GameDay, the leading provider of digital solutions to International, National, Grassroots and Professional Sporting organisations across Australia, United Kingdom, Europe, Asia and New Zealand, has agreed a new partnership with Choicely, a codeless App development platform used by leading organisations in Sport and Entertainment.
Choicely will appear as a key offering on the soon to be launched GameDay Marketplace showcasing the range of partners and products available to GameDay customers across all levels of sports and events.
Andy Graham, General Manager for GameDay said: “Choicely is a global leader in the development and deployment of Mobile Apps across the Sports and Entertainment industry. Providing additional value to our customers Choicely allows a customised Mobile App to be created easily and allow organisations to engage with their members fans and community at scale.”
Kaius Meskanen, CEO of Choicely said: “We’re very excited to partner with GameDay. Together we’re able to create state-of-the-art apps for the sports industry – from grassroots to professional with Choicely app builder, using GameDay’s extensive sportstech offering integrated in the apps.
“This way any sports organisation can create high performing apps with the combined Choicely & GameDay offering easily and cost- effectively. Also, I personally like GameDay’s visionary team, working with them is fun and they have created a highly useful tech stack for the global sports industry, that can benefit many existing and upcoming Choicely apps.”
Sunset+Vine, the UK independent TV sports production and media company has been named the live production, content and media partnerships agency for a new and exciting city centre electric bike grand prix series.
The E-Bike Grand Prix (EBK GP) Racing Series is owned and developed by Cube International. It will feature pro-cycling teams racing around specially-designed city centre tracks on electric road bikes at motorway speeds, whilst working with host cities to make a demonstrable difference to their sustainability and transformative mobility. As Cube’s partner for the Series, Sunset+Vine will be providing all production services from the live coverage to the social and digital content, news and highlights programming.
‘We are working on some arresting ideas for the E-Bike Grand Prix Racing Series. Virtual and Augmented Reality will be at the heart of our production as we develop second screen concepts that have never been seen before and that will provide a truly holistic viewing experience,’ said Sunset+Vine Executive Director Andrew Preece. ‘Our in-house technical team is working with developers and technologists from around the industries to harness innovation and put it on screens with Sunset+Vine’s hallmark style, substance and authenticity.’
Within the terms of the contract the Sunset+Vine Media Partnerships division will be responsible for the 360-degree distribution of all content forms from live to highlights, news, social and digital as well as leveraging media buys and bespoke content deals.
‘This project provides an ideal green field landscape for our distribution teams,’ said Sunset+Vine Head of Media Partnerships Sarsfield Brolly. ‘From negotiating live broadcast and streaming deals to gaining traction with news and working with Cube to set the social and digital strategy which we will then deliver, we are unique in being able to provide the whole audience development service from under one roof.’
‘Sunset+Vine have delivered some memorable sporting moments to the international broadcast community over many years,’ said Cube International’s CEO Andy Moss. ‘We are excited to work collaboratively with their teams and our city host partners on this new event series. The plan is to create dynamic global sports event coverage that combines real-world and eSport opportunities with equality, advanced technology, and sustainability that crosses screens and platforms in a most exciting and interconnected way.’
Sunset+Vine has expertise in the areas of cycling and esports. As producers of the track cycling and road races of the Commonwealth Games, to the Tour de France for broadcasters and tour sponsors to Zwift ecycling national championships and triathlon, and the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup for Red Bull.
The Football Association of Wales has announced that Noel Mooney has been appointed as Chief Executive and will come into the post on 30 August.
Mooney will join the FAW from UEFA, where he is Head of Strategic Development working with all 55 European federations on their development including strategy, commercial revenues, participation, public affairs, digital transformation and governance.
Mooney hails from Cappamore, Limerick in the Republic of Ireland and is a former League of Ireland goalkeeper who played for Limerick, Cork City and Shamrock Rovers.
Following his playing career, he joined the Football Association of Ireland in 2006 where his role was focussed on domestic football, later having the responsibility of marketing the League of Ireland.
Mooney has been with the European football governing body since 2011 and was seconded to the FAI for six months in 2019 to lead the association ad interim. At UEFA, he has created a number of leading development programmes which have been adopted right across the European football landscape.
