Industry Shorts: Lta, Aurora Media Worldwide, EA

The LTA has signed a new three-year deal with Superga, which will become its Official Leisurewear Shoe Partner from January 2021.

The Italian shoe brand will have branding rights at the LTA’s summer programme of major events, as well as activation areas at selected tournaments.

The terms also include an option to create and sell an LTA branded shoe, as well rights to offer a range of discounts for LTA members.

Aurora Media Worldwide has appointed Barry Flanigan to the newly-created role of Chief Strategy Officer. 

Flanigan will lead the content agency’s business development and strategy, reporting to MD and Founder Lawrence Duffy, He will be tasked with driving new business as well as working with existing clients and further enhancing the company’s digital service offering. 

He joins Aurora having held senior roles at several media companies, most recently as Chief Product Officer at COPA90, where he oversaw product, audience, data, and content operations. Prior to that, he served as Vice President, and part of the founding management team, at Brave Bison. He has also held executive roles at Telegraph Media Group, News Corp and AOL.

EA has acquired fellow game developer and publisher Codemasters in a new deal which values the latter at $1.2 billion (£900 million).

The move was agreed with the Codemasters Board and will see EA combine the expertise and talent from Codemasters’ sports and racing franchises Formula One, DiRT, DiRT Rally, Grid and Project Cars with EA’s global Need for Speed franchise and its EA SPORTS brands. 

Fashion brand Lyle & Scott has announced a new ‘six-figure’ investment into fan-owned football club Lewes FC. 

This deal will see the pair collaborate on an in-depth content series, as well as helping the club to buy new key players, upgrade club facilities, and grow its grassroots and community outreach departments.

The partnership will also see the club – which in 2017 became the only professional or semi-professional club in the world to pay its men’s and women’s teams equally – welcome Lyle & Scott logo as its shirt sponsor.

Wellness technology company Therabody has announced a new multi-year partnership with Liverpool and England star Trent Alexander-Arnold. 

As a Therabody Athlete, Alexander-Arnold will join a list of partners that includes a recently-announced deal with Real Madrid’s Men’s and Women’s teams, NFL star DeAndre Hopkins, NBA all-star Paul George, and former tennis player Maria Sharapova.

Sky and Amazon have entered into a new long-term partnership that will see Prime Video launch on Sky and NOW TV devices, while the NOW TV and Sky Ticket apps will also come to Fire TV.

The news means that, in addition to entertainment and films, Premier League fixtures on Sky Sports and Prime Video will be available to customers without switching devices.

The move follows a similar agreement between Sky and BT.