Stone and Wood Brewing have partnered with Rugby Australia.
Already a crowd favourite, Stone and Wood’s Green Coast Lager will be available at Wallabies Tests this year across Australia.
Rugby Australia Chief Executive Officer Andy Marinos said: “We’re delighted to welcome Stone and Wood’s Green Coast Lager to the Rugby family. Stone and Wood are passionate about quality, community and giving back, and the Australian Rugby community share those common values.
“Australian Rugby is entering a very exciting period, kicking off with the eToro France Series next month before blockbusters against New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina on home soil,” Marinos said.
Stone & Wood Brewing General Manager Nick Boots said “We’re thrilled to be partnering with the Wallabies, a true icon of Australian sport. As an independent brewer of Australian made and owned beers, we think our NSW Northern Rivers inspired Green Coast Lager is a perfect fit for the Wallabies and will be loved by Rugby fans across Australia.
Since launching in 2008 in the Northern Rivers of NSW, Stone and Wood has established itself as one of Australia’s favourite breweries.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has announced that True will be their new media partner in Thailand to broadcast AFC club competitions in the 2021 season.
True will be adding the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup to its already impressive portfolio of sporting content, which includes the English Premier League, NBA and various other tennis and golf competitions. Fans will be able to enjoy extensive coverage of the AFC’s club competitions through TrueVision’s sports channels as well as via True’s OTT services.
The 2021 season will be full of exciting football for Thailand who will host three AFC Champions League (East) Groups, which for the first time, will feature four Thai clubs – BG Pathum United, Ratchaburi FC, Chiangrai United and Port FC – competing for the ultimate club prize in Asia.
Dato’ Windsor John, the AFC General Secretary, said: “The AFC Champions League has emerged as one of the world’s leading Continental club competitions and the AFC Cup continues to showcase the undeniable passion for football across the Continent. We are indeed pleased to welcome True to our expanding list of media partners broadcasting our club competitions to the passionate football fans in Thailand.
“Our club competitions have grown tremendously over the years and the AFC is committed to ensuring that football remains the number one sport in the Continent. It is through our media partners like True that we are able to showcase the most attractive of Asian club football.”
Ongard Prapakamol, Chief Media Officer at True Corporation Public Company Limited said: “True Group, as Thailand’s leading provider of content, particularly of sports content ranging from the English Premier League, NFL American Football, NBA Basketball and the PGA Golf Tour to Grand Slam Tennis, Formula 1, the Badminton World Federation and World Snooker, is delighted to bring more fun and excitement to its members and Thai customers with this media rights partnership that enables us to broadcast all matches of the AFC Champions League 2021, Asia’s pinnacle club competition, on TrueVisions and TrueID platforms from the group stage through to the Final.
“This year is the first time that four teams from Thailand including BG Pathum United FC, Port FC, Ratchaburi FC and Chiangrai United FC are participating in the tournament.
“This partnership with the AFC marks another milestone for True Group and is proof of our determination to continuously deliver great content and provide the best entertainment. We are confident that Thai fans will enjoy watching and cheering on the AFC Champions League 2021.”
Patrick Murphy, Board Member and CEO at Football Marketing Asia said: “We are excited to welcome True as our valued media partner in Thailand. The country has a large number of devoted football fans and we are proud to have True on board to deliver the best of AFC club competitions and an enhanced AFC club football experience overall to this passionate audience in 2021.”
Make a Mark has announced that Juan Carlos Holgado, an Olympic gold medallist in archery, will take the project forward, selecting and mentoring a number of refugees with the aim of competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
The Make a Mark project was founded in 2019 by three-time Olympic gold medallist in the sport of shooting, Niccolo Campriani. Nicco mentored the first ever Make a Mark team which recently made a historic breakthrough with two of the team, Luna Solomon and Mahdi Yovari, now confirmed as Tokyo 2020 Olympians. Refugee athlete Luna Solomon was selected for the IOC Refugee Olympic Team (EOR). Meanwhile, Afghan athlete Mahdi, who is classified as a displaced person and not a refugee, will participate in the Games as part of the Afghanistan National Olympic Committee team.
