Industry Shorts: Uefa, Hublot, LTA
Hublot has announced a deal to become an Official Partner of UEFA Women’s EURO 2021, set to be held in England.
The deal marks 500 days until the tournament’s opening match and the Swiss watch brand will provide the electronic referee boards used by fourth officials.
As part of the deal, Hublot will also support the Women’s Champions League and UEFA’s women’s football marketing platform Together #WePlayStrong.
The LTA and Tennis Scotland have announced a new and increased £12 million funding agreement to grow the sport in the country.
The agreement, which covers the entirety of the LTA’s investment in tennis in Scotland, represents a record investment, with a substantial increase in funding to deliver and develop tennis in Scotland over and above spending committed to new indoor tennis facilities.
Aiming to ensure the legacy of the three Scottish Grand Slam champions currently playing the sport (Andy Murray, Jamie Murray and Gordon Reid), the LTA will fund Tennis Scotland’s operational delivery including a number of new roles, as well as investing in a range of activities that encourage more people to play tennis and an international and national tournament calendar that will help to increase the year-round visibility of the sport.
Cricket manufacturer Gray-Nicolls has launched a new sustainability programme.
A willow tree will be planted for every international century scored by one of the company’s ambassadors, with a further tree of any species planted locally to off-set the loss of the willow when it is eventually harvested for bats in around 20 years time.
The brand says that, in addition to planting two trees for every century, it will also ensure that every individual player who scores an international century will be able to nominate a school to receive £250 worth of Gray-Nicolls cricket kit.
So far in 2020 two centuries have been scored by Gray-Nicolls players – Dom Sibley and Aaron Finch – and those trees, along with any other scored in 2020, will be planted in February 2021.
Jon Cockroft has been appointed as CEO of Bowls England.
He joins the organisation from England Hockey, having held the role of Commercial Director at the organisation for nine years, and leading the Vitality Women’s Hockey World Cup, which took place in England in 2018.
Cockroft was introduced at the Bowls England AGM, but will commence his role in June 2020.
Marc Hope has joined Rocket Sports as its Director of Rights Marketing.
Hope will join the agency co-founded by Sir Elton John and Luke Lloyd-Davies, having held roles at The Sports Consultancy, SMAM and FastTrack (CSM) throughout his career, working on major sporting properties such as the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, British Athletics, and The London 2017 IAAF and IPC World Championships.
In addition to his new role, Hope will continue to fulfil his consultancy work for event agency Limelight.
Sport nutrition brand MyProtein has launched a new retail app which aims to educate and support customers through a 24/7 customer support chat.
The brand says 49% of its customers use mobile phones for shopping, while its users will also receive app-only offers and discounts.
