Industry Shorts: Jbl, Sky Sports, Zwift
Audio brand JBL has announced Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk as a global brand ambassador.
The defender will be one of the faces of an upcoming JBL campaign, showcasing the newest JBL True Wireless earbuds. He has also used his recovery from a knee injury – which has kept him out of action since October – to promote the brand’s portable speakers.
The Dutchman joins JBL’s current roster of ambassadors which includes fellow Premier League player Jesse Lingard as well as Bayern Munich defender Lucas Hernandez, and NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Sky Sports has revealed its talent line up for its coverage of inaugural season of The Hundred, the new cricket format which is set to begin in 100 days.
Sky regulars such as Nasser Hussain, Ebony Rainford-Brent, Mike Atherton and others will be joined by cricketing stars from around the world including Dinesh Karthik, Stuart Broad, Kevin Pietersen, Tammy Beaumont, Daren Sammy, Mel Jones, Wasim Akram, Lydia Greenway and Kumar Sangakkara alongside presenters Andrew Flintoff, Kass Naidoo, Zainab Abbas and Jacqueline Shepherd.
The broadcaster will screen all 68 games live on a dedicated Sky Sports The Hundred channel, as well as on Sky Sports Mix, with all of the women’s matches and a ‘significant number’ of men’s matches streamed live on its YouTube channel.
Zwift has launched a new six-week long Running League which will feature a host of alternating race formats, between 16th April and 21st May.
The events will alternate from a points-based individual race to a team relay race, which will see teams of four competing against each other as each member races 2km.
The online fitness and racing platform says teams will be placed into its city classification system, which is based on each team’s run pace categories.
Charity Made By Sport has launched its ‘Clubs In Crisis’ fund, which will see it partner with Flutter Entertainment and provide over £4million worth of support to grassroots sports clubs and organisations across the UK.
The fund will be open for nine months, and will supply grants of £2,021 to thousands of clubs in the community who play a role in helping young people to recover from the effects of the pandemic.
The funding has been launched as sport returns to play across England – and the rest of the UK in the upcoming weeks – and will support clubs who helping young people develop life skills, such as ‘teamwork and communication, employability skills, physical and mental wellbeing as well as building stronger communities’
Manchester City has announced a new regional partnership with noon.com – a digital marketplace created for local businesses in the Middle East.
The new partnership will also see noon.com become the Premier League leaders’ Official Online Marketplace Partner in the Middle East.
The pair will collaborate to provide a number of experiences for fans, customers, and local businesses in the Middle East, while the brand will also gain access to matchday and digital assets with the club.
