Mercedes-AMG Petronus Agrees Landmark Deal With TeamViewer

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team and Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team have jointly announce the leading global software company TeamViewer as a new official partner.


TeamViewer will provide the teams with remote connectivity solutions and further cutting-edge technology to drive greater performance over the next five years. The software company breaks new ground as the first brand to agree a new partnership with Mercedes in Formula One and Formula E, including prominent branding on both cars and the drivers’ racing suits. As the only manufacturer competing in both series, Mercedes is uniquely positioned to deliver this partnership.

TeamViewer will be joining a high-tech ecosystem that is engineering the future of mobility in the world’s fastest development laboratory, thanks to advanced performance hybrid solutions in Formula One and battery electric technology in Formula E, which will find their ways into future passenger vehicles. The demanding remote operating conditions, as well as the data-driven nature of each racing series, will prove use cases that can be translated from the racetrack to the industrial environment for TeamViewer’s customers.


TeamViewer software will make the Mercedes teams more efficient, with optimized remote operations and enhanced connectivity between team processes trackside and back at base, notably in terms of race support during testing and racing. TeamViewer will furthermore play an important role in motorsport’s journey towards net zero emissions, by enabling people and companies to effectively monitor systems remotely. By enabling remote working and IoT solutions across multiple sites, TeamViewer technology can deliver further reductions of the carbon footprint of the racing teams, each of which achieved the FIA’s 3* Environmental Accreditation standard last year.

Broadcast in more than 170 territories around the world and with more than 500 million global fans, Formula One is the world’s most popular annual sporting platform and reaches an annual cumulative audience of over 1.5 billion. Alongside the global pinnacle of motorsport, Formula E is growing a new and distinctive audience for its unique city racing format, and together the two series will support TeamViewer’s ambition to become a truly global tech brand through races in 25 countries across six continents.

Toto Wolff, CEO and Team Principal of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team and Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport said: “We are thrilled to announce this new partnership with TeamViewer. Motorsport is a proven catalyst for technology and business development, and we are excited to work together on both fronts over the coming years. It is a dynamic and ambitious brand, and a perfect fit for the pioneering spirit of Mercedes-Benz in motorsport.

By working together across F1 and FE, we can drive gains in technology performance, and we will help optimize remote operations for many companies across the globe. In addition to our own ambitions in terms of sustainability, we are convinced that the growth of companies like TeamViewer will make a meaningful difference to CO2 emissions on a much greater scale. I’m excited to welcome them to the team – and looking forward to seeing their brand enter the global stage with our Monaco races in May.”

Formula E Names MINI Electric Pacesetter As Safe Car

Formula E has announced that the MINI Electric Pacesetter will become the Official FIA Formula E Safety Car at select rounds of the 2020/21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship alongside the BMW i Roadster Safety Car.

Committed to a future of fully electric mobility, MINI’s newest foray onto the racetrack will be with the MINI Electric Pacesetter as Official FIA Formula E Safety Car. The MINI Electric is the fusion of legendary racing genes and iconic MINI road cars, combining all-electric innovation with high performance, thrilling handling and a spirit of fun.

Formula E exists to advance sustainable human progress through the power of electric racing, sharing MINI’s founding value of responsibility to the world in which we operate. MINI will show the electric future of its John Cooper Works range at Formula E races alongside the world’s leading automotive manufacturers. This choice reinforces Formula E’s key role in accelerating the development and adoption of electric vehicles.


Jamie Reigle, CEO of Formula E said: “Formula E and MINI are both known for being original, unpredictable and accessible to everyone. We share a progressive global mindset and are committed to an all-electric future. We look forward to watching MINI lead the way through the streets of Formula E’s iconic host cities, demonstrating the dynamic performance and urban appeal of all-electric vehicles.”

Bernd Korber, Head of MINI said: “We have already shown how well driving fun and electric mobility go together with the MINI Electric. However, the MINI Electric Pacesetter inspired by JCW goes at least a step further and blends the performance character of the John Cooper Works brand with electric mobility.

This extreme version of the MINI Electric has been developed as the Safety Car in the Formula E, so is clearly not intended for use on public roads. But it does reveal one of the directions we could take with the electrification of the JCW brand. For me, the message is clear: electrification and John Cooper Works are a good fit.”

New York Yankees Sign Hyperice As Partner

Hyperice, recovery technology and pioneer of percussion, vibration, dynamic air compression and thermal technology, has been named a Proud Partner of the New York Yankees.

