Shorts: Uci Cycling, Paul V Fury, PTO
The 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships has announced Wahoo as the official smart training technology supplier for the inaugural event.
After coming on board as official supplier of the UCI Road World Championships in January 2021, fitness technology company Wahoo has now extended its involvement as the smart technology supplier for the cycling event which is set to take place in Glasgow and across Scotland from 3rd to 13th August 2023.
Throughout the Championships, Wahoo will support athletes by providing with Wahoo KICKR smart trainers, KICKR BIKEs and KICKR ROLLRs across the various disciplines, within the warm-up and cool-down areas for the Time Trials and Team Time Trials for Road, Mountain Bike, and Track.
Trudy Lindblade, CEO of 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships, commented, “We’re excited to have Wahoo join us as our official smart training technology provider. Ensuring the athletes are provided with a world class experience is paramount to us, so we’re delighted that Wahoo, an industry leader in smart training technology, will be there to support them through the event.
“To have Wahoo extend their involvement beyond the UCI Road World Championships and to support the inaugural combined World Championships is testament to the depth of their investment in cycling.”
The Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) has announced that Ibiza will play host to the inaugural PTO European Open as part of its 2023 PTO Tour calendar.
The race, which this year will take place on 6th May, will feature a women’s and men’s 100km race (2km swim; 80km bike; 18km run) in and around Ibiza Town.
Commenting on the news, PTO CEO Sam Renouf said, “We’re excited to confirm that Ibiza will host the inaugural PTO European Open and kick off the 2023 PTO Tour. It continues the expansion of the PTO Tour and our journey to different continents, courses and climates and will be a fantastic way to start the season.”
UK sports radio station talkSPORT has landed the exclusive radio rights to Jake Paul versus Tommy Fury fight in Saudi Arabia.
‘Fight Night Coverage’ will start from 7pm on Sunday 26th February on talkSPORT 2, with the main event on talkSPORT from 9pm.
The commentary team will include former boxer Spencer Oliver, Adam Catterall, Dom McGuinness and Gareth A Davies.
Head of talkSPORT, Liam Fisher, commented, “We’re thrilled to be sharing exclusive radio coverage of the long awaited showdown between Jake Paul and Tommy Fury in Saudi Arabia. Boxing fans will get unprecedented access from inside and outside of the ring across the talkSPORT network.”
International sports content and social media agency Samba Digital has created a number of new positions, as it aims to deliver ‘greater regional client support as part of a global company restructure.’
With immediate effect, Daniel McLaren will move from Client Director to Head of UK & Europe. The new role will see him lead all elements of Samba’s business within the UK.
Matt Taylor will be joining Samba this month as UK Account Lead, having spent the last three years growing Everton’s global fanbase through strategic partnerships, brand and business development, international academies and overseas pre-season tours.
Samba’s global restructure has also seen Miami-based Matteo Trevisani, previously Head of International Content Strategy, take the new position of Head of Americas.
Jean-Phillipe Dubois will move from his role of Head of Marketing to Samba’s Head of France, Benelux and North Africa, leading the team delivering for clients including Paris Saint-Germain, Rolland-Garros and rugby union’s Top 14.
Brazil-based Wagner Leitzke, who has been at Samba since 2015, has also been promoted to Head of Social Media & Growth to lead the company’s community management, PR and paid media teams.
Professional American football league the XFL has named UK sports data company Genius Sports as its official betting data distribution partner and free-to-play provider of the league.
Genius Sports has been granted the exclusive rights to distribute official data from every XFL game to its global network of media and betting partners. Sportsbooks will be provided with a feed of XFL data, while brands and advertisers will be able to access official XFL data through the Genius Marketing Suite, an all-in-one fan engagement platform.
To help the XFL expand its digital audience and drive fan engagement levels, Genius Sports has built a new ‘XFL Pick’Em’ game. This free-to-play game asks fans to predict the outcome of upcoming XFL matchups, including various proposition bets related to games, players, and teams.
To gamify the experience, fans are asked to bet with football tokens, creating parlays to increase their potential score and improve their ranking on the league-wide leaderboard. Weekly winners will be eligible for a variety of prizes, including XFL Shop gift cards, and a grand prize winner will receive a trip for two to the 2023 XFL Championship Game.