Make a Mark is striving to make this achievement a reality for even more refugees by inspiring Olympians to take the project forward in other sports, whether summer or winter, and provide more opportunities for refugees and displaced people to compete in elite-level sport.
The next Olympian to take up this incredible opportunity and great responsibility is Juan Carlos Holgado, who won a team gold for Spain in Barcelona 1992. Holgado will benefit from Make a Mark’s high-level network which supports Olympians with best-in-class partnerships and unparalleled access to elite training opportunities, coaching and competitions.
Juan Carlos Holgado said: “Taking this project forward in archery is an impactful way for me to raise awareness of the worldwide refugee crisis while providing refugees and displaced people a unique opportunity to learn the art of archery which requires both physical and mental toughness. Of course, Paris 2024 is the ultimate goal and I have no doubt that this will be achievable with lots of effort, training and the expert support of Make a Mark and World Archery.
“Archery has been an integral part of my life since I began training at the age of nine and then through four Olympic Games, two as an athlete and two as a coach, and finally in event management and sports administration. I can think of no better project to give back my knowledge and experience to those who have not had the opportunity to compete in sport due to an extremely difficult start to life.”
World Archery President Uğur Erdener said: “Here at World Archery, we are incredibly proud that Juan Carlos Holgado will be taking up this incredible project which truly echoes World Archery’s values of diversity and inclusivity.
“We were delighted to host Nicco and his athletes in our World Archery Excellence Centre and we have seen his devotion to this project and the fantastic success of the first Make a Mark refugee athletes he mentored. We have no doubt that Holgado will also give his all to ensuring the refugees selected will be given the very best training and support.”
Nicco said: “I can think of no better Olympian to take Make a Mark forward in archery. Holgado has a wealth of experience in his sport, both as an athlete and as an elite-level coach. As the Director of the World Archery Excellence Centre, he has been an integral part of Luna and Mahdi’s journey to Tokyo 2020 and an active supporter of Make a Mark since the beginning. I am thrilled that he will now take this challenge on, and I know that he will be able to equip his Make a Mark team with the skills and knowledge needed to become champions.
“He will also have the full support of Make a Mark which has the experience and expertise to enable and equip the next generation of Olympians to train refugees and displaced people for future Olympic Games.”
After World Archery recently organised their World Cup in Switzerland during the Covid-19 pandemic, the organisation is now ready to organise more events in a secure manner. iSportConnect’s Taruka Srivastav spoke with Tom Dielen, Secretary General, World Archery to know more.
What were the biggest challenges you faced during COVID-19 and how are you overcoming those, have you made any structural changes within the organisation to combat this?
World Archery has faced the same challenges as much of the rest of the sports world. Our calendar was cancelled in 2020, our revenues and partnerships impacted – and, probably most importantly for a sport with a passionate community at grassroots level, many people couldn’t get on the range.
As an organisation, we’ve embraced technological, virtual and proactive solutions to encourage people to get back to archery. We’re fortunate as a sport in which social distancing is the norm so safety is not a huge concern.
“It’s really made us, as a federation, more in touch with the community.”
Our entire Indoor Archery World Series – normally a destination mass-participation circuit – was run remotely in the winter, with 1000s of archers submitting scores from small events or their home ranges.
It’s really made us, as a federation, more in touch with the community.
World Archery went ahead with the World Cup despite the ongoing pandemic, how was the participation and how was the organisation able to run this competition?
The participation has been encouraging if about 20% down on what we’d expect in a normal year, mostly because some of the major Asian countries decided not to take part due to travel restrictions. We’re very happy with the response to the restart.