The partnership not only taps one of the most coveted sports brands in the world, but further extends Hyperice’s strategic partnership and investment by Major League Baseball (MLB) as the league’s Official Recovery Technology Partner.


The first of its kind for Hyperice, the multi-year partnership kicks off ahead of Opening Day for the 2021 season as the Yankees begin their quest for their 28th World Series title. This season, players will have access to Hyperice products in Yankee Stadium, including in dugouts, bullpens and training areas. The Hyperice brand will appear on in-Stadium signage and will promote its partnership through advertising and intellectual property rights within the Yankees’ territory.

“The New York Yankees are one of the most iconic and innovative franchises on the planet with a fan base that extends to every corner of the globe,” said Jim Huether, CEO of Hyperice. “By integrating Hyperice warmup and recovery products into the training room and in the dugout, we’re helping to optimize player performance, mobility and extend player longevity.”

“We are very excited to begin our innovative partnership with Hyperice and look forward to working together to enhance Hyperice’s existing brand presence within professional sports,” said Michael J. Tusiani, New York Yankees Senior Vice President, Partnerships.

JBXE Racing Signs Lotus Engineering As Technical Partner

JBXE Racing has announced Lotus Engineering as the latest addition to its family of partners.

The world-renowned British engineering consultancy, part of Group Lotus, joins as Technical Partner, supporting Jenson Button’s Extreme E team in this radical new electric off-roading series.

Highly respected for its dedication to cutting-edge technologies and motor racing pedigree, Lotus Engineering is internationally recognised for driving innovation in the automotive industry, and beyond. JBXE Racing looks forward to working together with Lotus Engineering to promote electrification and highlight the importance of sustainable solutions to help protect and preserve the planet.

JBXE Racing team founder and 2009 FIA Formula 1 Drivers’ World Champion, Jenson Button, and multiple Scandinavian Touring Car race-winner, Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky, are preparing to compete in the opening race of the 2021 Extreme E Championship later this week – the Desert X Prix takes place from 03 – 04 April in AlUla, Saudi Arabia.

Jenson Button said: “Lotus is a great British brand that is inextricably linked to motorsport, so we are delighted to welcome Lotus Engineering to JBXE. Extreme E is a unique and exciting formula, full of “world firsts” and challenges, and to announce that a brand such as Lotus Engineering is coming on this journey with us is a proud moment for myself and the team. We are very excited about our new technical partnership and can’t wait to show what we can do in the first race this weekend.”

Matt Windle, Managing Director, Lotus Cars, commented: “We are on the cusp of an exciting new era of electrified motorsport, and we’re delighted to support the JBXE team as Technical Partner. The complex technicalities of EV racing present a fascinating challenge, and using our learnings from more than a decade of electrifying sports cars – most recently with the Lotus Evija hypercar – we can bring valuable knowledge to the team.”

He added: “As the consultancy arm of our business, Lotus Engineering is growing from strength to strength with multiple major projects underway and a new home at the Lotus Advanced Technical Centre in Warwickshire. Supporting the JBXE team is another valuable demonstration of Lotus Engineering’s wide portfolio of interests – in this case, electrified motorsport. We look forward to sharing the journey together and experiencing the next phase of electric racing with an equally admirable sustainability agenda.”

Alejandro Agag, Founder and CEO of Extreme E said: “It’s fantastic that Lotus Engineering is entering Extreme E alongside Jenson Button’s JBXE team. The long-term success of our series relies on bringing in top automotive manufacturers to utilise our extreme racing platform as a testbed for accelerating electric mobility innovation for the wider industry. Lotus Engineering brings a wealth of experience in electrification and will no doubt prove a huge asset to the JBXE team. Welcome to the Extreme E family Lotus!”

Tencent To Stream Extreme E In China

Extreme E, the ground-breaking off-road electric race series has announced that Chinese media giant Tencent will stream all five of the championship’s X Prixs on its digital platform, QQ.com as well as its associated apps Tencent Sports, Tencent News and Tencent Video.

In addition, Extreme E’s race highlights and magazine programmes will also be available online and free-to-view along with behind-the-scenes documentaries ‘How to Build a Race Car’, ‘The Electric Dream’ and ‘Climate Changers’, in both Chinese and English.

