Industry Shorts: SailGP, Ioc, Sportradar

SailGP has announced Kuehne+Nagel as its Official Logistics Partner in a three-year deal. 

The pair will aim to minimise the carbon footprint of the sail racing league’s transport within their climate positive strategy, utilising sustainable shipping methods including alternative fuels.

Kuehne+Nagel will also aim to give the league full visibility on all shipping-related emissions through its Seaexplorer platform, enabling SailGP to select more efficient transport routes for future seasons that emit substantially less carbon. Meanwhile, for the shipping emissions that can’t be removed or reduced, the logistics company will offset the remaining carbon footprint via verified gold standard offsets, ensuring a 100% CO2 neutral supply chain.

The IOC and IPC have confirmed that no overseas fans will be allowed to attend the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which are set to take place this summer.

The pair say they ‘fully respect and accept’ the decision by the Japanese authorities to limit the numbers of fans attending the Games, as well as the numbers of people coming into the country.

The IOC has also confirmed that tickets purchased by overseas residents from the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee will be refunded.

Sports data intelligence provider Sportradar has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire automated sports data and video analytics platform Synergy Sports.

The acquisition complements and extends Sportradar’s 360-degree product suite, as well as supports the company’s drive to deepen & broaden its relationships with sports organisations around the world.

The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021. READ MORE

City Football Group has launched a new initiative with Manchester City partner Xylem which aims to provide water education to 5,000 young people in five cities around the world. 

The initiative, in partnership with City Football Group charity Cityzens Giving, will empower a network of 100 young people from around the world to deliver a series of projects as part of the ‘Water Heroes Academy’, which combines seed funding, educational tools, training and mentoring from Xylem and Cityzens Giving, giving participants the tools they need to create their own unique programmes. 

The youth-led projects – located in Mumbai, Sao Paulo, New York, Cape Town and Shanghai – will provide essential education on water, sanitation and hygiene through specially adapted football games. The programme will also see the participants work to identify a water challenge specific to their city and use football as a tool to educate young people on the issue.

FIFA generated more money from football than gaming in 2020, according to a report from Inside The Games.

According to the report, the international football governing body’s 2020 financial statements show revenue of some $158.9 million (£114 million) of its total $266.5 million (£191.9 million) revenue across the year came from licensing rights, with the video game industry proving ‘more resilient to the pandemic’ than football in the last year.

The LTA has announced a new calendar of domestic level tennis events for spring and summer 2021 with an enhanced emphasis on junior events in the wake of the cancellations of the last year.

Seven British Tour tournaments have been confirmed in May and June, giving national level players the chance to compete, while the LTA Youth National Series in April will see the country’s best juniors back on court.  

The 2021 LTA Junior National Tennis Championships, which begins at the end of May, will feature new incentives for the winners and runners up for the first time, with wildcard opportunities for entry into the Qualifying draw for The Wimbledon Championships or Junior Championships Main and Qualifying draws on offer. 

Extreme E has signed a new deal with ITV, which will air live racing, highlights, and magazine shows from the new all-electric off-road series.

The three-year deal sees ITV become the exclusive UK terrestrial broadcaster of live coverage for the events in 2022 and 2023, with deals already in place with BT Sport, as well as with the BBC which will screen the action on its digital platforms. 

The championship’s shows, to be produced by Extreme E Studios, a co-venture between Aurora Media Worldwide and North One, will create a variety of content covering all the aspects of the series.

Manchester City have partnered with Socios.com to launch the Manchester City $CITY Fan Token.

The fan engagement and rewards mobile app, Socios, is built on the Chiliz blockchain, and will allow City fans across the world will be able to use $CITY Fan Tokens to access VIP rewards, club promotions, games, AR-enabled features and voting rights in certain binding and non-binding club polls on the website and mobile app.

US betting operator BetMGM has signed an agreement to use London-based IMG ARENA’s Golf Event Centre product, the front-end sports betting solution featuring interactive in-play betting on the sport.

The deal will also see BetMGM use IMG ARENA’s golf live streaming video feed that allows customers to follow golf action on two par-3 holes per week from the PGA TOUR.