Each event has a tailored safety protocol, covering testing and isolation, social distancing and mask wearing. We’ve not had a single athlete or team official on-site test positive so far.
Tell us about your sponsorship and marketing strategy?
We have two partnership programmes, one for industry companies and another for non-endemic sponsors.
We’ve partnered with non-endemic brands that share the same values of precision, of excellence, as archery – like Hyundai, Errea, Longines and Turkish Airlines.
“World Archery provides a global but niche platform for growing medium-to-high-end brands looking to reach a more affluent, educated fanbase, particularly in major Asian markets.”
Our strategy is very simple. We ensure that the brands receive excellent return on investment, while putting focus on non-linear activations and working with partners to make sure the association is valuable.
Why should more brands support World Archery?
World Archery provides a global but niche platform for growing medium-to-high-end brands looking to reach a more affluent, educated fanbase, particularly in major Asian markets. Our entry point is reasonable and we work very hard to ensure the return.
“All our output boils down to three key tenets: educate, excite and engage.”
Our sport embodies accuracy, consistency, precision and skill. These are key values for many companies.
How do you plan to attract and engage fans further as we move forwards?
We have a strong understanding of our fanbase, from fanatic to casual, and a strong focus on producing content that feeds each of our audience pillars.
Just before the pandemic, we had hit record broadcast highs (77 million in 14 key markets) for our annual Hyundai Archery World Cup circuit and were supporting that with tailored communications strategies in growth territories.
All our output boils down to three key tenets: educate, excite and engage. We believe that with that focus, we will continue to grow archery worldwide.
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA’s) bid for broad antitrust immunity which can result in NCAA loosen grip over college athletes with regards to potential benefits while competing.
The Supreme Court upheld a federal district court order which allows member schools to provide more education-related benefits to student-athletes, including computers and internships.
The entire debate has been about athletes protesting NCAA rules limiting educational benefits for college players as part of their scholarships.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh said: “The NCAA is essentially acting above the law in how it treats athletes. Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate. And under ordinary principles of antitrust law, it is not evident why college sports should be any different. The NCAA is not above the law.”
LaLiga in its Financial Report for the 2019-2020 season,claims that the total income of the competition achieved a new historical record – despite the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic – and where the robustness and economic solvency of the clubs in LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank as a whole are demonstrated in facing up to the strongest impact that will manifest in 2020/21.
The main conclusion arising from these results is that LaLiga’s Clubs have very good indebtedness and equity ratios, with confidence from investors that allows them to obtain financing under favourable terms and with liquidity buffers thanks to their efforts in containing costs.
Total income was €5,045 million ($6.01 billion), +3.6% compared to 18/19, although this figure could have been €5,321m (+ 9.3%) without the impact of COVID-19 according to estimates by PwC. Additionally, the average cumulative long-term growth in each of the last five seasons was +12%, a figure that is worth even more when compared to other sectors and companies: IBEX35 companies, for example, decreased by – 1.4% on average in the last five years.
Of note is the greater contribution from LaLiga SmartBank to the whole, at 9.3% of total income, a historical maximum and a sign of an ever more balanced competition; broadcasting rights income stood at 35% of the total. Compared to the other major European competitions, LaLiga is the only one that made a profit (€77m Net Result) and continues to be the leader in income on a demographic and price level equality comparison basis (€107 per capita).
In terms of total expenses, the cost and amortisation of sports staff continues to be clubs’ largest outlay, having risen to 60% in 19/20, two points more than in the previous season, compared to the cost of non-sports staff, which remained stable at 5%.
Spanish professional football can boast resilient high-level profitability, with a positive operating profitability despite the impact of COVID-19. EBITDA after transfers of players exceeded €1,000 million (€1,196 million without COVID according to PwC), thanks to the significant effort of the clubs in containing costs.