FAW President, Kieran O’ Connor welcomed Mooney’s appointment: “The FAW have identified Noel as the right person to manage the FAW into a new era of success and evolution. He has a vast experience of working across all European national associations over the past decade to grow European football and we are delighted that Noel has agreed to focus his experience and skillset to develop football in Wales.”
On his appointment, Noel Mooney said: “In this next chapter for Welsh football, we will grow and evolve the game to become more popular and successful. The mission is very clear and I can’t wait to work with everyone in Welsh football to reach our full potential. I have enjoyed collaborating with great people to grow European football at UEFA for the past decade and now the focus will be on ensuring that the FAW becomes one of the best football associations globally at all levels by being strong locally in every village and town across Wales.”
West Ham United has signed a multi-year extension to the Club’s Sleeve Partnership with Scope Markets.
Scope Markets is a successful and established leader in the financial services industry, aiming to provide a best-in-class trading experience and trader education for all clients and investors. Their management team has over 50 years of experience in the industry, primarily dealing in Forex and CFDs, understanding what traders need to be successful and striving to offer premium trading services to traders of all skill levels.
Having been a partner of the Club since 2018, and the Hammers’ Sleeve Sponsor since June 2020, the partnership’s extension will see the two parties continue to work closely together across a range of commercial initiatives, including Scope Market’s global growth strategy.
Scope Markets sponsored the Club’s first-ever virtual Open Training Session in April, which enabled Hammers fans to connect with the team during the COVID-19 lockdown and the partnership will continue to support local communities around the world.
Nathan Thompson, West Ham United Commercial Director, said: “We are thrilled to extend our partnership with Scope Markets, who have been a great partner to the Club for the past three years.
“Becoming our sleeve partner in 2020, Scope Markets have always put our fans at the forefront of their decision making. Supporting our Virtual Open Training Event in April was testament to this and allowed the club to bring fans from all over the world closer to the first team.
“We really value this partnership and we’re looking forward to working together over the seasons ahead on our shared objectives in what will be a hugely exciting 2021/22 campaign, both in the Premier League and in Europe.”
Jacob Plattner, Scope Markets Chief Executive Officer said: “We are delighted to be able to extend our agreement with West Ham and look forward to another exciting season with the club. After the huge success of the team last year, we have never been more excited and proud to share the ups and downs of the clubs deserved return to European football with West Ham fans across the globe. COYI!!”
Sport Buff, the company leading next generation fan engagement and gamification for sports broadcast and media applications has announced a multi-season partnership with Blocksport, the builder of the world’s largest Sports NFT aggregation system.
The two ventures will work together to deliver NFTs to Sport Buff’s interactive overlay, offering a unique experience for users to access the NFT world directly over the top of sports content.
Sport Buff’s unique video overlay delivers fully interactive and engaging gamification, delivering real-time engagement in the form of predictions, polls, trivia, ratings, and much more, letting fans play with and against their friends. Their next generation technology aligns perfectly with the NFT market. NFTs are digital assets which can be traded on a marketplace. They offer sports teams, personalities and leagues to monetise their own profile and offer fans a unique way of interacting with their idols.
Benn Achilleas, Founder & CEO of Sport Buff said: “Sport Buff is always at the forefront of audience participation and innovation. Combining our gamification platform with Blocksport is a perfect way for fans to compete for NFTs and build their collection game after game, race after race, throughout the season.”
Vladimir Liulka, Co-founder CEO at Blocksport, said: “Blocksport empowers sports partners to form deeper connections with their communities and fans through digital collectibles. We’re excited about our partnership with Sport Buff as an entirely new way to bring NFT collectibles to leading sports brands and their fans”.
Three-time Olympic Gold Medallist Niccolo Campriani has leveraged his position and connections as an Olympic champion to train and prepare refugees Khaoula, Mahdi and Luna for Tokyo 2020. iSportConnect’s Taruka Srivastav spoke with Niccolo about the nuances of his ‘Make A Mark’ project ahead of the Olympics.
Tell us about the ‘Make A Mark’ project.
