Shorts: Ear To The Ground, Rmg, BBC

The UK-based sports, esports and gaming creative agency Ear to the Ground has entered the American market with the opening of a LA office and kicked off the move with two senior hires.

The creative agency’s US offices will service current global and US-based clients such as PlayStation, New Balance and Coca-Cola as the team also seeks to grow the client base with new state-side relationships.

Olu Green has been appointed Sport, Culture and Talent Director North America, and Jessica Domain is Senior Influencer Marketing Manager North America. Both Jess and Olu will be working across the agency’s major US based clients and will be collaborating closely with Ear to the Ground’s UK offices. The move comes as part of a major global business strategy from the creative agency, which holds ambitious plans to grow its US business to become 25% of its European business by 2023.

Richard Adelsberg, Chief Executive Officer at Ear to the Ground, commented, “Launching a US base has been a long-term plan of ours.  With at least three major North American clients being serviced from the UK we believe the time is right to establish a permanent US footprint.” 

Guild Esports, the professional esports organisation co-owned by David Beckham, has announced that global high-performance and wellness technology brand Hyperice has become the company’s official wellness technology partner with the signing of a new sponsorship deal.

As part of the partnership, Hyperice will be providing recovery equipment for Guild’s professional players and content creators, along with further access to the cutting-edge technology for the Guild Academy and Guild’s headquarters, which will open in London’s Shoreditch later this year.

Rory Moran, Guild Esports Director of Global Partnerships said, “Hyperice has already made a huge impact on the sporting world and I’m delighted to welcome them to the Guild Esports team. Hyperice’s decision to partner with Guild is another exciting step forward for our business and players, and one that illustrates our commitment to athlete wellness and recovery. We’re constantly assessing new technologies to improve player performance, and we’re excited to be working with a leading brand like Hyperice to continue our success in esports.”

The Supercars Championship, a major a touring car racing category in Australia, has appointed UK-based broadcasting agency Gravity Media for the third year running to produce and facilitate the Cash Converters Supercars Eseries, an esports competition that started back in 2020 during Covid lockdown.

Adam Dodman, Studio Engineering Manager at Gravity Media Australia explained, “Since 2020 Gravity Media has been supporting Supercars to produce the Eseries for both OTT and Fox Sports. Leaning on our Melbourne and Sydney technical facilities, we were able to successfully deliver a turnkey operation for the weekly broadcast. Melbourne was used as the studio base for the hosts, in our green screen studio.

“The multiple camera feeds were sent to our Production Centre in Sydney via interconnected fibres. These fibres also carried the required communication and return video feeds. Sydney housed the main control room, including the iRacing team with their servers housed onsite to bring all the racers into the live broadcast. Zoom and Discord were used to integrate live audio/vision of the drivers to make the whole event feel more like the real thing.”

Racecourse Media Group (RMG), the holding company responsible for a range of media rights management businesses involving the UK’s 35 biggest racecourses, has partnered with London-based fan engagement company EngageCraft to launch a new digital fan engagement campaign using the EngageCraft Touch platform.

The group, which owns Racing TV and handles the combined media rights of 62 British and Irish racecourses, commissioned EngageCraft following a competitive pitch to develop the new suite of digital engagement tools.

BBC Five Live, the sports-focused radio station, has announced the expansion of its football coverage for the upcoming season. Live match coverage includes the addition of Saturday’s 5.30pm Premier League kick off, with more Premier League commentaries than any other UK radio broadcaster.

It will also see new additions to its punditry team with the signings of Troy Deeney, Jermain Defoe, Chris Kamara and Ben Shephard for the new season.