August 10 – Premier League Chelsea have agreed a £40 million per season front-of-shirt sponsorship with sports technology startup Infinite Athlete.
The club have still to conform the deal but a club media officer was seen with a Chelsea shirt that carried the Infinite Athlete logo.
Chelsea have struggled to find a main club sponsor to follow the departure of Three from the club’s shirt at the end of last season. Chelsea are also without a sleeve sponsor after the cancellation of a five-year contract with WhaleFin due to financial complications from the collapse pf the cryptocurrency market.
Infinite Athlete is not a name familiar to the sports business, having been created after a recent rebrand of sports technology company Tempus Ex Machina when it acquired biomechanical engineering company Biocore.
The nature of the deal is very last minute as is the relationship and formation of Infinite Athlete. In April 2023, Chelsea entered into a seven-year partnership with sports technology company Tempus Ex Machina to form a seven-year partnership “to power innovative technology enhancements” within the club and across fan engagement platforms.
The same month Biocore was acquired and the combined entity was later rebranded with a mission to expand rapidly within the sports arena. Chelsea will be the spearhead of that marketing drive within football. Infinite Athlete’s model is based on suppling affordable player data to clubs and allowing fans to watch games from multiple camera angles.
Chelsea had progressed short sponsorship talks with online bookmaker Stake.com before a fan backlash snuffed out negotiations. The club subsequently submitted a request to the Premier League for approval for Paramount+ to become the club’s shirt sponsor but that, not surprisingly was turned down because of conflict with the Premier League’s broadcast rights holder.
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