Make A Mark was never meant to be a structured project. The idea sprung out of my desire to give back to the shooting and sporting community. On my retirement, even though not I’m not a licensed coach in my sport, I ended up doing a lot of coaching among peers. I was inspired by the idea of IOC of a refugee team in Rio and I knew there was going to be another team in Tokyo so instead of extending financial support which I have been doing for many years to the UNHCR, I decided to donate my time as well as leveraging my network as being an Olympic champion it helps to reach out to the sponsors in my community.
I wanted to contribute to the Olympic refugee team of Tokyo by training the refugees/asylum seekers for Tokyo. In my mind it was just finding good candidates and then training after work. Of course they require much more than that and that’s why we decided to be more structured. We rely on specific foundations in order to collect all the different donations through the crowdfunding. Former Olympic Gold Medal shooter Abhinav Bindra coming in really was a game changer for us, especially for the fundraising. The whole paper work, travelling with refugees in order to compete abroad, it was also quite an experience.
I guess the point here is that we don’t want this project to end with, with the closing ceremony of Tokyo and we’d really wanted to transfer the knowledge or the lessons to whoever wants to do it next. It can be another Olympic champion who wants to do the same thing in his/her own sport community or for refugees.
We also have onboard Juan Carlos Holgado, an Olympic gold medallist in archery, who will take the next project forward, selecting and mentoring a number of refugees with the aim of competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. So I think I got very lucky to find the right people. So, it also shows the power of good idea with the right mindset in the right place. I think we attracted the right people and are very happy and grateful of the team around us.
How much has COVID affected the project and how did you tackle the challenges?
Covid-19 has been like the ultimate test. We knew that if we survived this, whoever is going to pick up the project after this, they will have an easier life. We kind of made it through time of the pandemic and are now in Tokyo. I think that the trickiest thing is at the very beginning because of course, by scouting, recruiting refugees who never tried your disciplined as they were not athletes and they needed to become athletes. And that part was executed with the help of funding and donations which was made possible by my friends from my playing days.
We now have the support of the Dynasty Scholarship. We tested it as a pilot, we learn a lot of lessons from it and once again when it comes to the transparent knowledge we can pass lots of learnings.
How do you mentor the refugees?
Well I think one point is not to treat them differently from other athletes I think that’s the beauty of sports right, everybody’s the same on the starting line. And, and I think one side it’s, it’s important to be aware of the background and the context and on the other is the most important to treat them equally like you would treat any other athlete. Of course, the beauty of my sport, being a mental sport is also the possibility to engage with certified professional so licensed psychiatrist, which we would normally work with because it’s part of our preparation, and basically put them on the disposal of our athletes.
Because at the end of the day our committed goal is to be more composed and manage the emotions when it comes to that large shot. But in reality, it allows you to, to discuss much more like what are your deepest emotions, your deepest desires, your fears etc. So for me it was always an amazing opportunity to actually work on myself and it wasn’t really about getting rid of emotions. It was about dealing with my emotions and with my past, in the most positive way, and it’s an important skill to have as a top athlete. It is an extremely helpful skill in life as well, and I thought that particularly for them to find a positive way to deal with their past. It’s an interesting skill to be transferred from the field of play to their daily lives.
OnRefugee community representation
In Olympics apart from your country, you are also representing your community which is what they are doing. They are representing their refugee community and they’re very proud of their story. The way they have overcome the difficulties of and they feel that responsibility. It is not that because they compete for a refugee team so they compete just for themselves.
They are fully aware that they are role models, even if they didn’t ask for it and people will watch them but I would say the opportunity to, to inspire many, many others, not only fellow refugees, but also all of us that have personal opinion about the refugee. It is still a delegation, there is still a flag and they still wear uniform and it’s a quite a unique team.
How supporting are the brands when it comes to sponsoring refugee team and athletes?
We have a number of technical sponsors, which is literally what we needed in order to start the project. We have suppliers for kits, rifles, electronic targets, pellets, different accessories of the rifles themselves and even the Centre where we train. Adidas for instance was one of the sponsors that approached us and support us throughout the project.
Are you looking to expand the project to sports other than Shooting and Archery?
