entertainment space is highly regarded and will enable us to achieve the success needed on the ground level to ensure our long-term vision that will benefit the community and fans that have pledged to save and support the team.”

“Our belief in the synergies of Legends overall 360 platform, engaged with a formidable club business such as Crew SC, creates the opportunity to truly showcase the inherent partnership value an integrated approach to planning, sales and operations can achieve for a project,” said Mike Tomon, Legends Chief Operating Officer.

Legends will work with the organization across multiple areas including, project planning and development, sponsorship and ticket sales, naming rights, marketing, technology innovations, data insights and analytics. Legends has already delivered key business intelligence data on planning and design for the future stadium through its proprietary approach to gathering targeted market specific information. By conducting focus groups, surveys and utilizing other research-driven tools Legends has been able to analyze feedback from Columbus Crew ticket holders, fans and the broader Columbus, Ohio community.

FC Barcelona Signs Collaboration Agreement With Vissel Kobe

FC Barcelona and Vissel Kobe have signed an agreement to unite the two clubs for the 2019/20 season, with an option to extend the deal.

The Catalan club and the Japanese team, which plays in the J1 League, wish to take advantage of synergies to share knowledge both on a technical level, such as staff training and work systems, and in other areas of their clubs, such as marketing and commercial aspects. In addition, both clubs would like to explore joint interests on a business level.

Both clubs will have the chance to send young players from one to the other, in order to test their level in other environments and to give them the opportunity to develop their expertise.

Furthermore, both clubs will share reports, as well as players and team analysis. Particularly, FC Barcelona will help Vissel Kobe with scouting players worldwide, and Vissel Kobe will share  its knowledge of Asian youth markets with Barça.

 

NBA Extends Agreement With Tencent Until 2025

Chinese Internet giant Tencent has signed a five-year (2020-2025) extension to its existing deal (2015-2020) with NBA as the exclusive official digital partner in China, multiple sources have confirmed to Lanxiong Sports.

The new deal is approximately worth $1.5 billion, which is 3 times as the previous contract, said sources briefed on the details of the agreement.

The negotiation between Tencent and NBA started from last year but no final agreements were reached within the exclusive negotiation window period, which ended in April 2019. Then Alibaba, another Chinese Internet giant, came into the battlefield to compete for the exclusive NBA media rights.

Lanxiong Sports learned that NBA China submitted the two scenarios offered by Tencent and Alibaba to the NBA last week, and NBA called a conference immediately for this issue. Both Chinese companies offered a similar amount of money in order to land the deal. A few days later, NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, eventually selected their former partner Tencent.

Besides, Lanxiong Sports has also learned that in the extension negotiations, Tencent previously hopes to get the whole exclusive rights of digital media in the next five-year cycle, which means that Tencent is the only partner on all kinds of digital media distribution channels, such as PC, mobile, social media, OTT and mobile news aggregation platform. By investing billions of dollars on NBA media rights, Tencent naturally want to concentrate all the NBA video resources to its own channels without any diversion, to maximize the revenue scale of paid users.

At present, the only question up in the air is whether NBA can persuade Tencent to abandon the rights of short videos, NBA League Pass, IPTV, etc, which were previously acquired by several Chinese media platforms like Bytedance, BestTV, Weibo, etc. Apparently, NBA doesn’t want to see that all kinds of media rights are monopolized by only one company, which is contradict with their overall strategy to broaden the margin of audiences globally. However, if Tencent chooses to abandon those parts of rights above, sources told Lanxiong Sports, the price of the overall rights package will drop to $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion.

ICC Unveils World Test Championship

The International Cricket Council has officially launched the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC).

Getting underway on 1 August 2019, the WTC will see the top nine Test teams in the world – Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies – compete in 71 Test matches across 27 series, played over two years; with the top two teams contesting the ICC World Test Championship Final in June 2021 (to be played in the UK) and the winners crowned ICC World Test Champions.

Geoff Allardice, ICC General Manager – Cricket Operations said: “The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup this summer showed just how important it is for every game to count and for the world’s best teams to go head-to-head. The World Test Championship will bring relevance and context to bilateral Test cricket over the next two years, creating a pinnacle event for the five-day format, just as the World Cups for men and women do in the ODI and T20I formats.”

 “Test cricket is the pinnacle of our sport,” said England’s leading test wicket taker, James Anderson. “It is the very essence of cricket and the majority of players want to strive to play the purist form of the game. The ICC World Test Championship is another brilliant initiative for the sport, adding context and relevance to every Test series. Every Test matters, but even more so now.”

 “We are awaiting the ICC World Test Championship with great enthusiasm as it adds context to the longest format of the game,” said India’s skipper, Virat Kohli.  “Test cricket is very challenging and coming out on top in the traditional form is always highly satisfying. The Indian team has done really well in recent years and will be fancying its chances in the championship.”

“The World Test Championship is a fantastic initiative,” said Australia Test captain Tim Paine.  “We love playing Test cricket, it’s the pinnacle for us, remains hugely popular in Australia and we’re fortunate that it enjoys great support at home among players, the media and the public. To wear the baggy green is the ultimate for all Australian cricketers and if the World Test Championship helps to ensure that all countries make Tests a high priority then that has to be good news for the game in general and the continuing health of the format in particular.”

 With points available for every single game, each team will play three home and three away series. Each series counts for 120 points, distributed over the number of matches in a series. For example, a two- match series will mean 60 points for each Test while a three-match series will give 40 points to each Test match.  A tie will be 50% of the points available, whilst a draw will be a 3:1 points ratio.