Based in Shenzhen and founded in 1998, Tencent Holdings is indisputably China’s most popular media conglomerate and is dedicated to providing more than a billion users with the most up-to-date global news content and multidimensional, original sports programming, including Formula One, Premier League and NBA.

Ali Russell, Chief Marketing Officer at Extreme E, said, “Extreme E’s broadcast agreement with Tencent provides unparalleled reach for our ‘sport for purpose’ series in this vital region. Tencent’s superb array of user platforms will help us to bring our thrilling electric race format as well as our important environmental messages to over a billion people.

“Digital outlets like Tencent are extremely important for Extreme E and it is imperative we continue to create partnerships like these to reach a global audience. One of the championship’s missions is to shine a light on the climate crisis and encourage change, and the only way we can achieve that is by reaching as many people as possible with our innovative broadcast product.”

Ewell Zhao, General Manager at Tencent, said: “Electric vehicles are an important development of the automotive industry. While Extreme E brings the charm of electric vehicles to the off-road racing, it conveys the core concept of environmental protection. In the future, Tencent Sports is going to share the excitement of Extreme E with more motor sports fans, and promote electric car racing in China.”

Liverpool City Council Approves Everton’s Plan For New Stadium

Everton Football Club’s planning applications for a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock and a community-led legacy project at Goodison Park were unanimously approved by Liverpool City Council.

The local authority’s Planning Committee hosted a special planning committee meeting, with Everton CEO Denise Barrett-Baxendale and Stadium Development Director Colin Chong presenting the Club’s plans for Bramley-Moore Dock and Goodison Park and fielding questions from the councillors in attendance.

The three-hour meeting ended with the councillors confirming their approval for the plans.

The decision to grant approval for a new 52,888-capacity waterfront stadium and the outline application for a re-imagined Goodison Park brings both projects a significant step closer.

Everton Chairman Bill Kenwright said: “Whilst today is just one more step in our long journey, it is a very important one. Farhad and I would like to thank Denise and Colin and their dedicated team for the extraordinary hard work and commitment that has got us to today.

“We are also enormously grateful to the many organisations and tens of thousands of individuals across the city region who have given us their feedback, ideas and support along the way. It’s been a good week for Everton and Evertonians.”

Everton has been advised by CBRE UK Planning & Development team and has worked closely with the Liverpool Planning Authority, Historic England and other stakeholders for the past 12-months as part of the planning process.

Following the City Council’s approval, the plans have now automatically been referred to the Secretary of State for Housing Communities and Local Government. This is standard practice for a development of this size and scale.

The Government will have an initial 21 days to review the application before reaching a decision.

ELEVEN Sports Acquires Team Whistle To Bolster Global Ambitions

ELEVEN SPORTS has acquired the New York-based global sports media and entertainment company Team Whistle, in a move that expands ELEVEN’s operations to North America and accelerates the Group’s plans to create a global sports media destination. The deal is subject to HSR approval.

The acquisition will bring together ELEVEN SPORTS’ 150+ commercial partners, 20million+ users and 30,000hours of LIVE sport each year; with Team Whistle’s slate of original programming, 1,655 distribution channels, 629 million aggregated social media followers and 4billion monthly video views. The ELEVEN Group will house an extensive network of OTT and social platforms; proprietary streaming technology; data driven production capabilities; and marketing and brand partnership services.

The newly expanded ELEVEN Group is building on the strong performance of ELEVEN SPORTS’ operations in Europe and Asia and Team Whistle in North America, in the face of Covid-19. Pro forma revenues for the combined Group will be in excess of US$300million for the financial year ending June 30th, 2021.

ELEVEN SPORTS and Team Whistle will focus on continuing to grow the Group’s offering in the months ahead – securing more LIVE sports content and developing new on-demand sports and entertainment programming – to lay the foundations for a global ELEVEN sports and entertainment network.

The ELEVEN Group’s shared mission is to build a service that delivers for fans everywhere, across multiple channels. From LIVE coverage of the world’s biggest sporting events, to local sport for underserved communities of fans, to on-demand programming from Team Whistle’s award winning original content and leading creators such as Dude Perfect and F2 Freestylers.

ELEVEN’s parent company, the sports and media investment platform Aser Ventures, first identified opportunities for synergy with Team Whistle three years ago. Aser invested in Whistle in June 2018 and Aser’s founder Andrea Radrizzani joined the Whistle board.

