By Paul Nicholson
August 16 – Pirate satellite broadcast beoutQ, which has been stealing the rights to beIN Sport broadcast content, has continued where it left at the World Cup, with every game of the first Premier League weekend stolen and broadcast via the Arabsat satellite. beoutQ also stole six of the 10 opening games of France’s Ligue 1, including PSG vs Caen.
August 16 – Facebook has added more football broadcast rights to its rapidly growing portfolio, this time bringing to its streaming platform UEFA Champions League and UEFA Super Cup rights in Spanish-speaking Latin American territories.
August 15 – Expedia Group is to become the Official Travel Partner of the UEFA Champions League in a three-year deal that also gives the online travel booking firm sponsorship rights to the Super Cup, Youth League finals and the Futsal Champions League finals.
August 15 – TAG Heuer has extended its partnership as Official Timekeeper of the Premier League for a further season. The Premier League will continue to play all matches run on TAG Heuer time, both on pitch and on broadcast signals worldwide.
August 15 – Facebook has confirmed it has snapped up the rights to show Spain’s LaLiga on Indian sub-continent in a three-year deal that starts Friday with the kick-off of the new league season.
August 15 – Premier League Huddersfield Town, hard on the heels of announcing fire engine maker Rosenbauer as a club sponsor, have added business telecoms provider Abzorb as an official partner.
August 14 – Italian Serie A team making inroads into the Chinese sponsorship market have been dominated recently by deals around Suning-owned Inter Milan, but now Juventus have stepped up their game with China Merchants Bank becoming an Official China Regional Partner and the Official Chinese Bank Partner until 2020.
August 14 – Asian online bookmaker M88 has become Premier League Leicester City’s official betting partner. M88 is a Mansion brand, the bookmaker already has deals with Bournemouth and Crystal Palace in the Premier League.
August 13 – Premier League Arsenal have signed a three-year partnership with Egypt’s Banque du Caire, its second official Egyptian partner following an agreement with the country’s Hyde Park Developments.
August 13 – Unilever brand Sure has partnered with Premier League clubs Chelsea, Manchester City and Everton in a sponsorship that will see the brand attached to real-time social mdia content reacting to key moments in each team’s matches.
By Paul Nicholson
August 10 – Qatar-owned sports broadcaster beIN SPORTS has renewed its exclusive Premier League broadcast rights deal for a further three years starting from the 2019/20 season. beIN’s rights will cover the Middle East and North Africa.
August 10 – New launch online betting firm MoPlay has signed to become Premier League Watford’s sleeve sponsor. The announcement from the fast-moving gaming business follows on from the news earlier this week that it had become Manchester United’s official global gaming partner.
August 9 – France did the double in Russia this summer, not only winning the World Cup but also beating Brazil to the top of a ranking of countries who added the most social media followers during the tournament.
August 9 – Borussia Dortmund is re-launching its club TV channel – BVB-TV – using Sportradar’s OTT platform. The channel will provide free content and a subscription service for €1.99 a month.
August 9 – They are probably the only club in the world with a fire engine manufacturer as a sponsor. Premier League battlers Huddersfield Town have signed a new partnership with Rosenbauer UK, a Yorkshire-based manufacturer of fire-fighting vehicles, appliances and equipment.