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English top-flight soccer clubs Chelsea and Liverpool have ended their partnerships with 1xBet, a week after fellow Premier League ⚾️ side Tottenham Hotspur chose to cut ties with the online betting company.
The two clubs had only signed deals with 1xBet ⚾️ in July but have now ended their respective deals with immediate effect after string of allegations against the gambling brand. ⚾️ These included taking bets on children’s sports, advertising on illegal websites, cockfighting live streams and promoting a casino featuring topless ⚾️ croupiers. It subsequently suspended its advertising activity in the UK.
Both Liverpool and Chelsea had been contacted by the Gambling Commission, ⚾️ the UK’s betting regulator, warning them any promotion of 1xBet in the country could be considered unlawful, leading to heavy ⚾️ fines and imprisonment.
Official global betting partner is a significant sponsorship category for Premier League clubs and 1xBet held that designation ⚾️ with Liverpool. Although no figures were reported around the Reds’ now-terminated contract, the club’s previous deal with BetVictor paid in ⚾️ the region of UK£8 million annually, although that did include sponsorship of the club’s training kit.
Sponsorship
Staying in the Premier League, ⚾️ Brighton and Hove Albion have signed a new sponsorship deal with Oliver & Graimes (O&G), the club's creative marketing partner. ⚾️ O&G, which has been a partner at Brighton for ten years, has signed with the club for another two years.
Elsewhere, ⚾️ the Football Association (FA), the national soccer governing body in England, has launched a three-year partnership with the Pokemon Company ⚾️ International to help increase participation in its National Futsal Programme.
Spanish top-tier soccer side Valencia have named Skoda as a premium ⚾️ sponsor until the 2024/21 season, replacing Alfa Romeo.
Dutch companies Gasunie, Shell Netherlands, Remeha, Stedin Group, Port of Amsterdam and Groningen ⚾️ Seaports have teamed up to sponsor the Netherlands Olympic Committee (NOC), in the lead-up to the Tokyo 2024 Olympic Games.
Kosmos, ⚾️ the international sports investment firm owned by Spanish soccer star Gerard Pique, has partnered with Sony Music to provide entertainment ⚾️ at tennis’ Davis Cup finals in November.
Edgbaston, home to Warwickshire County Cricket Club, has agreed a new commercial partnership with ⚾️ global torch and portable lighting products manufacturer Unilite.
The International Canoe Federation (ICF) have announced a two-year partnership with boat builder ⚾️ Hody Sport, which will provide boats for the governing body’s development programme to support countries where the sport is still ⚾️ in its infancy.
G2 Esports has expanded its relationship with Red Bull, with the new multi-year partnership covering all its esports ⚾️ teams and content creators.
Saudi Arabian shopping mall operator Arabian Centres has signed a four-year sponsorship deal with Almeria, the second-tier ⚾️ Spanish soccer club.
Media Rights
Scottish free-to-air (FTA) channel STV has partnered with pay-TV network Premier Sports to broadcast a new 24-hour ⚾️ sports channel on their player, which will see live Serie A and Major League Soccer (MLS) matches available to STV ⚾️ viewers as part of the deal.
Australian commercial broadcaster Seven has signed a new deal for FTA coverage of the National ⚾️ Football League (NFL). Covering the 2024/20 season, Seven will be able to show live games each week during the regular ⚾️ season, as well as the play-offs and Super Bowl.
Max TV, the Ghanaian broadcaster, has secured rights to broadcast English Premier ⚾️ League matches on FTA TV during the 2024/20 season. The deal is a sub-licence from International sports rights agency Infront, ⚾️ which holds the FTA distribution rights in sub-Saharan Africa.
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Thai telecommunications operator Advanced Info Service (AIS) has obtained a sub-licence deal to live broadcast the 2024 Tokyo Olympic ⚾️ Games, the 2024 Youth Olympics, the 2024 Winter Olympics in Beijing and the Dakar Youth Olympics in 2024.
French telecommunications company ⚾️ Altice will show delayed coverage of Uefa Champions League matches featuring Paris Saint-Germain and Olympic Lyonnais on its local channel ⚾️ in each club’s city, at least 48 hours after they are broadcast on RMC Sport.
The Canadian Football League (CFL) and ⚾️ The Sports Network (TSN) have reportedly agreed a six-year contract extension worth CA$50 million (US$38 million), according to Postmedia.
The National ⚾️ Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) has agreed an exclusive three-year live-streaming deal with Amazon’s Twitch platform.
This season’s Caribbean Premier League, the ⚾️ Twenty20 competition based in the West Indies, will receive significant global exposure with the competition set to be shown across ⚾️ 125 territories.
The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) and Twitter have confirmed the last six matches of the Brazilian Women’s National Championship ⚾️ will be broadcast live on the social media platform.
Infrastructure
Wembley Stadium has been awarded the International Organization for Standardisation’s highest standard ⚾️ of sustainability for its Event Sustainability Management System (ESMS). It was introduced to coincide with the London 2012 Olympic Games ⚾️ and is designed to help event-related organisations reduce their environmental footprint.
SmartSeries
The National Hockey League (NHL) has dropped Jogmo World Corp ⚾️ as a primary technology partner for its player and puck tracking system, with ESPN reporting that SMT will be the ⚾️ replacement.
Simplestream has built an accessible video platform and responsive website for Channel 4, the UK-based commercial broadcaster, and its online ⚾️ coverage of Para Sport and the Tokyo 2024 Paralympics. The service has been designed to handle multiple live concurrent streams ⚾️ and on-demand video, as well as including adaptive bitrate encoding (ABR) for up to ten profiles.
Sports data and technology company ⚾️ Stats Perform has agreed a five-year deal with the Argentinian Football Association (AFA) for the rights to global betting video ⚾️ and data across national soccer competitions including Superliga Argentina, Copa Superliga Argentina, Argentina Cup and Recopa Argentina.
Los Angeles Football Club ⚾️ have become the first Major League Soccer (MLS) team to launch an official channel on short-form video platform TikTok.
