By Paul Nicholson
October 7 – As a marketing tool football delivers though sponsorship sales are now more often referred to as ‘partnerships’ with exclusive ‘content’ options part of the package. The days of selling board signage, shirt positions and brand exposure as standalone package may not be entirely over, but they almost are.
October 6 – Malta-based Daily Fantasy Football (DFS) company Oulala is expanding in to Latin America, initially targeting Argentinean clubs with a white label version of its platform.
October 3 – Manchester City have extended their partnership with Vietnam’s Saigon Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB). The bank will continue as Manchester City’s Official Affinity Card Partner in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
By Samindra Kunti
September 30 – The French FA, the FFF and the French Football League, the LFP, will open an office in China early 2017. The office will aim to brand French football.
September 30 – Manchester City have kept up the pace of new club partnerships and initiatives with the announcement of pharmaceutical company Mundipharma as the ‘Official Healthcare Product Partner of Manchester City Football Club’ in Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. The club has also launched a new CityVR app to engage fans via virtual reality.
Mundipharma will use Manchester City branding in some of their marketing and advertising campaigns.
September 29 – Manchester City have extended their five-year partnership with EA Sports. The video game developer will remain as the Club’s Official Gaming Partner.
September 26 – Premier League Tottenham Hotspur have teamed up with Jaguar Land Rover China to deliver a year-long youth football development training programme in Guangzhou.
September 23 – Paris Saint-Germain has launched a new app, Fansparc, which is designed to give fans an immersive experience of PSG’s stadium, the Parc des Princes.
September 23 – A new social network designed to help players connect with clubs, scouts, agents and coaches has launched. Playerhunter aims of simplify the process of trawling for players, checking them out and speeding the time to contract, while at the same time opening up the number of opportunities to find the clubs that would work for them.
September 22 – Manchester City have announced a regional partnership with newly launched mobile fan engagement technology company Ballr. The Ballr Live Fantasy Sport App will become an official partner of Manchester City in China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore.
September 21 – There was a big increase in twitter activity this week with Premier League clubs making nearly 1,400 more tweets taking the weekly total up from 3,650 last week to 5,090 this week. This produced more new followers for the week, up 17,000 from 217,000 to 234,000.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 21 – The head of Iceland’s football association (KSI) has denounced the makers of FIFA 17 for showing them no respect by freezing the country out of the long-awaited video game.
September 21 – Online bookmaker Betway has added two more sponsorships to its football portfolio, expanding into the Belgian market with deals with top club RSC Anderlecht as well as the Belgian FA and Pro League for the Croky Cup.
September 20 – Serie A club Internazionale have named Hong Kong luxury car maker Infiniti as its Official Car for the 2016/17 season.
September 20 – Women’s football in Scotland has been given a boost with the addition of energy provider SSE as the first major sponsor of Scottish Women’s Football (SWF) in the country.