Yes we are looking to expand into other the sports. There are some practical things to consider like it is easier to target individual events because if you are looking to train a full team then the training arrangement becomes much more. And that’s one of the reason why you have 29 refugees in the Olympic refugee team and they’re mostly competing individually. Yes there are some things that you can do out of individual performances like the mix team in judo but otherwise they all train in different countries so we have to keep that in mind. Other than that, it’s not a specific sport. I think you just need the right ingredients so to find the elite athletes first that wants to do this so that depends where we want to do it.
And then you need to find motivated candidates and anybody can reach out to the local immigration office in any part of the world. They will always find a pool of potential refugees that would like to get involved in a project like this. Then it’s about funding and having some sort of support of the international federation.
Also, I am not just looking at summer sport but also looking at any of the seven Winter Olympic sports. I do think that could be also another interesting project.
Burnley Football Club has signed an agreement with UK-based Spreadex to become principal shirt partner for the 2021/22 season.
The Clarets will wear the Spreadex Sports logo across the home, away and third shirt during their sixth consecutive Premier League campaign.
The new 2021/22 home kit will be revealed later this week, while Spreadex will work closely with the club on a range of community and charity-based initiatives across the course of the season.
The multi-million-pound shirt deal also includes rights, such as LED perimeter board advertising, player access across the season, and presence across Burnley’s website, CRM and social media channels.
Spreadex is the only company in the world to offer customers access to traditional sportsbook betting as well as sports spread betting and financial trading.
The firm, which now employs more than 150 staff at its headquarters in St Albans, has been operating since 1999 and is regulated by both the Gambling Commission and Financial Conduct Authority due to its unique product offering.
Spreadex CEO Dave MacKenzie said: “We are delighted to join the Burnley FC family as main sponsor at an exciting time in both the club’s and our own futures.
“This deal reflects the ambitious growth plans Spreadex has as a company, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with a superbly-run club with such an established history and reputation.
“Burnley’s values and ambitions echo our own, and we’re looking forward to supporting the club throughout the 2021/2022 season both on and off the pitch.”
The firm will also be running a range of fan engagement activities through its digital channels, including ticket competitions, opportunities to win signed shirts and other exciting promotions.
Ella Cummins, Burnley FC’s Head of Commercial Partnerships, added: “We are delighted to welcome Spreadex as our new principal partner and have been impressed with the commitment they have already shown supporting fan initiatives and giving back to the community. We look forward to working together over the coming season on some exciting campaigns and are thrilled Spreadex has chosen Burnley Football Club for their first sports partnership.
Burnley Football Club has also pledged to donate £5 for every third-choice shirt sold towards Alzheimer’s Society, which Spreadex will match.
Cummins continued: “We’re very proud of the pledge to donate £5 each for every third-choice shirt sold which will provide support for those affected by dementia following the devasting effects COVID has had on people up and down the country.
“We know this is a cause close to Burnley fans’ hearts and we’ll be working closely with Alzheimer’s Society this season on projects to continue this important conversation.”
Players will wear the new home kit for the first time in a pre-season game against Oldham Athletic on July 24.
LaLigaSportsTV, LaLiga’s OTT platform showing live and on-demand content from a wide variety of sports, will be integrated into the Vodafone television service in Spain.
Vodafone TV customers will be able to access the streaming application at no additional cost, allowing them to enjoy more than thirty different sports live and on-demand.
LaLigaSportsTV shows Spanish national tournaments such as the Sacyr Asobal Handball League, the National Futsal League, the LEB Oro Basketball League and first division women’s football, as well as international competitions such as the Russian Premier Liga and the AFC Asian Champions League. The service also offers various competitions from across athletics, triathlon, tennis, kickboxing and Muay Thai, as well as the Mixed Martial Arts ONE Championship.
LaLigaSportsTV also shows other types of content related to the world of sports such as reports, interviews, documentaries and highlights programmes from different competitions.
Access to LaLigaSportsTV is available via Vodafone TV’s app section; users are then required to create a username and password. The service can also be found via iOS and Android mobile app, Samsung and LG Smart TVs, Android TV, Orange, Movistar+ and laligasportstv.com.
Nottingham Forest have announced the appointment of Dane Murphy as Chief Executive Officer.
