Industry Shorts: Dugout, The North Face, Disney
Digital football media company Dugout has appointed sports and media consultancy The Value Xchange to oversee its global commercial strategy.
The consultancy will work alongside the platform’s club, publishing and advertising partners.
Meanwhile, Jamie Wilson, a Director of The Value Xchange, has become acting Chief Commercial Adviser for Dugout, based in London.
The North Face has opened the application process for its new ‘COVID-19 Explore Fund’.
The brand says the initiative is the first fund of its kind to provide financial support to those who ‘make exploration possible.’
Open to registered companies and charities in the UK, Germany, France and Italy, the fund aims to provide support to those who have worked to ‘foster or inspire’ exploration before in an attempt to ensure that they will be able to do so once again.
The announcement is part of the brand’s on-going response to the pandemic, which has also seen The North Face athlete team members provide free home workouts for people to stay fit and weekly film premieres online to keep everyone inspired whilst inside.
UEFA and Disney have taken their Playmakers partnership online in order to get girls aged 5-8 active at home during the pandemic.
‘Play at Home with Playmakers’ is an extension of UEFA’s Playmakers programme, the federation’s first-ever pan-European grassroots programme for girls, which uses Disney to inspire regular exercise and inspire a love of football.
Snack Media has announced the acquisition of online publisher Give Me Sport.
The company says the combined business will have an audience of over 210 million unique users across all platforms, including Facebook – where Snack Media says Give Me Sport is the largest sport publisher on the platform.
The MCC has said it has taken the ‘difficult decision’ not to refund members’ annual subscriptions.
In an email to members, the organisation conceded that the possibility of cricket being played in front of a full house at Lord’s in 2020 “looks increasingly remote,” but also said that “subscriptions are the bedrock of the Club’s finances, critical to ensuring we weather the current storm.” However, the club has also asked members in “situations of considerable need” to contact it in confidence to discuss the issue.
Meanwhile, the MCC has also announced that Kumar Sangakkara’s term as President extended for two years. This is a change to the normal one-year term served by Presidents, but is recommended in response to ‘extraordinary circumstances’ caused by the pandemic.
Caroline Weir has become the 150th footballer to join Common Goal, the movement set up by streetfootballworld in 2017.
Weir is the fourth Scotland international, and the third player from Manchester City to join the movement. The 24-year-old already has 74 caps for her country and joins her international teammates Jane Ross (Manchester United), Christie Murray (Liverpool) and Sophie Howard (Reading), in donating a minimum of 1% of their salary to high-impact NGOs which use football to empower young people around the world.
Thomas ‘Hal’ Robson-Kanu’s The Turmeric Co. has appointed The Sports Sphere to handle all of the company’s PR.
The West Bromwich Albion and Wales winger founded the company in 2017 following a severe ACL injury and two rounds of reconstructive surgery. Kanu said he took turmeric for its anti-inflammatory properties as an alternative to his prescribed medication, which he says was causing adverse effects.
