Bundesliga keeps Derbystar ball in play in 3-year deal
May 20 – Germany’s Bundesliga has extended its official match ball deal with Derbystar, now taking the partnership through to the end of the 2021-22 season.
Football Marketing
beIN Sports expands South American content with Copa América deal
May 17 – beIN Sports, at loggerheads in Asia over its pan-regional broadcast rights deal, has expanded its portfolio of South American rights with the addition of this year’s Copa América.
AFC denies it has cancelled beIN’s TV deal, as rights battle over Saudi rages on
By Paul Nicholson
May 14 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has said that it has not cancelled its TV rights agreement with beIN Sports and that the broadcaster, it said in a statement, “remains a valued commercial partner of the AFC”.
MLS lands on planet Pluto with free streaming channel
May 14 – Major League Soccer (MLS) has opened up a new broadcast content channel with the announcement of the launch on the Pluto TV free streaming service of its own channel (Ch. 203).
China’s LD Sports ties launch into record Southampton shirt sponsorship
May 14 – hard on the heels of the club renewing the sponsorship of Virgin media for is sleeve position, Premier League Southampton have announced new Chinese media business LD Sports as its main shirt sponsor.
UK government vows to take on Saudi pirates BeoutQ with ‘robust attack’
May 13 – The on-going battle against rogue Saudi Arabia-based pirate broadcaster BeoutQ that has seen the Saudi channel steal thousands of hours of sports and entertainment programming is causing government concern with a committee of UK Parliamentary MPs now calling for a “robust attack” on the channel.
West Ham engage with MuchBetter as digital payments partner
May 13 – Premier League West Ham have announced MuchBetter as their official online and digital payments partner.
Virgin Media extend with Saints and add women’s team to sponsor package
May 10 – Premier League Southampton have secured Virgin Media as the club’s sleeve sponsor in a three-year deal taking the partnership through to the end of the 2021/22 season.
Genius Sports wins ‘betting’ data contract for English and Scottish football
May 10 – Genius Sports, via its Betgenius division, has been won the exclusive rights from Football Dataco to collect and distribute official betting data for all the professional league and cup competitions in English and Scottish football, including the Premier League and English Football League.
Facebook to go behind the scenes at Copa America
May 10 – Facebook, which is gradually becoming a broadcast rights competitor for premium tier live football rights, has signed a content deal with Conmebol for this Summer’s Copa America in Brazil.
Nike kit deal with Barca could block women’s team entry into NWSL in US
May 9 – Barcelona, who have plans to enter a professional team in the US National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), have hit a stumbling block over their kit supply deal with Nike.
Arsenal boost Visit Rwanda sleeve sponsorship with Nat Geo content deal
May 9 – Arsenal have added a content layer to their ‘Visit Rwanda’ sleeve sponsorship via a deal with National Geographic.
Going Live: Bud Light to take Club América v Cruz Azul from Azteca to Vegas via VR
May 8 – The experience of being in the stadium and experiencing the match live will be replicated tomorrow night in Las Vegas using virtual reality for the Liga MX play-off game between Club América vs. Cruz Azul.
Sport sponsorship spend to hit £49bn in 2024 but rightsholders are missing out
May 3 – Football clubs and sports generally are missing out on £14 billion of sponsorship money annually, according to an analysis by sports marketing agency Two Circles.
Mansion rolls the dice for fifth season with Bournemouth
May 3- Premier League AFC Bournemouth have renewed gambling group Mansion as lead sponsor for a fifth consecutive season.