Organised by Member Boards, the matches will be played just like any bilateral series, but with the added context of a competition and one champion team.  Opponents were scheduled by collective agreement of the competing Members, with a number of the fixtures already committed within existing Member rights agreements.

The number of matches in each series can vary between a minimum of two matches, to a maximum of five matches. The first cycle of the WTC consists of only five-day matches and will include day-night matches, subject to bilateral and mutual agreement between the opponents.  Only matches identified as part of the WTC will count towards the championship.

The ICC is responsible for the competition terms and the conduct of cricket, by way of providing match officials and ensuring matches are played as per the laws of the game. The ICC is also responsible for delivery of the ICC World Test Championship final.

The Jockey Club Names Former BT Executive Delia Bushell As Group CEO

The Jockey Clus has appointed former BT Sport and Sky executive, Delia Bushell as the Group Chief Executive of The Jockey Club.

One of the leading executives in media and sport, Delia has more than 20 years’ experience in the sector in both executive and non-executive roles. She spent three years at BT Group plc as Managing Director of its c.£1bn TV and Sport division, overseeing BT’s Sport channels, Pay TV platform and digital services, including the acquisition of premium sports and entertainment rights, such as the English Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Premiership Rugby, FA Cup, MotoGP and The Ashes.

Prior to this, Delia spent 14 years at Sky in a variety of roles. She was Chief Commercial Officer of Sky Italia, leading marketing, customer management and digital development for its €2.7bn consumer business; Director of Broadband & Telephony for Sky UK, taking Sky’s Broadband service from launch to three million customers; and Managing Director for Sky Ireland. Most recently Delia was UK CEO and European COO at Afiniti, a US tech company that is a leader in artificial intelligence.

She is also a non-executive director of the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and of Commonwealth Games England, and is on the Advisory Board of The Telegraph Media Group. She holds an MA in Modern History and an MPhil in International Relations from Oxford University and is passionate about encouraging female participation in sport.

Delia will join in early September and, following a period of handover, succeed current Group Chief Executive Simon Bazalgette when he stands down in October.

The Jockey Club, with head offices in Holborn, London, stages thousands of events at its 15-strong Jockey Club Racecourses arm, which includes Aintree, Cheltenham, Epsom Downs and Newmarket racecourses. The group also operates 5,000 acres of public racehorse training grounds at Newmarket, Lambourn and Epsom Downs, The National Stud in Newmarket, the historic Jockey Club Rooms in Newmarket and is the sole shareholder in racing charity, Racing Welfare. The Group is run for the benefit of racing, with all profits reinvested.

Delia Bushell said: “I’m excited and honoured to lead this iconic institution. Racing is such an important part of British national life and I’m looking forward to working with the talented team at The Jockey Club and wider industry stakeholders to drive its future success. The years to come will be critical for the sport, as we embrace the opportunities and challenges of innovating for fans and racegoers, appealing to new and more diverse audiences, broadening revenue streams, and driving inward investment. I’m looking forward to immersing myself fully into the world of racing and using my wider experience in sport and media to help deliver these goals.”

Sandy Dudgeon, Senior Steward of The Jockey Club, said: “With Delia’s experience at the top of media, sport, technology and business management, we are delighted she will join us as our new Group Chief Executive. The Jockey Club has a talented team in place, so we needed to make a first-class appointment to lead the group. Over the months and years ahead under Delia’s leadership I am confident The Jockey Club will go from strength-to-strength in order to benefit our sport.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank Simon Bazalgette for all he has done for The Jockey Club and our sport over his 11-year tenure. His leadership helped us to grow commercial revenues significantly, enabling us to return record sums back to British Racing. We have improved our facilities considerably, none more so than our flagship £45 million development at Cheltenham. His vision was pivotal to a range of achievements by the industry, including the growth of media rights value, our terrestrial broadcast relationship with ITV, Levy Reform and the creation of QIPCO British Champions Day.”

Everton Reveals New Stadium Design Plans

Architect Dan Meis revealed designs for Everton’s planned new home on Bramley-Moore Dock at a fans’ event hosted by the city’s Titanic Hotel last week.

The 52,000-capacity venue would house one-quarter of supporters in a cavernous one-tier South Stand, with the intention to recreate Goodison Park’s partisan atmosphere a chief consideration in Meis’s stadium blueprint. Watch the proposed stadium on iSportconnect TV.

Betway And PSG.LGD Seal Six-Figure Sponsorship

Betway has entered into a global partnership with PSG.LGD, a leading professional DOTA 2 esports team.

The six-figure agreement will see Betway’s branding appear on the players’ jerseys and jackets, and will also receive access to the players for content creation, as well as experiential and social media activities.

PSG.LGD is a professional DOTA 2 team that sits within PSG’s wider esports organisation. PSG Esports was formed in 2016 and has a number of professional teams competing across different games.

Anthony Werkman, CEO, said: “Having already had plenty of success with sponsorship in esports, we are very excited to have signed a new partnership with PSG.LGD. The PSG brand is incredibly strong around the world and their involvement in esports has already been extremely successful, notably their more recent move into DOTA 2 with LGD. The PSG.LGD team has celebrated some early victories on the DOTA 2 circuit and we can’t wait to be part of their future success. Betway has always aimed to be at the forefront of the esports movement, and we look forward to partnering with yet another major player in the space.”

Sebastien Wasels, Managing Director at Paris Saint-Germain Asia-Pacific, added: “We are delighted to welcome Betway into the Paris Saint-Germain family. Together, we will be able to offer more exciting content for our global esports audiences and to engage even more closely with the DOTA 2 community.