LaLiga maintains a great capacity for investment and a sustainable level of indebtedness (NFD/EBITDA of 1.63x), thanks to strong profitability levels. In this sense, net financial debt increased to €745 million, mainly resulting from net investments of €509 million. Of the total invested, 84% was for players and 16% for infrastructures.
MANSCAPED, the leader in men’s grooming products has partnered with the renowned USA Triathlon team for this summer’s long-awaited return to the world stage.
The California-based grooming brand is widely known for its high-profile sports sponsorships and dedication to supporting celebrated athletes and world-class teams across the globe. And now also known as the Official Grooming Partner of USA Triathlon, a special designation indeed.
“The USA Triathlon team is made up of some of the greatest endurance athletes in the world. We’re completely honored to be able to support them with the return of sports’ biggest stage this summer,” said Joey Kovac, Senior Director of Marketing at MANSCAPED. “Our products help unlock that race day confidence and allow these elite competitors to be ready for anything out there, without the need to worry about down there.”
“USA Triathlon is thrilled to partner with MANSCAPED, a company that values and prioritizes men’s health, wellness and hygiene, without taking itself too seriously,” said Victoria Brumfield, USA Triathlon Chief of Staff and Chief Sport Development Officer. “We look forward to introducing MANSCAPED’s best-in-class grooming products, along with a heavy dose of entertainment value, to the USA Triathlon multisport community.”
As part of the partnership, MANSCAPED will offer an exclusive discount to USA Triathlon Annual Members, as well as additional promotions throughout the course of 2021. And keep your eyes peeled on the tube; leading up to the universally revered and worldwide watched events, MANSCAPED will produce and debut a national commercial spot featuring USA Triathlon elite athletes. In true MANSCAPED fashion, it’s sure to knock your speedos, socks, and shoes right off.
Volleyball World has launched the world’s first ‘Equal Jersey’ campaign, which will see the sport’s top players champion gender equality by wearing a special edition jersey featuring their own name and that of a player of the opposite gender.
Male and female players who share the same jersey number will proudly wear each other’s names on their jerseys for the first time at the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) 2021 Finals on 25 and 27 June 2021. The special edition jerseys will be worn during the finals to highlight how the sport of volleyball, the players and the fans all strive to challenge the inequality which frequently exists between genders in the world of sport.
Three pairs of players have been confirmed as the first Equal Jersey ambassadors, including: Lauren Carlini (USA) and Facundo Conte (ARG) sharing the No. 7 Equal Jersey, Natalia Goncharova (RUS) and Wallace de Souza (BRA) sharing No. 8, and Eda Erdem (TUR) and Nimir Abdel-Aziz (NED) sharing No. 14.
While the rules in sports are often the same for all players, there remains a huge disparity between genders in sport which needs to be challenged. Volleyball aims to promote a level playing field across the sport with women’s and men’s major competitions receiving equal prize money and generating equal viewing figures. However, Volleyball World recognises there is always room to improve. This is why the sport of volleyball, through the Equal Jersey activation, aims to rectify this situation and score another point for gender equality.
Volleyball World CEO Finn Taylor said: “Volleyball World is proud to be a leading advocate for promoting gender equality in sport. Gender equality and inclusivity are in volleyball’s DNA and we will always refuse to accept the status quo.
“It is a sport where, on an international level, women and men compete on a level playing field, with equal opportunities, equal pay and equal attention. But we have to do more to lead from the front in this regard, showcasing volleyball’s culture of inclusivity and equality in new and innovative ways to encourage greater action across the world of sport.
“By launching the Equal Jersey campaign, we aim to showcase that volleyball is universal. It brings people together and players and fans cheer for all, championing equality, diversity and inclusion as a limitless strength.”
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) and the Government of Japan (GoJ) have agreed on 10,000 spectator limit at each venue for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
The IOC and IPC were informed about and support the policies the three Japanese parties have decided on.
