Industry Shorts: Ronaldo, Man City, Livescore

Therabody has announced Cristiano Ronaldo as its newest ambassador, and the face of its largest global ad campaign to date.

The campaign will launch in the US, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia, China, and Japan, while the deal will see Ronaldo integrate the brand’s Theragun device into his recovery and wellness routine.

Ronaldo joins the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Maria Sharapova and Sir Mo Farah as athlete ambassadors, as well as Romelu Lukaku who was announced by the brand last week. The company also counts a host of US sports stars and celebrities as investors and ambassadors.

Manchester City’s City in the Community (CITC) charity has teamed up with the club’s Official Recruitment Partner, Hays, to bolster a new volunteering initiative.

Announced in National Volunteer Week, Hays will support CITC’s 93:20 programme via a donation, enabling the charity to cover associated costs for 18 months. The programme is a long-term volunteer programme providing skills, experiences, qualifications, and pathways into employment both within CITC and across its network of partner organisations.

Named after the time on the clock when Sergio Aguero scored the winning goal of the 2011/12 Premier League season, it aims to inspire participants to never give up, and gives young people aged 16-25 the opportunity to complete up to 93 hours of volunteering which develops their skills and experience for the world of work.

Real-time sports update and streaming service app LiveScore has announced a three-year rights deal to stream all 137 matches UEFA Champions League for free on the app. 

A three-year deal will begin at the start of the 2021/22 season, and will see LiveScore become the exclusive Irish free-to-air broadcaster of 104 fixtures per season in the country. The remaining 33 ties – including the final – will also be live-streamed on a non-exclusive basis. Users will be able to watch the matches on their mobile or tablet devices, with the further option to ‘cast’ the action to their TV screens. 

LiveScore’s rights acquisition, in partnership with SARAN Media Group, provides additional content including match highlights, as well as further on-demand content. The package also includes live broadcast rights to the UEFA Super Cup.

The MCC has announced a new partnership with business consulting firm CGI, which will become the Official Digital Technology Partner of the club.

The agreement marks the beginning of a three-year relationship that will bring the expertise and insight of CGI’s professional IT and business consulting services to MCC, which will greatly enhance the technologies, systems, processes and data used by the club.

The MCC says the partnership will ‘drive innovation’ and bring ‘technological advancement’ in areas such as member and visitor interaction, operational delivery, and commercial services.

The R&A has launched a ticket ballot for The Open in 2022, as well as a new special commemorative brand to mark next year’s 150th edition of the competition.

Taking place at St Andrews, the Home of Golf, from 10-17 July 2022, the R&A says there are ‘extremely high levels of demand’ for tickets to the event, and adds that a ballot for tickets is deemed the ‘fairest and most equitable’ way of ensuring fans have the chance to attend.

The ballot will run from Thursday 1st July 2021 until Monday 4th October 2021, and will include a ‘balance of allocations’ to ensure ‘every generation of fan, from all over the world, as well as throughout the UK and the local area’, will have the chance to attend.

The R&A has also confirmed that 85% of hospitality packages have already been sold for the event, having been on sale since last year.

Newly-promoted Premier League side Norwich City have launched a new community partnership platform for local businesses as part of a new agreement with community partnership and fan engagement technology provider Eleven Sports Media.

The pair will offer new opportunities for Norfolk brands to reach the club’s fanbase, which the club says will underline its commitment to community support and engagement, which the club says has ‘been more prevalent than ever’ across the footballing world over the past 12 months.

The club says it hopes the scheme will empower the local business community of Norfolk by giving them the opportunity to promote their brand on mid-tier LED displays throughout Carrow Road, and via a range of other digital platforms designed to reach fans at ‘every stage’ of the matchday.  

BT Sport’s Pub Cup will return in 2021, giving grassroots footballers across England another opportunity to play at Wembley, which will host the final.

Men’s and Women’s teams can enter the national 7-a-side tournament with their local pub, which aims to celebrate pub teams around the country, with events at Manchester City’s training base, Etihad Campus, on 18th July and the former England training ground Bisham Abbey on 24th and 25th July. The winners will compete in a Wembley final on 8th August. 

The winners will receive free BT Sport for their pub for a year, as well as £1,000 to spend in the BT shop. 

The LTA is partnering with hand sanitiser brand Clinell, which will become its exclusive supplier of hand gel and sanitiser products at the governing body’s four summer grass court events.
 
The one-year deal will see branded Clinell products at the Viking Open Nottingham, Viking Classic Birmingham, Viking International Eastbourne and cinch Championships at The Queen’s Club – including sanitiser dispensers beside courtside player seats, umpires’ chairs and ball kid stations. 
 
Clinell will also become the exclusive provider of sanitiser products at the LTA’s National Tennis Centre.

British Cycling and HSBC UK have marked 10 years of their Breeze programme, which has provided over 320,000 women with a safe and supportive environment to cycle. 

Breeze – named to ‘capture the fun and freedom of cycling’ – was set up in 2011 alongside Sport England and with the support of National Lottery funding to inspire ordinary women to ‘discover or rediscover’ the joy of riding bikes. 

To mark the milestone, British Cycling will ‘pay thanks’ to volunteers and participants across June, and will encourage more women to take part in rides throughout the month. The organisation will also launch new coaching and training opportunities and share the ‘unique stories’ of Breeze Champions – the volunteers who have helped to create change in the sport.