May 15 – Premier League Chelsea have scored a record £50 million, five-year sleeve sponsorship deal with Hyundai, who are reportedly doubling that paid by current sleeve sponsor Alliance Tyres.
May 15 – Home appliances brand Beko has used its Barcelona sponsorship partnership to raise €1 million for UNICEF to help tackle childhood obesity.
May 12 – The Chinese Super League (CSL) has extended its kit partnership with Nike for a further 10 years – starting in June 2019 and taking them through to 2029.
May 11 – Telstra and Football Federation Australia (FFA) have signed a five-year digital rights and sponsorship agreement, with Telstra securing the live mobile rights for football until 2023.
May 10 – Russia will have its own round of the EA Sports FIFA 18 Global Series with VY Esports having struck a deal to for the Russian Interactive Football Cup to become an official qualifying competition.
May 10 – At last, a FIFA World Cup story that is not about corruption. Sweden’s football fans are being given the opportunity to help national team manager Janne Andersson with his tactics for Russia 2018.
May 9 – Manchester City Women have become the first team in the Women’s Super League to sign a sleeve sponsor with Asian firm QNET taking the branding position and becoming the official direct selling partner of the women’s team.
May 9 – Barcelona sponsor Rakuten have taken a leaf from the Where’s Wally books (Where’s Waldo in the US) and launched a digital #WheresBarça series on their Rakuten Arena Facebook channel.
May 8 – Japanese sports equipment manufacturer Molten Corporation has expanded its rights portfolio in football becoming the Official Match Ball supplier for the Asian Football Confederation’s national and club events, starting with the confederation’s AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019.
May 4 – Music legend and multi-media entrepreneur Dave Stewart is releasing a version of his BeMyBand multi-media global format into the football market. The format technology and app is for federations, leagues and clubs who want to engage with fans in a positive and active environment, potentially identifying untapped talent but also generating interaction and loyalty.
May 4 – The Belgian FA (KBVB) has become the second national federation to announce they will have a national eSports team – the Belgian eDevils – to play on the EA Sports FIFA game platform.
May 4 – Research by Brighton-based Brandwatch into the visibility of company logos on Twitter and Instagram provides a fascinating insight into the success of football-related visual marketing on the social web.
May 4 – Digital technology acceleration platform SPARK, and sports data and technology giant, Sportradar, have joined up to boost innovation in sports data.
May 3 – LaLiga is moving from Pay TV to OTT (over the top) in the UK after the Spanish league refused to accept an offer from Sky less than the £18 million a year deal paid in the previous cycle.
May 3 – It will likely go down as a landmark moment in the continuing development of the women’s game, at least in the UK. Subbuteo is launching its first all-female team sets to co-incide with the SSE Women’s FA Cup Final this weekend.