The main decisions are as follows:
In light of the government’s restrictions on public events, the spectator limit for the Olympic Games will be set at “50 per cent of venue capacity, up to a maximum of 10,000 people” at all venues. (Students in the schools’ spectator programme and their supervisors will not be considered in these numbers, and will be treated separately as they are not spectators.)
The current competition schedule remains unchanged. In principle, spectators will be admitted to events subject to the above limits.
However, in the event that a state of emergency or other priority measures aimed at preventing infection are implemented at any time after 12 July 2021, restrictions on spectator numbers at the Games, including non-spectator competitions, will be based on the content of the state of emergency or other relevant measures in force at that time.
In the event of any rapid change in infection status and in the capacity of the medical care system, a five-party meeting will be held promptly to consider further measures.
The Japanese parties have formulated guidelines for spectators aimed at ensuring safe and secure environments. These stipulate that masks should be worn in venues at all times; speaking in a loud voice or shouting will be prohibited; congestion should be avoided by means of appropriate announcements; and visitors should leave venues in a staggered manner. Spectators will be requested to travel directly to venues and return home directly, and to take all necessary precautions when moving between prefectures.
Given the COVID-19 situation, the Japanese parties intend to look into either cancelling or reducing the scale of any live sites and public viewing events to minimise the movement of people, review any other Games-related events, and establish new safe and secure ways of cheering and supporting the athletes.
A framework will be implemented to keep monitoring the status of infections and medical care using expert advice.
Consistent and unified messages aimed at ensuring safe and secure Games by the five parties will be delivered.
The equivalent policies governing the Paralympic Games will be decided by 16 July 2021, a week before the opening of the Olympic Games.
In order to conduct safe and secure Games for the whole of Japan, there will be strong coordination and cooperation with local governments to ensure the above guidelines are followed.
The situation will be monitored in Japan and abroad, including the status of the different variants of the coronavirus, and all necessary action will be taken promptly. Vaccination of those involved with the Games will continue, and the vaccination status will be further updated.
There are 32 days to go until the Olympic Games. There are 64 days to go until the Paralympic Games. The five parties will continue to work together to ensure safe and secure Games for all.
David Beckham backed Guild Esports has signed Samsung as the Company’s Official Display Partner with the signing of a one-year deal, with an option for Samsung to extend for a further year, across the U.K. & Ireland.
The partnership commences on 21 June 2021 and is Samsung’s first partnership agreement with a U.K. esports organisation.
This is the fourth partnership secured by Guild Esports since its flotation on the London Stock Exchange on 2 October 2020. The contract value, which is confidential, will be paid in two instalments over the initial 12 month period. This will comprise 50% in the form of a payment to Guild, and 50% as value in kind, for which Samsung will be providing monitors for Guild’s Academy, pro-players, streamers and staff, along with displays for rooms in the Company’s London headquarters, later this year.
Kal Hourd, Chief Executive, said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with a brand as prestigious as Samsung, further demonstrating a commitment to our audience by aligning with best-in-class brands throughout our partner family. Guild has become the fastest growing esports organisation in Europe and this partnership highlights the quality of brands that Guild is able to attract, and our pipeline of potential new sponsorship deals remains strong. ”
Samsung will be given marketing rights and exposure across Guild’s facilities, social and digital content featuring the Company’s pro-players and content creators along with VIP gaming experiences for fans. Samsung will also be integrated throughout the Guild Academy physical infrastructure and roadshows.
Guild and Samsung both share the same vision for the future of esports and this partnership reaffirms their commitment to providing best-in-class technology and infrastructure which are essential for the development of esports players at every level and the wider gaming community.
Damon Crowhurst, Display Head at Samsung Electronics UK, said: “This partnership shows our continued commitment to gamers and the wider industry and will offer fans experiences beyond the norm. Historically, we have a long-standing legacy in esports, and we see Guild as the perfect partner to continue this in the U.K. & Ireland. We’re excited to be a part of the Guild family and look forward to building on this momentum and delivering value to the gaming audience.”
