Industry Shorts: Asics, Sportradar, LTA
ASICS has announced that it will launch a new line of running and SportStyle shoes that use recycled polyester made from recycled PET bottles.
The collection’s six performance running shoe models and four SportStyle offerings employ recycled polyester fibers made from a total of around 300,000 PET bottles.
The brand says these items represent the first stage of an ASICS drive to switch to 100% recycled polyester fibers in all of its uppers by 2030 to help combat climate change.
Sports data intelligence company Sportradar has released figures showing it has sustained its delivery of sport content and coverage, despite the global cancellations and postponements due to the coronavirus pandemic. The company says it has even managed to increase its overall coverage levels compared to the same period last year.
So far in the month of April, there has been an 11% increase in its available sports content compared to April 2019, with coverage of approximately 24,000 matches in total worldwide. In a typical month, Sportradar provides live coverage for approximately 20,000 matches. As a result, Sportradar’s Live Odds coverage is up 30%, while Live Data is up 20% compared to this time last year.
Since the pandemic lockdown forced sports to call off events, Sportradar has released its Simulated Reality product across football, with sports such as tennis and cricket to follow, while the company has said 250 clients have signed up to the service.
The LTA has joined up with the 2.6 Challenge, an initiative created by the organisers of the biggest mass participation events across the country in a bid to to ‘Save the UK’s Charities’.
The organisation is asking tennis fans to take a scrunched-up piece of paper to use as a tennis ball, and then keep a rally of 26 going using only their hands.
Alongside hundreds of other organisations and notable sporting personalities, the LTA is encouraging people to share pictures or videos via social media with the hashtags #twopointsixchallenge and #tennis26challenge, donate £6, and then nominate two friends or family to get involved.
The Solheim Cup, due to take place in 2021, will not be moved even if the Ryder Cup is postponed, according to Mike Whan, Commissioner, LPGA.
“Nothing drowns out a Solheim Cup,” said Whan. “We wouldn’t change our Solheim Cup if the Ryder Cup changed theirs.”
The next Solheim Cup is scheduled to take place in the USA in early September 2021. In the 2019 edition of the tournament, hosted at Gleneagles in Scotland, the European team – captained by Catriona Matthew – emerged victorious.
The PGA TOUR and game developer 2K will host a ‘virtual challenge’, pitting two up-and-coming PGA TOUR stars Collin Morikawa and Carlos Ortiz against each other on the PGA TOUR licensed video game, The Golf Club 2019.
The event will air on Thursday April 23 at 5pm BST on PGA TOUR’s digital platforms, as well as its social media channels and the GOLFTV platform.
It will remain available to view afterwards.