Murphy has joined The Reds after a two-year stint as CEO at Barnsley. Under his leadership, The Tykes were transformed into a promotion-chasing side, qualifying for the play-offs last season only to be narrowly defeated over two legs by Swansea.
Nottingham Forest Chairman, Nicholas Randall, QC, said: “We are delighted to confirm that Dane has joined us today in the role of CEO. He was the outstanding candidate with an impressive track record in the game. His work at Barnsley was widely recognised within football as being exemplary and his role in turning around the fortunes of the club in such a short space of time is testament to his vision and talent.
“His broad experience within the game as both player and executive provides him with an insight which will be of huge benefit to Nottingham Forest. He is also a man of great character and I am personally delighted at news of Dane’s arrival and everyone at the club is looking forward to working with him.
“The Board would like to pay tribute to the tireless work of Ioannis Vrentzos during his four years as CEO. Ioannis leaves his position with the club in a significantly stronger position than when he arrived. In particular securing Category One status in the Academy and what we are confident will soon be a successful planning application for the development of The City Ground will stand the test of time for future generations as true marks of the progress made under his leadership.
“We are grateful that Ioannis will remain a director and we can continue to rely on his experience of European football and his love for Nottingham Forest at Board level.
“We are delighted at having secured a character such as Dane to lead the club through its next stages of development and to have such a dynamic and progressive individual in our key executive role. To have beaten off the interest from other clubs again illustrates the commitment of the owner to the club. Mr Marinakis and all of us at the club are excited about what Dane will bring to Nottingham Forest.”
Dane Murphy, Nottingham Forest CEO, said: “I am deeply honoured to be appointed CEO of Nottingham Forest.
“It is a historic club with global recognition. It is humbling that Mr Marinakis has placed his trust in me to lead the club forward. It is a unique opportunity and I can’t wait to get started.
“To the supporters, I look forward to meeting you and representing your club. It has been such a difficult time for you and, as I can already see by your unwavering support in renewing season cards, this is a very special club.
“We are on the precipice of something really tremendous and this city deserves it with its’ loyal fanbase and fantastic supporters globally.
“However, the work starts now. We have transfer business to conduct with Chris Hughton who is an extremely well respected, experienced and successful manager at the highest levels of the game.
“We have a challenging but exciting journey ahead of us. I can assure every supporter of this football club that everybody fortunate to work at and represent your club will not rest until we bring you the success that you deserve.”
BLAST Titans (July 23-25 & July 31-August 1) has teamed up with Western Digital’s WD_BLACK gaming brand as the sponsor of its Apex Legends event, which will involve Europe’s top 40 teams, competing across two weekends for a €40,000 prize pool.
The partnership will include product giveaways, collaborative content opportunities, branding across the tournament’s digital and physical assets and exclusive activation of the in-game replay segments.
Western Digital’s award winning WD_BLACK™ portfolio of products provides gamers around the world with fast, high-performance storage solutions to upgrade their PC and console gaming experiences.
The inaugural BLAST Titans tournament will see 40 teams, including the likes of Gambit, Alliance and NAVI, competing online over two action packed weekends – the esports tournament organiser’s first event in the popular battle royale game.
Oliver Clarke, Head of Brand Partnerships at BLAST, said: “We are delighted to collaborate with a leading gaming storage brand like WD_BLACK in our first venture into Apex Legends – BLAST Titans promises to be a hugely entertaining and exciting event with the prospect of engaging with the game’s fast growing and highly passionate community of gamers.
“WD_BLACK delivers innovative storage solutions customized for the gamer, and this innovation is something BLAST shares a passion for in creating industry leading esports production and events. We look forward to authentically integrating the brand into the BLAST Titans experience.”
Apex Legends has proved to be a popular game since its introduction in 2019. In April this year, EA announced the game had surpassed 100 million players, a 30% year-on-year growth and its esports event viewership had grown in line with the popularity of the game.
The first weekend (July 23-25) will be a double elimination battle royale event involving 40 teams, which will be made up of the top 20 European teams on recent form, 10 invited wildcard teams and 10 teams via open qualifiers. The second weekend (July 31-August 1) will feature the top 20 teams from weekend one, facing each other in the Arenas mode that was first introduced in the game last month.
