July 31 – Brazil’s World Cup talisman Neymar has come clean about his histrionics in Russia, admitting in an advertisement that he ‘exaggerated’ his reactions when fouled during the tournament, but his mea culpa has already backfired, the player coming in for heavy criticism in Brazil.
July 31 – Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, who recently announced a push into expanding in Asia with the opening of a Singapore office, has agreed a deal with SBOBET to become the club’s official betting partner in Asia.
July 30 – Barcelona’s women’s team have secured the biggest shirt sponsorship deal to date for a women’s team, according to the club. Stanley Black & Decker have become the team’s first shirt sponsor in a 3-year deal starting this season.
July 27 – Online sports betting operator 10Bet has added West Bromwich Albion to its EFL Championship sponsor portfolio in a one-year deal believed to be worth £1 million.
July 24 – Hyundai have added their first club sponsorship in Italy becoming AS Roma’s new Global Automotive Partner in a three-year deral that will see the Hyundai logo on the back of AS Roma shirts.
July 24 – Amazon Prime Video has released a trailer for its Manchester City docu-series that will launch on the streaming service August 17.
July 23 – With broadcast piracy issues increasingly concerning sports rights owners anxious to maintain their TV deals and value in an increasingly disrupted marketplace, the Premier League has won a further blocking order in the UK High Court forcing pirate streams to shut down.
July 23 – Premier League club Manchester United have expanded TV channel distribution platforms to streaming services Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku and Xbox. The club last season launched MUTV on iOS, Android and on the web at MUTV.com.
July 20 – US digital giant Amazon is inserting itself deeper and deeper into football’s economic foodchain with the launch by Serie A’s Napoli of its own store on the ecommerce platform.
July 20 – Asian sponsors for Premier League clubs have generally been from the betting industry unless local sponsors. Crystal Palace have expanded away from the betting sponsor focus with a global partnership with Hong Kong logistics brand Royale International.
July 19 – Nearly £450,000 of taxpayers’ money has been spent trying to find a sponsor for West Ham United’s London Stadium, formerly the capital’s Olympic stadium, according to reports.
July 18 – Brazil won the World Cup of Social Media with more than 193 million interactions on Instagram, according to data technology specialists Primetag. Across the whole World Cup there were more than 990 million interactions generated by the content on the platform.
July 17 – Twitter, which has ruthlessly axed hundreds of football accounts without explanation or recourse to appeal, has broadcast its first full match live with a team from Italy’s Serie A.
July 17 – Premier League Arsenal look set to lose their recently announced sponsorship by Chinese electric vehicle makers BYD. The club appear to have been caught in a suspected sponsorship fraud after the carmaker announced that a suspect had been arrested for securing fraudulent deals.
By Paul Nicholson
July 16 – Saudi Arabia quickly responded to FIFA’s statement that it was to take legal action in Saudi Arabia against pirate television channel beoutQ that broadcast every match of the World Cup in Russia illegally to the kingdom, saying that it welcomed the FIFA action.