Arsenal Expands Bnn Technology Deal

Premier League side Arsenal FC has extended and expanded its relationship with Chinese technology, content and services provider BNN Technology, up to and including the 2019/20 season.

Increasing the club’s exposure in the region, the latest partnership sees BNN Technology pick up exclusive rights, including the opportunity to build on their ‘Coaching the Coaches’ programme, launched last season.

Through BNN the club also aims to offer its fans in China access to behind the scenes content, with access to the travelling squad during the 2017 pre-season tour of Shanghai and Beijing, with supporters given the opportunity to ask first team players questions via an exclusive competition on BNN’s website.

The newly expanded agreement also affords BNN Technology the right to set up and operate an official Arsenal store on the Tmall platform in China, through which supporters will be able to purchase Arsenal merchandise and official training and replica kits.

Vinai Venkatesham, chief commercial officer of the London club, said of the extended partnership: “We are delighted to have extended and expanded our relationship with BNN Technology, which further demonstrates our commitment to China. We understand the power football has to engage and inspire across all ages and through working with BNN we can support the growth of grassroots football in China further through their ‘Coaching the Coaches’ programme.

“We believe the additional combination of delivering valuable content, exclusive access opportunities and the up-coming launch of the new, online retail store on the Tmall platform – the most established e-commerce platform in-market – will be of significant benefit and interest to our millions of supporters locally.  We’re looking forward to seeing this next stage of the partnership flourish.”

Darren Mercer, chief executive of BNN Technology, added: “We are to delighted to now become Arsenal’s exclusive ‘Coaching the Coaches’ partner in China, further expanding our relationship with one of Europe’s most successful clubs.

“This development will accelerate our activities supporting China’s football ambitions, while also delivering first class content to our online channels and gaining further high quality data to utilise across our other sales platforms.

“The success of the coaching programme to date has exceeded all our expectations and we remain committed to football as a driver of social engagement in China that will also strengthen the base of our consumer focused operations such as our new student platform.”

BNN Technology also extended its partnership with Manchester City earlier this year.