Industry Shorts: Sky Sports, London Marathon, Man City
Sky Sports has announced its schedule of programming for the British & Irish Lions 2021 Castle Lager Series in South Africa.
From 17th July, a dedicated ‘pop-up’ Sky Sports The Lions channel will replace Sky Sports Action until 10th August, and will screen ’round the clock’ coverage of the tour for 24 days. A total of eight games will be shown live on the channel, including warm-up matches and the three Tests. It will also air archive footage, documentaries, and exclusive behind the scenes content
Meanwhile, Sky Sports has also announced its line-up of pundits for the series, which will include coverage hosted by Alex Payne, joined by the likes of Sam Warburton, Ronan O’Gara, Will Greenwood and Maggie Alphonsi. Four-time Lions coach Sir Ian McGeechan and Nigel Owens – the highest capped referee of all time – will also add their expert insight and analysis from the studio, with former South Africa winger Bryan Habana on the ground in South Africa.
Conor McNamara will provide commentary for every match of the Tour, while Scott Quinnell will reprise his Sky Sports Fan Van role. With no Lions fans travelling to South Africa, Quinnell will travel the length and breadth of the UK to hear the stories of fans and ex-players cheering on the touring side from home.
London Marathon Events (LME) will encourage all its participants for the 2021 Virgin Money London Marathon to use one of its new exclusive bottle belts.
The move aims to ‘reduce the number of touchpoints’ for participants, lowering the number of runners taking bottles from stations across the course. LME says a 2019 trial at the event showed that use of the bottle belts led to a 45 per cent reduction in the number of bottles used by each participant, with the belts enabling participants to keep bottles with them, rather than discarding them after a few mouthfuls of water.
The move aims to make the event more Covid-secure, while also making it more environmentally friendly. The belts are designed to fit both the Buxton mineral water and Lucozade Sport bottles given out along the route, and are also made from more than 90% recycled plastic
New NFT and collectibles business Big Fan has announced its beta-launch, as well as the appointment of sport marketing agency Halfspace Group.
Founded by current CEO Eugene O’Brien – who has been working in blockchain since 2013 and is also co-founder of esports team Nativz – Big Fan also counts former Harlequins, Fulham, and Brentford executive Kurt Pittman as its Chief Commercial Officer, and Eric Breuers as Chief Technology Officer – who previously worked for Dapper Labs, the company behind the NBA Top Shots NFT release.
Meanwhile, audience specialist Halfspace Group – which is shortlisted for Young Agency of the Year Award at the Sport Industry Awards 2021 – will assist Big Fan with data, marketing, and strategy, as well as deploying its creative, content, and media teams across partnership planning, and activation to create a full service offering for rights holders building their NFT strategy.
Premier League champions Manchester City have announced a new partnership with Expo 2020 Dubai in a deal that will see the event become the club’s Official Exhibition Partner.
The event takes place from 1st October 2021 to 31 March 2022, hosting participants from more than 190 countries and aiming to ‘inspire actions and deliver solutions to real-life challenges’.
The partnership will cover both City’s men’s and women’s teams, as well as its esports operation, and will see the club ‘contribute to Expo’s journey and harness knowledge from world-leading initiatives’ to expand on its aim of fostering innovation and sustainability as well as driving social change through football.
Racecourse Media Group (RMG) and Sports Information Services (SIS) have extended their partnership, which covers distribution and transmission of AV data from British racecourses to licensed betting offices across the UK and Ireland.
The deal extends the partnership for a further three years, and will cover bookmakers which are licensed for the term 2023-2026,
Following a competitive tender process, SIS were awarded the contract, which will run from 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2026 and follows the current five-year agreement which started in 2018.
