Industry Shorts: Rfl, Sport 24, Nfl, Catapult…
The Rugby Football League (RFL) has agreed a two-year commercial partnership deal with Coral, which includes both the men’s and women’s Challenge Cups for the first time.
The two competitions will come together when the Coral Women’s Challenge Cup Final shares the stage with the men’s semi-finals on Saturday 27th July 2019, in a triple header at the University of Bolton Stadium.
The men’s Coral Challenge Cup Final will then follow on Saturday 24th August 2019 at Wembley Stadium.
Ralph Rimmer, RFL Chief Executive, said: “The Women’s Challenge Cup may not have that history, but Coral’s enthusiasm for it to be part of a joint sponsorship deal confirms our determination that it is set for a really exciting future.”
IMG owned and operated Sport 24 and Sport 24 Extra are to broadcast coverage of six key live games from the Bundesliga across one weekend, which will give airline and cruise passengers access to the live action whilst on their travels.
Between 25-27 January, passengers on over 700 planes (13 airlines) all over the world, including German national airline Lufthansa, will be able to catch six high profile fixtures from the German top flight.
The Bundesliga Weekend, produced by IMG Studios, is to be accompanied by a wide-ranging social media campaign, which will see fans able to enter a draw to win a Bundesliga experience by engaging with Sport 24’s Twitter or Facebook channels.
The four NFL fixtures to take place in London in 2019 has been confirmed, with the Houston Texans and Caroline Panthers to make UK debuts.
By the end of 2019, 31 of the 32 NFL teams will have competed in London, with the Green Bay Packers the only exception across 28 games played.
The Texans will come up against the Jacksonville Jaguars, who will play a home game in London for the seventh consecutive season. The Carolina Panthers will face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Oakland Raiders will return to London having appeared in 2018, and will face the Chicago Bears, whilst the Super Bowl contenders, the Los Angeles Rams, will host the Cincinnati Bengals.
The specific venues for each fixture have yet to be confirmed, however it’s known that two games will be played at Wembley Stadium and Tottenham Hostpur’s new stadium will also host two fixtures.
The Racehorse Owners Association (ROA) is to host 12 Industry Ownership Days in the UK during 2019, to help recognise existing members and promote ownership to potential racehorse owners.
The Industry Ownership Days will incorporate regional meetings and will also offer complimentary admission to all ROA members. Each Day plans to include a lunch, an update from the ROA Chief Executive, as well as an opportunity to use the racecourse facilities.
Fakenham has been confirmed as the first event on Thursday 24th January, where Mick Fitzgerald will be assisting the ROA team in promoting and celebrating racehorse ownership.
The ROA will sponsor the entire day’s race card and members will be invited to take part in post-race presentations for winners.
Catapult Sports has announced a collaboration with the current FIFA World Cup Champions, the Fédération Française de Football (FFF).
The FFF has been gradually implementing the athlete monitoring devices and the senior men’s team had utilised Catapult products both in the build-up to and during their successful 2018 FIFA World Cup campaign in Russia.
Catapult provides its sports performance technology to over 1,800 teams around the world and this latest agreement will see over 100 Catapult devices used within the FFF Performance Centre across the senior men’s and women’s teams, as well as ‘B’ teams and age-group squads.
Foot Locker has been announced as brand partner for the up-coming League of Legends European Championship (LEC) event, Riot Games’ premier European competition.
The deal for the up-coming spring and summer splits in the 2019 season will see the American sportswear and footwear retailer provide the kit for the on-air talent and the official jerseys for the referees that will oversee the on-stage action.
Foot Locker had previously partnered with American esports organisations, Splyce, last year and will this year joins Alienware, Kia Motors, Shell and DXRacer as partners of the competition.
