Industry Shorts: Derby County, Under Armour, Rlwc2021
Derby County owner Mel Morris has revealed that shirt sponsor 32Red has offered the Championship club a “record-breaking deal” after it announced the signing of Manchester United and England legend Wayne Rooney.
The 33-year-old will leave Major League Soccer team D.C. United to join Derby as a player-coach in January. In a nod to Derby’s shirt sponsor, Rooney will wear the number 32 shirt and Morris said the commercial opportunities the signing creates will be “widespread and significant”.
“We are keen to leverage Wayne’s involvement and the support of 32Red with our community initiatives, expanding the work such as the Team Talk mental health programme which is supported by our Community Trust and 32Red,” Morris said.
The news comes after Huddersfield Town last month teamed up with Paddy Power to reveal the ‘Save Our Shirt’ campaign, designed to encourage branding-free kits in football.
Liverpool and England footballer Trent Alexander-Arnold has signed a multi-year partnership with US sportswear brand Under Armour.
The 20-year-old signed the new deal following a visit to Under Armour’s headquarters in Baltimore. Alexander-Arnold has been an Under Armour athlete since 2017.
The organising committee for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup, which will be held in England, has selected The Sports Consultancy, in partnership with Substance, to undertake the evaluation of its InspirationALL legacy programme.
The evaluation will assess the impact of the programme’s effectiveness before, during and after the tournament. The organising committee, in partnership with the Rugby Football League (RFL), UK Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Sport England, have created a range of programmes that are designed to empower and inspire individuals and groups alike during the tournament.
Programmes include community-focused schemes such as mental health and wellbeing initiatives and educational resources, as well as larger internationally-driven initiatives. RLWC2021 hopes to leave a positive legacy by undertaking an evaluation of the schemes.
Welsh television channel S4C has announced that it will provide live coverage of its national team during the upcoming Rugby World Cup in Japan.
Highlights coverage of Wales matches will also be shown on the S4C Clic service. S4C’s rights deal will include live and highlights coverage of the opening match between Japan and Russia on September 20, along with a game from each round of the knockout stages, including the final on November 2nd.
S4C will also broadcast factual and entertainment programmes to complement its match coverage.
The Women’s Tour of Scotland has announced car retailer Arnold Clark as the final commercial partner for the first edition of the cycling race.
Arnold Clark becomes the official car partner for the event, which runs from 9th-11th August, starting in Dundee and travelling through Dunfermline, Glasgow and Perth before finishing in Edinburgh.
Arnold Clark joins Baillie Gifford, Deloitte, Scimitar, Motorola Solutions, Wow Hydrate, Just Eat Cycles and Voxwomen as partners of the race, which will feature some of the biggest names in women’s cycling.
Endeavor has named former eBay and PayPal executive Guy Schory as its first Chief Digital Officer.
Schory will lead the company’s digital efforts across product management, marketing, data platforms, advertising and commerce. He will also run Endeavor’s D2C and B2B businesses, including Endeavor Streaming, which distributes live and on-demand sports and entertainment content.