Andrea Radrizzani, Founder of ELEVEN SPORTS and parent company Aser Ventures, said of ELEVEN’s acquisition of Team Whistle: “We have long recognised the opportunities for partnership between Team Whistle and the wider Aser portfolio. By welcoming Team Whistle into the ELEVEN Group, we are bringing together two media companies who have a track record of building strong and innovative sports media businesses in Europe, Asia and North America. We will also be adding transformative new scale and capabilities to ELEVEN. Together, we look forward to delivering on our goal of creating a global destination for LIVE and on-demand sports content for audiences everywhere to enjoy.”

John West, Team Whistle Founder and Executive Chairman, added: “Upon first meeting Andrea [Radrizzani] years ago, we shared a common bond on how sport and entertainment were being reimagined and now with the pace of media transformation happening at an accelerated rate globally, joining forces with ELEVEN allows us to create a truly unique, global media powerhouse.”

Luis Vicente, ELEVEN SPORTS Group Chief Executive Officer, said: “At ELEVEN we are committed to building a world leading sports and entertainment ecosystem for fans and partners around the world. Team Whistle will play a huge part in helping us to deliver on that mission.”

AFC Names NEOM As Global Partner

NEOM has become a Global Partner of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) from 2021-2024.

The agreement encompasses major AFC national team competitions, including but not limited to the AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to Qatar Final Round featuring the Continent’s top-12 football nations, and Asia’s flagship national team competition – the AFC Asian Cup China 2023 – which is set to take place in China PR, as well as the AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022 and the AFC U23 Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2022. In addition, NEOM will be a strong supporter of the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup globally.


NEOM is a project of global significance currently under development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, focussed on creating a new model for sustainable living and accelerating human progress.

With an ambition to become a global centre for sport, its partnership with the AFC will provide NEOM with a long-term platform to grow its profile on the world stage, develop a culture of active lifestyles within its own communities, and leverage its investment in technology, innovation, performance and sustainability to benefit football across the whole of Asia.

The partnership was secured by the AFC’s commercial partner Football Marketing Asia (FMA) who will manage the rights delivery and work closely with NEOM and the AFC on launching a range of activation campaigns in the coming months, initially with a digital focus and over time also presenting opportunities for fans to experience NEOM in person.

Dato’ Windsor John, the AFC General Secretary, said: “The AFC is delighted to welcome NEOM to the fast expanding AFC family of global partners, which once again reinforces the undeniable stature and prestige of the AFC’s brand and its competitions.

“NEOM’s partnership with AFC not only underscores the attractive and engaging platform the AFC provides through its many world-class competitions but also emphasises the profound and lasting impact Asia’s number one sport can have on strengthening communities.

“We look forward to creating and sharing historic moments with NEOM and realising our common ambitions.”

Delhi Capitals Add Cornitos And Evolut To Their Sponsorship Portfolio

Delhi Capitals has roped in nachos brand Cornitos and fitness brand Evolut Wellness as their official partners for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League, scheduled to start from April 9.

Vikram Agarwal, Managing Director, Cornitos said, the company will leverage on this partnership to grow the brand’s pan-India reach. “We are launching our new economy packs for Tier-2 and -3 cities and IPL would be the perfect platform for us for a pan-India reach,” he added.

Vinod Bisht, CEO, Delhi Capitals, said that while Cornitos was the official snack partner for the team, Evolut Wellness has come on board as the fitness partner.

Evolut Wellness Founder Vinuthna Gorripati added , “We are excited to partner with Delhi Capitals, a vibrant team full of experienced and young players, Evolut will also be running a brand campaign throughout the IPL season, and will be coming up with an exciting announcement soon.”

The UK Sponsorship Awards To Be Broadcast On April 6th

The 2020/2021 UK Sponsorship Awards will take place on the 6th of April at 5pm.

In advance of the broadcast, the organisers will send you a link to access the event – so please look out for this. They will send it a couple of times just to be on the safe side.

In the meantime, if you would like colleagues or clients to be sent an invitation, please do send their contact details to info@sponsorship-awards.co.uk.

During the broadcast, they will be announcing the winners of the 2020 UK Sponsorship Awards and its grand prix the Sponsorship of the Year and also our Rising to the Challenge winners. These new awards are designed to celebrate work that has overcome particular challenges through creativity, innovation, agility, grit and determination.

Please get in touch if you would like further information or indeed if you would like to be removed from this invitation list.

The broadcast will be loaded to www.sponsorship-awards.co.uk from the 7th of April.