Shorts: Leeds Utd, Iris Sport, Thinkbeyond
Leeds United’s home stadium, Elland Road, will host Super League’s Magic Weekend for the first time in 2024.
The event, which sees an entire round of Super League matches played over a weekend at a single stadium, will take place on the weekend of 17th-18th August 2024.
Elland Road will become the sixth ground to stage the event after the Principality Stadium, Murrayfield, the Etihad Stadium, Anfield and Newcastle’s St James’ Park.
All six matches will be shown live and exclusive by Sky Sports, as part of the new three-year broadcast partnership announced this autumn.
Rhodri Jones, Managing Director of Rugby League Commercial, said, “Magic Weekend is going to have a different feel in 2024, as a result of the return to a date later in the summer to move away from the Betfred Challenge Cup Final in June, and the non-availability of St James’ Park which has proved such a popular venue for the last three years.
“We are delighted to have agreed a deal with Leeds United FC to stage Magic Weekend at Elland Road, one of the biggest and best stadia in the north of England – and with a rich Rugby League history, having staged numerous big matches from the 1982 Challenge Cup Final replay to the World Cup semi final between Australia and New Zealand last year.”
London-based agency IRIS Sport Media has been appointed by the Saudi Sports Company (SSC) to sell global media rights for the FIFA World Cup 26 qualification matches for the Confederation of African Football (CAF) region.
IRIS will market all media rights for the 273 qualifying matches in the Americas, Europe and Asia.
The SSC was awarded the global rights for CAF in a tender run by football’s world governing body, FIFA. CAF qualifying began last week with the opening group games.
Ioris Francini, Founder of IRIS Sport Media, said, “We are excited to have secured our first deal in top quality world football and to be working with the SSC and CAF on behalf of FIFA. Our aim will be to ensure the best and widest possible exposure for the World Cup qualifying matches with broadcasters throughout the world.
“The next World Cup will see a record number of countries from the continent taking part in the expanded tournament, with a guarantee of nine qualifying and the possibility of a tenth. These are exciting times for football in the region.”
The North Face has announced the launch of Allyship in the Outdoors, a course developed in partnership with social impact and sports consultancy thinkBeyond.
The course aims to ‘change the way organisations, communities and individuals view allyship and racial inclusion.’
Allyship in the Outdoors is one of the resulting outputs from the Explore Fund Council, a group brought together from multiple sectors including sport, academia and media to help direct and shape The North Face funding to break down systemic barriers to exploration.
Designed with three key pillars, the programme aims to ‘engage, educate and support action, helping people who take the course to not only understand the issues faced by people of colour in the outdoors, but the barriers which create them and ultimately how allyship can be a force for positive change.’
The course focuses on five key outdoor sports; climbing, skiing, snowboarding, trail running and hiking. With this broad sport set the course is suitable for everyone from instructors and coaches to governing bodies, brands and charities.
Sports marketing agency NKrush has been appointed by F1 Arcade to support with its partner activations.
First opened in 2022 with its flagship London venue, F1 Arcade is expanding globally having recently launched its Birmingham site, with multiple sites to follow across five continents by 2027.
The space offers immersive F1 racing simulation paired with food and drink creating a competitive socialising environment.
NKrush will be supporting F1 Arcade by generating informed activation and in-market ideas to amplify assets ensuring each brand that partners with F1 Arcade has a range of ‘unique and impactful concepts to bring the partnership to life.’
Natalie Neal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of NKrush, said, “The way people socialise has changed in recent years and it’s no surprise that F1 Arcade has come into the market and has had tremendous success since its 2022 launch. I’m delighted NKrush has joined the team to support on partner ideation, an area in which we have a huge amount of experience. We truly understand F1, plus the wider motorsport ecosystem, and are looking forward to bringing this expertise to F1 Arcade and its potential partners.”
Chris Travers, Vice President of Global Partnerships at F1 Arcade, added, “It’s great to have NKrush on board who I have worked with long before my time at F1 Arcade. They have a fantastic level of expertise in the field and always bring fresh ideas to activate partnerships in the F1 space. I’m looking forward to delivering some great assets for F1 Arcade’s partners with their support.”
Northampton Saints has announced a two-year partnership with Raging Bull.
As per the agreement, the lifestyle clothing brand will provide the Premiership rugby union club with casualwear for the team, coaches and support staff.
Ulundi Makhanya, Director of Commercial Partnerships at Northampton Saints, said, “We are very excited to be working alongside them (Raging Bull) from this season onwards, and are confident we can help them to grow their brand through a number of innovative activations with our supporters and players.”
World Rugby has announced two new additions to its board.
Denise Taylor and Sean Summers have joined the board of World Rugby’s events and media arm as independent non-executive directors.
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